Finishes 2011 Signing 16 PIPE Core Clients, Adding Nearly 350 End Users Globally for its Flagship Financial Office Delivery and Support Service

London ― Jan. 24, 2012 ― Options IT, provider of the Options PIPE Private Financial Cloud services platform for the exchange, banking, trading and investment communities, today announced a strong surge in demand in 2011 among hedge fund managers for its PIPE Core financial office delivery and support service.

Options IT signed 16 PIPE Core hedge fund clients across North America, Europe and Asia, representing nearly 350 new end users of the service in 2011. The solid growth in demand indicates a sustained recovery in the alternative investment management space globally and a continued adoption of on-demand technology infrastructure services like Options IT’s Private Financial Cloud services platform.

The Options PIPE Core solution is a complete financial office delivery and support service providing a robust and resilient technology foundation for day-to-day business communication, regulatory compliance and operations management. PIPE Core is one of three Private Financial Cloud offerings on the Options PIPE platform.

“Through our migration onto the Options PIPE Core service, we receive a robust global technology infrastructure that can scale with our business,” said Joe Vittoria, Founding Partner and Chief Operating Officer at PVE Capital. “We have operations in multiple geographic regions, so it becomes much easier to manage the business with this service. It’s a technology model that we think will become increasingly prevalent going forward.”

PVE Capital, a London-based macro credit fund manager that was set up in June 2009, migrated to the PIPE Core service in 2011.

“During the past few years, hedge fund managers have had to respond to increasing regulatory and investor demands for a more robust operational infrastructure, which requires a significant upfront investment and on-going platform management,” said Nigel Kneafsey, CEO at Options IT. “Options PIPE platform services are engineered and delivered to meet investor and regulatory requirements placed on hedge funds, providing a resilient and fully managed enterprise-strength solution delivered on-demand to the client, allowing them to focus on their core business of investment management.”

The Options PIPE platform is a fully managed global financial technology infrastructure service providing ultra-low latency market data, execution connectivity, colocated managed hosting for financial applications and a complete financial office solution for financial services firms.

Download PDF Version

FIN Virtual Exchange, a Complete Trade Aggregation, Order Crossing, Routing and Execution Engine for ATS Operators and Broker/Dealers, is Available as a Service via the Options PIPE Platform

NEW YORK ― Dec. 5, 2011 ― Options IT, the provider of the Options PIPE Private Financial Cloud services platform for the sellside, buyside and exchange communities, announced today that Fundamental Interactions, a provider of low-latency market data, risk management, and order routing and crossing solutions, has deployed its FIN Virtual Exchange order matching and execution engine on the Options PIPE platform.

The FIN Virtual Exchange is a multi-asset, multi-region virtualized order book and matching engine for trade aggregation, order crossing, order routing, and trade execution. The trading platform can be deployed by Alternative Trading System and exchange operators or by broker/dealers as a virtualized order and execution management system, with fully integrated compliance and reporting functionality.

The Options PIPE Private Financial Cloud is a fully managed global financial technology infrastructure service providing ultra-low latency market data, execution connectivity, colocated managed hosting for financial applications and a complete financial office solution for financial services firms.

Market operators and broker/dealers will now have on-Demand access to FIN Virtual Exchange as a fully managed solution via the ultra-low latency Options PIPE Velocity private cloud service.

“We’ve seen a dramatic increase among second-tier brokers seeking to improve trading performance and profitability through sophisticated order aggregation, internalization and routing strategies, which is a new development outside of the tier-one broker/dealer community,” said Julian Jacobson, President at Fundamental Interactions. “We’re delighted to work with Options IT to make it cheaper, faster and easier for those brokers to access the technology they need to optimize execution of client order flow.”

Nigel Kneafsey, CEO at Options IT, added: “We’re delighted to work with Fundamental Interactions to provide FIN Virtual Exchange as a cost-efficient, private-cloud deployed solution on the Options PIPE Private Cloud. This is a significant step in increasing the level of dynamic client interaction possible on our platform, as we now offer the technology needed to support exchanges, brokers and the buyside on a single, globally accessible and optimized financial services technology environment.”

Download PDF Version

Trading Firms Now Have on-Demand Access to a Hardware-Accelerated Solution for Executing HFT Strategies on Major U.S. and European Futures Exchanges

NEW YORK ― Oct. 10, 2011 ― Options IT, the provider of the Options PIPE Private Financial Cloud services platform for the sellside and buyside, announced today that Celoxica, a leading provider of hardware-accelerated low-footprint, high-efficiency market data and trading solutions for high-frequency traders, has deployed its ultra-low latency Container technology for futures trading on the Options PIPE platform.

