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MDX Technology Breaks the Market Data Mould with Project IOWA

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MDX Technology, a provider of real-time data distribution solutions for the global trading community, has introduced Project IOWA, a data driven ecosystem designed to redefine the way content owners and content subscribers meet and transact business by using flexible, multi-channel subscriptions to data. The aim of the initiative is to liberate content owners and subscribers from the restrictions imposed by the market data vendor monopoly and provide easy access to an alternative venue at significantly lower cost.

The company says Project IOWA is designed to counter the expense of market data and could, in many cases, help reduce dependency on closed market data terminals with a more open approach that will provide benefits including savings to the user. For content creators, the ecosystem allows them to provide faster, easier and cheaper access to premium or hard to find data sources to a wider audience on a venue of choice.

Paul Watmough CEO at MDX, comments: “Project IOWA is a disruptive play that we believe will be a positive agent of change in an industry that is reinventing itself on almost a daily basis.”

He explains: “We manage the data on behalf of the content provider on our platform and distribute it to end clients via the various options we have, including Excel , the web, mobile devices, Symphony and APIs. We have forged relationships with a number of niche content providers including Numerco, FactEntry and a trade association.

“Looking at Numerco, by way of example, the company specialises in the execution of nuclear and distillate DMA marine fuel, which is quite a departure from the norm. The company is a trailblazer in the business and we’re actively seeking a different approach to disseminating its market data for customer pricing and risk management. The company is also keen to extend information sales capabilities and its goal is to provide customers with absolute flexibility on how they receive data and to what end point or device, without the financial burden of a capex investment. This is where Project IOWA really comes into its own.”

At the moment, MDX is providing private end-to-end data distribution solutions to the various end points noted above for key content providers, although it is expanding its technology to embrace an all-to-all model. It is also in advanced conversations with a number of content providers that want to be part of the initiative.

In case you are wondering why the service is called Project IOWA, Watmough says: “Project IOWA is a reference to the movie Field of Dreams, starring Kevin Costner, set in Dubuque County, IOWA and including the iconic line ‘If you build it, he will come’.”

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