Press releases 2008

9 June 2008

13 - 08

London Stock Exchange's Low Latency Performance Channels Service Goes Live

Performance Channels, the London Stock Exchange’s new high speed delivery mechanism for Infolect data delivered over 100 megabyte lines, goes live today. This service ensures that even during the highest peaks in trading activity market data is delivered at industry leading speed.

Commenting on the new service, David Lester, the Exchange’s Chief Information Officer, said:

“The introduction of Performance Channels sets a new benchmark for customers requiring the lowest latency connectivity to the London Stock Exchange during peak trading periods. The introduction 12 months ago of TradElect, our new electronic trading system, has facilitated record volume growth on our markets. The Performance Channels service gives member firms using algorithmic trading models greater visibility of the spikes and events that occur during periods of high trading activity. The immediate delivery of price data during these peaks creates additional trading opportunities.

“With TradElect and Infolect underpinning our markets, trading participants can be confident of receiving world leading performance, enhanced functionality and more efficient trading.”

Over 40 customers, including the largest member firms, hedge funds and market data vendors have signed up to the Performance Channels service, with more orders in the pipeline. Clients can continue to use the existing Service Channel configuration whereby data peaks are managed during periods of high trading activity to ensure that client systems are not overloaded. Performance Channels are only available through 100 megabyte Extranex lines which cut the average round trip network latency within the City to below 1 millisecond.

Performance Channels has been introduced in response to increases in trading capacity and market data volumes which were expected with the introduction of the London Stock Exchange’s new electronic trading platform, TradElect. The launch of Performance Channels follows the completion of a successful pilot that has been running since the TradElect go-live date on 18 June 2007. Customers participated in a series of conformance tests to ensure that their network infrastructure could cope with the strain generated by higher peaks in data volumes.

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For further information please contact:
Fiona Hurst   Press Office + 44 (0) 20 7797 1222
newsroom@londonstockexchange.com