All posts by Trading Technologies

Finding the Gold in the Digital Treasure Chest

By:
LinkedIn

Today’s financial markets generate a volume of data barely dreamed about in the early days of electronic trading. Every year, exchanges create a record-breaking amount of transactions, and we know that somewhere within all of that data there lies a digital treasure chest. Finding a way to analyze and deliver this valuable data is a multi-headed problem, roughly broken down between charting, historical trade display and research scenarios.

In my role as an engineering manager at TT, I’m part of a team that’s been working to solve this problem in the new TT platform. We think we’ve found the answer by leveraging cutting-edge technologies, Node.js and Amazon Web Services (AWS). I’m excited about our solution, which is now automatically available to all TT platform users. Read on to learn more about our approach and how it can help you overcome the multi-faceted big-data challenges we all encounter today.

Node.js

Node.js is a run-time environment built on the same technologies that power the web, namely JavaScript. It was built around a few simple ideas and has rapidly grown out of its San Francisco hacker origins into enterprise software used by huge firms like Walmart and PayPal. If you have ever worked at a large enterprise with existing legacy architecture(s), you probably know how hard it is to turn an organization of that size onto a brand-new, relatively unknown technology platform. The answer in the case of Node.js is, surprisingly, very simple. Node.js is arguably the best web service platform available today, even though it hasn’t even hit the 1.0 version mark yet. Coding is simple, performance can be faster than Java/C++ web server(s) and the platform is easily scalable with features like the Node.js Cluster API.

One of the new technologies that makes the TT platform possible is WebSockets, which we use to deliver real-time data to both our mobile and desktop users around the world. Writing a WebSocket server with Node.js is as simple as writing just a few lines of code. Check out this example from the popular Node.js “ws” package. This is literally all you need to run a WebSocket server in Node.js:

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#PreviewTT: SaaS Architecture

By:
LinkedIn

Last week on Twitter, #PreviewTT looked at how the TT platform architecture allows us to deliver unprecedented benefits, combining the best of X_TRADER® with enhancements that make TT even easier to use, more accessible and more performant.

The software-as-a-service (SaaS) delivery model eliminates the need for software installation, which means all users get access to the latest functionality on the day it launches regardless of where they’re located. Our customers say this makes TT a game changer.

SaaS also makes it possible to rapidly deliver that functionality virtually anywhere—whether you’re trading from a multi-monitor desktop workstation at the office, from a MacBook at home, or even from a phone while you’re on the go.

SaaS also enables the same workspaces, algos and configurations as well as your Audit Trail and other data to go wherever you go.

The TT platform’s back-end architecture and performance are equally impressive. Tests show latency of under 150 microseconds, while we’re building hot failover and full network path redundancy to ensure the network will be there when you need it.

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#PreviewTT: Comprehensive Risk Management Capabilities

By:
LinkedIn

Last week, #PreviewTT showcased some of the risk management capabilities that are built into the TT platform.

TT couples familiar risk-management and user-administration functionality, including popular risk controls, with significant enhancements. For example:

  • Administrators can customize their own account hierarchies to apply controls at any number of levels within those hierarchies or apply them directly to users.
  • FCMs can provide firms with administrative access and give them control over the limits and settings on their sub-accounts without giving up control of aggregate risk limits.
  • Trading firms can have their own administrative access to TT, with fine-grain control over the limits and settings on their own accounts and sub-accounts, even when positions get reset.
  • Limits can be set per user as well as per account/sub-account. All limits work in conjunction with each other and must be approved before an order can be sent to the exchange.

And just like the trading application, the risk management and user administration apps are accessible via mobile devices.

Below you’ll find the content we shared last week on Twitter. It includes a video that highlights some of the key enhancements plus many product screenshots.

Starting tomorrow, we’ll talk about the TT platform architecture and benefits it delivers to our users. So keep following @Trading_Tech and #PreviewTT.
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#PreviewTT: The Next-Gen Autospreader®

By:
LinkedIn

Autospreader was the focus of our ongoing #PreviewTT series last week on Twitter.

If you followed along, you already know that the TT version of Autospreader will provide a familiar experience to existing users along with significant functionality and performance enhancement that make Autospreader even faster, more powerful and easier to use.

For example, now you can:

  • Use the new Rule Builder to differentiate your spreading strategies. You can easily create custom pre-quote, pre-hedge and post-hedge logic from scratch, or simply tweak the pre-built Autospreader features by editing them in Rule Builder.
  • Launch spreads in the compact, tabbed MD Trader® to conserve screen space.
  • See prices that reflect the true instrument value rather than the raw exchange value.
  • Experience faster-than-ever performance thanks to our newly built collocated infrastructure, which features the most advanced technology. You can even view hedge latency in real time and see how your server-based strategies are performing. By the way, we think you’ll like what you see.

And with TT, all of your workspaces and spread configurations go where you go. You can create a spread using a laptop, deploy it from your office workstation and manage it from your phone. The experience is consistent no matter where you are and what device you use.

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#Preview TT: Charting & Analytics

By:
LinkedIn

Last week on Twitter, we showed how the new TT platform takes charting and analytics to new levels, with sophisticated tools for the high-performance professional trader.

TT allows you to create and access charts from virtually any computer as well as Android and iOS phones with support for a vast array of chart types, technical indicators and built-in drawing tools. You can add a chart to any workspace and customize it to your preferences to chart outrights and spreads from any TT-connected exchange. Charts are saved as part of your go-anywhere TT workspace so that when you go from the office to home or from one day to the next, you can quickly pick up where you left off.

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