UNX Translates for the Buy Side

With constant changes in U.S. equity market-structure and numerous protocols evolving, UNX has introduced a universal-language translator for buy-side institutional traders.

The UNX Order Gateway will allow a brokerage firm's clients to trade across different protocols used by exchanges and electronic-communications networks (ECNs). In addition, the Order Gateway provides a computer-processing interface to access UNX's technology.

"With Instinet ECN and Island ECN merging (into INET) and with interfaces and protocols changing all the time, it's going to be very challenging for clients to run their own technology infrastructure that potentially would connect up to the market directly itself," says Randy Abernethy, chief executive officer of UNX, based in Burbank, Calif.

The Order Gateway translates incoming trade and outgoing post-trade-reporting messages into protocols selected by UNX clients, including FIX (Financial Information Exchange).

Beyond that, it handles CTCI - Nasdaq's computer-to-computer interface for entering transactions into SuperMontage - and trade reports into Automated Confirmation Transaction Service (ACT).

Then there's Ouch - INET's native protocol for entering and canceling orders and receiving executions - and CMS (the New York Stock Exchange's Common Message Switch), and other standard and proprietary formats.

Over the past year, UNX has been evolving its platform into a sophisticated integration engine paving the way for clients to connect via their order-management systems (OMS), such as Macgregor, Eze Castle and LongView, he says.

With the Order Gateway, clients that operated manually can use their OMS to send orders directly to the UNX trading platform and automatically execute through the firm's execution fabric, he says.

Reports then seamlessly flow back into their OMS in real time.