The Nasdaq Stock Market plans to distribute its data feeds via a low-latency wireless service, and to offer wireless-delivered data to trading firms located at its Carteret, NJ co-location facility. Those plans are outlined in a filing that the exchange is required to make with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) relating to establishing fees for the services it plans to introduce.
According to the filing – which seeks industry comment – the exchange proposes to offer wireless connectivity to co-located trading firms to allow them access data from NYSE Euronext, Bats Global Markets and Direct Edge. It also plans to deliver its TotalView feed via wireless to firms in other data centres. Reducing latency compared to fibre connectivity is the driver for the service, which is likely to be popular with trading firms that run latency-sensitive strategies.
According to the filing, some trading firms are already looking to obtain rights to install their own wireless equipment on the roof of the Carteret data centre, and some have leveraged nearby towers for their equipment, connecting into Carteret via fibre. The exchange believes a better – less expensive and more scalable – route is for firms to use their managed service.
Nasdaq says it will contract with an unnamed service provider to install, test and manage the service. It will connect into: the Equinix data centre in Secaucus, NJ, where Direct Edge is located; the Savvis data centre in Weehawken, NJ, for Bats; and a Newark, NJ data centre where NYSE has a SFTI network access point. Connectivity to these markets was driven by customer demand. Why connectivity direct to NYSE’s Mahwah, NJ data centre is not planned is unclear, though possibly it is related to obtaining roof rights.
Nasdaq will charge fees for wireless connectivity, including a $2,500 for installation, and a monthly fee, which for data from NYSE is $10,000, and $7,500 for each of Bats and Direct Edge.
This proposed service is the latest from Nasdaq to lower latency for its data services. It recently introduced a version of its data feed driven by FPGA technology to ensure that it does not back up during peak trading periods.
