Waters Rankings 2014: Best Low-Latency Data Feed Provider — Thomson Reuters

Elektron Real Time is a low-latency consolidated data feed that delivers full tick, depth-of-market data from thousands of exchange-traded and over-the-counter (OTC) markets. It helps customers source better quality information and minimize the total cost of ownership of their real-time infrastructures. Elektron Real Time improves the accuracy, breadth and depth of content that Thomson Reuters delivers to its customers, and provides a change in the latency of data distribution by leveraging a distributed global architecture. Elektron features analytics, a distribution platform and transactional connectivity to support any financial workflow application. It also powers Thomson Reuters’ desktop and mobile application, Eikon. Elektron Real Time currently has points-of-presence in Chicago, Frankfurt, Tokyo, London, New York, Singapore, Sydney and Hong Kong, the last three of which launched in September 2013.

When it comes to staying ahead of the pack, Elektron Real Time head Douglas Munn says it’s less about tweaks to the product itself and more about adapting the product to new markets. “So we’re constantly asking ourselves what our customers need in Taiwan, Singapore or Sydney, and how that might be different to what a customer in New York, Chicago or London might need. To succeed, you need to know the local market and adapt what you’re offering to provide customers the best service possible,” he says.

A distributed global architecture enables in-region collection and distribution of data. A binary-encoded, bandwidth-optimized wire protocol reduces message sizes by up to 50 percent and is more efficient to process. An extensible Open Message Model (OMM) supports more complex and varied data types; this includes bespoke trade status indicators, full depth-of-market order-book data or even exchange timestamps with millisecond precision, while content is easy to integrate into workflow applications because all message fields that are common across source feeds have consistent field identifiers.