Tora Trading Implements Trading Metrics to Monitor Latency Across DMA Brokers

Tora Trading, an Asia-Pacific focused trading platform, has deployed Trading Metrics' latency detection software to help institutional hedge fund clients systematically monitor the source of slow downs in their order executions, the companies announced today.

"We find there are two bottle necks: one is at the exchange side and one is at the broker side," explains Eric Sun, chief technology officer at Tora Trading in San Francisco. Tora's Compass platform is the combination of an execution management system with an order management system as well as portfolio management, says Sun.

On a busy trading day, customers can experience one or two -minute delays at that opening, he says. "Intraday delays are a little bit less obvious," says Sun. "So if you have a tool like Trading Metrics where you can see across all brokers and if you see an instrument is slow across several brokers, it's probably that the exchange is slowing down," he says.

Because Tora cannot connect directly to the exchanges in Asia, it must measure latency through the brokers, which offer direct-market access trading (DMA) and algorithmic trading strategies as well as access to internal dark pools. Tora Compass connects to 75 brokers across the Asia region and offers over 150 algorithms including its own and those from brokers, notes Sun. Over $25 billion in transactions are processed each month through Tora Compass, including over 25 percent of all electronic trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

With the Trading Metrics software, Tora can monitor the FIX sessions between the EMS and each DMA broker. "At the FIX level, you can tell if the (order) acknowledgments are not coming back," says the CTO. "The Trading Metrics software is really an appliance — it is listening to all the FIX traffic between our side and the broker side," he says.

The Trading Metrics software can track all trades conducted through Tora Compass and measure the order receipt, order processing and execution times with microsecond latency, according to the release.

Ivy is Editor-at-Large for Advanced Trading and Wall Street & Technology. Ivy is responsible for writing in-depth feature articles, daily blogs and news articles with a focus on automated trading in the capital markets. As an industry expert, Ivy has reported on a myriad ... View Full Bio

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