NYSE Euronext plans to start rolling out its Universal Trading Platform (UTP) in the U.S. in mid-October.
The exchange operator will convert NYSE Arca to the multi-faceted platform first. After that, it will convert the New York Stock Exchange, its derivatives exchanges and its fixed income platforms. The trading technology, which encompasses execution, access, and market data distribution, was first rolled out in Europe last December, when it replaced Euronext’s Nouveau Système de Cotation platform.
The UTP is comprised of four components with a matching engine at its heart. The matching engine is essentially the Arca trading engine “taken to the next level” according to Anthony Attia, NYSE Euronext executive director in charge of the UTP program.
The platform will eventually underlie all 15 of NYSE Euronext’s marketplaces. The exchange operator bills the transformation as a win for customers because it gives them a single point of access to all 15 marketplaces. It will also make for faster trading as UTP’s turnaround time has been benchmarked at 150 microseconds. The platform’s capacity is rated as high as 300,000 orders per second.
UTP uses the Linux operating system with all coding done in the C-level language. The hardware is mostly supplied by Hewlett Packard.
