Gissing Software hedge fund data system integrates algorithms with real-time prices

Date: Friday, June 6, 2008
Author: Hedgeweek.com

Gissing Software, which specialises in the routing and transformation of real-time market and trade data, has launched a new cost-effective market data integration platform for hedge funds, the Gissing Hedge Fund Market Data System.

The solution is designed to enable hedge funds to acquire competitive advantage by integrating algorithmic trading techniques and strategies with trades on existing trading systems and market data from the trader's desktop terminal.

Following the implementation of the system at the alternative investment platform launched by Malbec Partners last November, Gissing has now made the final packaged solution available to the wider market.
 
The firms the system has been created in response to demand from the hedge fund industry for cost-effective, scalable, low-latency market data infrastructures that can integrate with the Bloomberg Trading System.

The platform enables smaller firms to begin to integrate algorithmic techniques, more often used by larger firms. Gissing says the system is easily upgradeable and provides an ideal stepping-stone in the migration from existing core infrastructure as organisations grow to adopt, for example, the Reuters Market Data System.
 
'The adoption of low-latency algorithmic trading strategies has moved beyond just large sell-side firms,' says Gartner research director Mary Knox. 'Critical for the support of these strategies is cost-effective infrastructure that enables real-time analysis of market data and integration with trading systems.'

Gissing says other key benefits of the Hedge Fund Market Data System include the ability for hedge funds to trade using their own algorithmic or programmatic trading model, and enabling clients to use Bloomberg terminals for trades and price information while continuing to maintain positions and security on the Bloomberg Trading System.

An Excel add-in allows the spreadsheet to subscribe to both Bloomberg price data and the hedge fund's own security and position data in real time, to build data into the trading model. The system promises fully fault-tolerant operation based on the proven Gissing ConteX MCS architecture.

'We have had a lot of interest from buy-side firms who have been demanding an intermediary platform from which to build their operations and grow their business,' says Gissing Software chief executive Mike Vieyra. 'The Gissing Hedge Fund Market Data System will enable hedge funds to use this core infrastructure alongside existing systems to help perfect trading strategies.

'We anticipate that this integrated approach will also help enhance the performance of funds' algorithms over time. The flexibility and vendor-agnostic nature of Gissing's technology will allow businesses to implement larger market data platforms without restrictions, and do so at a rate that best matches their growth.'

The system integrates Gissing's multi-contribution ConteX MCS system with its high-performance Microsoft Excel add-in, Gissing RealtimeXL. ConteX MCS provides integration to the Bloomberg Trading System, feeding real-time positions data directly into the trader's Bloomberg terminal, where it can then be combined with market data and processed using either Microsoft Excel or the hedge fund's own custom application. This closes the market data loop, enabling accurate position management at all times.

Gissing Software, now part of ThomsonReuters, was founded in 1991 and counts some of the world's biggest banks and brokers among its clients. The company, which has its headquarters in London and an office in New York, has more than 60 installations worldwide.