April 23, 2012

The new trading system, NASDAQ X-Stream to be acquired by the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) from the multinational financial services powerhouse, NASDAQ OMX, may cost the exchange about N1.4 billion, THISDAY checks have revealed.

As part of its desire to upgrade its trading platform, the NSE had invited business proposals from vendors. NASDAQ OMX and two other global exchanges, responded to Exchange’s invitation.

The exchange, during the tenure of Mr. Emmanuel Ikazoboh as the Interim administrator, settled for NASDAQ X-Stream trading system, which is said to be used by over 20 exchanges around the world.

While the management of the NSE will be signing the contract for the trading system with NASDAQ OMX in Lagos tomorrow, competent market sources close to the deal told THISDAY that it would cost the Nigerian bourse about N1.4 billion to get the trading system.

Executive Director, Market Operations and Technology (MOT) of the Exchange, Mr. Adeolu Bajomo, had last week explained that the exchange and NASDAQ OMX performed a joint design study between September and November 2010 and in July 2011, covering requirements, project timeline and risks system components; servers and connectivity; installation, training, testing and go live support among other issues.

Speaking on the project objectives, Bajomo noted that the X-stream would replace the current trading system, Horizon. “Equities and fully functional Bond Market, and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) will come in phase one and the introduction of Derivatives to The Exchange will come in the second phase,” he said.

According to him, implementation of a new trading platform was one of the key cornerstones in delivering the full potential of our market, affording the exchange the tools to deliver target of five products in five years, scale up its services for growth and enhance the investor experience of doing business in the Nigerian capital market.

“The new system will also improve transparency and provide efficient price discovery. The platform, will among others, enable investors, through their brokers to have real-time access to market prices, their portfolios and execute market orders in near real-time from anywhere and on a wide range of devices including smartphones,” he said.

Senior Vice-President, NASDAQ OMX Market Technology, Lars Ottersgard, was recently quoted to have said that  the  latest edition of the X-stream technology matches orders in under 100 millionths of a second.

According to him, built on support business growth, X-stream is a proven multi-asset trading solution that combines exceptional performance and rich functionality with unparalleled flexibility and adaptability.

X-stream’s flexible architecture is a powerful tool that enables marketplaces to grow and adapt as their business grows and requirements change.
 

Source: Thisday