Nasdaq making a splash in Chicago – opening a regional office and a disaster recovery center – with the intent of helping traders conduct their business easier.
Nasdaq ‘s Global Access Services, the exchange group’s facilitator of alpha-generating market solutions for the financial services community, will launch a Nasdaq Point of Presence (Nasdaq POP) office in Chicago, Illinois in the first quarter of 2015. This new office joins its POP already live in Secaucus, New Jersey.
The new Chicago location will be available for market participants seeking access to Nasdaq eSpeed, the exchange group’s over-the-counter platform for electronic trading in U.S. Treasury securities, and Nasdaq’s U.S. cash equities and equity derivatives markets pending Securities and Exchange Commission approval.
In addition, Nasdaq will establish a disaster recovery facility in Chicago for Nasdaq eSpeed in the fourth quarter of 2014.
The Nasdaq POP in Chicago will connect traders in the Midwest region to the Nasdaq Data Center on the East Coast of the U.S., providing an efficient, secure route to access Nasdaq’s markets, receive Nasdaq market data, utilize order entry capabilities and receive third party data feeds. Located in Equinix’s Chicago data center (CH4), the Nasdaq POP in Chicago will provide clients with trading systems already located in the Midwest region the ability to simply cross connect directly to Nasdaq markets.
According to Nasdaq, traders will benefit from economies of scale and be able to customize their connectivity to only pay for the market information and services they need.
The Nasdaq POP in Chicago furthers the Global Access Services’ connectivity offering, which includes the Nasdaq POP in Equinix’s Secaucus, New Jersey data center (NY4) launched in September 2014. Nasdaq’s redundant, high-performance fiber circuits connecting to the Nasdaq Data Center will enable clients to send orders and receive acknowledgements and market data with one-way expected latency of 7.3 milliseconds from Chicago and 150 microseconds from Secaucus. Nasdaq’s POP offerings in Chicago and Secaucus extend the reach of the exchange group’s network through a single hand-off connection.
The Windy City disaster recovery facility will provide regional diversity for business continuity planning with further distance from the exchange group’s primary U.S. data center and less chance of impact from natural disasters that affect the East Coast region. The location will be convenient for clients who already maintain trading systems in Chicago to access other equities, options and futures primary and disaster recovery matching engines.