Trading firms looking to execute high-frequency trading strategies (HFT) on U.S. and European futures markets now have on-Demand access to a fully managed colocated solution through the Options PIPE Velocity private cloud service

The Celoxica single-server Container design provides a fully optimized, hardware-accelerated solution for HFT strategies by offloading processing onto FPGA cards and eliminating unnecessary network hops that persist in legacy trading environments

“There has been a notable increase over the last year in the level of high-frequency trading activity on the major U.S. and European futures markets as trade volumes and price volatility have created greater market opportunity,” said Lee Staines, President at Celoxica. “We’re delighted to be working with Options IT to offer trading firms a fully managed, cloud-based solution that provides the speed to market needed to capitalize on that opportunity."

Nigel Kneafsey, CEO at Options IT, added: “As the race to reduce trading latency gets closer to zero by traditional measurements, firms will need new and innovative ways to remove further latency out of the stack. Celoxica’s Container solution is a good example of such an innovation, and we’re happy to work with them to provide it as a private-cloud deployed solution for executing HFT strategies across the U.S. and European futures markets.”

Download PDF Version

Fully Compliant, Cross-Asset Class Pre-Trade Risk Management Solution Now Available On-Demand via the Options PIPE Private Cloud Services Platform

NEW YORK ― Sept. 26, 2011 ― Options IT, the provider of the Options PIPE Private Financial Cloud services platform for the sellside and buyside, announced today that Fundamental Interactions, a provider of low-latency market data, risk management, and order routing and crossing solutions, has deployed its FIN FastProxy pre-trade risk management application on the Options PIPE platform.

Trading firms accessing U.S. markets may now test FIN FastProxy on-Demand via the Options PIPE Velocity private cloud service well in advance of the second and final compliance deadline for the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Market Access Rule 15c3-5.

The final compliance deadline for Rule 15c3-5, which covers fixed-income trading and client credit- checks, is Nov. 30, 2011.

Fundamental Interactions’ FIN FastProxy is the pre-trade risk component of the firm’s Neutron solution, which also includes FIN Trading Appliance, an all-in-one low-latency solution for market data, algorithmic execution, order routing and compliance; and FIN Virtual Exchange, the firm’s broker crossing, exchange, and ATS engine.

“The SEC’s new market access rule has shifted the industry’s race to zero latency into overdrive, as compliant risk management solutions are now being benchmarked in microseconds,” said Julian Jacobson, President at Fundamental Interactions. “With the November compliance deadline two months away, deployment speed is becoming increasingly critical to both brokers and buy-side firms. We’re delighted to work with Options IT to offer a private cloud-based solution for clients to test and deploy well ahead of the compliance deadline.”

Nigel Kneafsey, CEO at Options IT, added: “Rule 15c3-5 is one of the most significant pieces of regulation to come down in years. We’re delighted to work with Fundamental Interactions to provide a cost-efficient and private-cloud deployed pre-trade risk management solution for brokers, eliminating the need for firms to build new or reengineer existing execution platforms to comply.”

Download PDF Version

SR Labs’ Multicast/Shared Memory and In Process Market Data Feed Handlers for the TSE Arrowhead Platform Available On-Demand through Options IT

NEW YORK ― June 14, 2011 ― Options IT, the provider of the Options PIPE Private Financial CloudSM* services platform for the sell side and buy side, announced today that SR Labs, a leading provider of market data feed handlers for high-frequency trading strategies, has deployed two ultra- low latency feed-handling solutions for the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) on the Options PIPE platform.

This joint offering provides trading firms worldwide with the first cost-effective, managed low- latency market data solution for Japanese markets. Engineered and optimized to provide ultra-low latency market data feed handling for the TSE’s Arrowhead platform, SR Labs now offers both multicast/shared memory (MDRC) and in-process (MIPS) feed handling solutions as an on-demand private cloud service via Options PIPE Velocity.

The move comes as U.S. and European trading firms increasingly look to migrate their high- frequency trading strategies to the Asian markets. Both improved exchange speed and market liquidity during the last year have made Asian markets more attractive for firms deploying low- latency trading strategies.

“Since the launch of Arrowhead in early 2010 and the subsequent launch of Chi-X Japan in July, the Asian market region has quickly developed the speed, liquidity and opportunity for arbitrage that is required for the growth of low-latency trading,” said Srinivasan Ramiah, CEO of SR Labs. “We’re pleased to extend our relationship with Options IT, a leading low-latency infrastructure provider.“

Nigel Kneafsey, CEO of Options IT, added: “During the last six months we’ve seen demand spike for ultra-low latency trading solutions for the TSE Arrowhead market as conditions become more favorable for high-frequency trading. We’re delighted to work with SR Labs, a leading provider of low-latency feed handling solutions to the trading community, to provide a complete managed technology solution to support increased demand in the region.”

*Service Mark status pending

Download PDF Version