Sun Trading Expands Tech Partnership for Cross-Asset Trading

Sun Trading Solutions, a unit of Chicago-based Sun Trading LLC, is expanding the proprietary firm’s use of Kx Systems’ database to support cross-asset trading activities across new markets and geographies.

Sun Trading said that the Kx database kdb+ enables the firm to capture and analyze large volumes of trade data in real-time for quantitative trading.

The automated trading firm will utilize the Kx+ database at its Chicago and London sites.

Fintan Quill, senior engineer with Kx Systems said that Sun Trading is expanding their existing infrastructure for market data capture and trading. “Basically they’re looking across different asset classes,” said Quill in an interview yesterday.

“The financial game is changing and the margins are getting smaller and the way the economy is you have to be set up to trade across asset classes,” said Quill. “The trend is moving toward that specific direction and there are no exceptions,” he added. Quill said that Sun is choosing Kx to become a central infrastructure for all their data needs. Instead of having separate technology for equities, FX or optins, it’s using Kx to consolidate data capture for all asset classes.

Sun Trading was founded in 2003, by Jeff Wigley, a former market maker on the Chicago Board Options Exchange, and has been a client of Kx since 2008. It currently uses kdb+ to process vast amounts of real time and historical data and perform complex analytics with minimal latency, according to today’s release. The firm also utilizes Kx’s Q programming language on top of Kx platform and database.

“We will use the Kx technology to address our growing research and analysis needs as we continue to diversify across multiple asset classes and markets,” commented Kurt Lingel, chief information officer in the release. “Kx’s ability to work with us to evaluate a complete solution gave us the confidence to expand our relationship,” stated the CIO.

Sun’s trading teams focus on a variety of quantitative trading strategies (primarily high frequency) across multiple markets and asset classes, the firm noted on its web site.

“In general, as specific trading teams and houses are looking at cross-asset trading it’s useful to store that data in one system, especially if low-latency or high frequency trading is involved,” said Quill.

The move also reflects continued growth in the Chicago market, according to Kx. Despite the view that firms are out to reduce expenditures on infrastructure, the proliferation of electronic futures, options and FX trading in the area is driving demand to support high-volume data intensive analytics and applications, said the tech company. 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