Options PIPE Clients Now Have Access to Tick Data’s Product Offerings for In-Depth Market Analysis and Trading Strategy Backtesting

NEW YORK ― May 16, 2011 ― Options IT, the provider of the Options PIPE Private Financial Cloud ^SM* services platform for sell-side and buy-side firms, today announced an agreement with Tick Data, the historical market data division of Nexa Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Penson Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ: PNSN), to make Tick Data’s complete suite of tick-by-tick historical market data available on the Options PIPE platform.

Options PIPE clients now have access to Tick Data products for analyzing global, multi-asset class market trends and back-testing trading strategies. Tick Data provides research-ready historical intraday time series data for the world’s equities, futures and options markets. Options IT provides on-demand Private Financial Cloud services—including ultra-low latency market data, connectivity and fully optimized application hosting services—to the banking, trading, and traditional and alternative investment community.

The agreement comes as the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is reported to be preparing a proposal to require backtesting on automated trading strategies before they go live in the market.

“We’re delighted to work with Tick Data to provide our clients access to its full suite of historical market data,” said Nigel Kneafsey, CEO of Options IT. “Given that regulators are now looking at how well trading firms scrutinize their automated trading strategies before live deployment, using a service like Tick Data’s is not only a best industry practice, but potentially a required one.”

Neal Falkenberry, SVP at Tick Data, said, “The highly volatile global markets of the past few years have generated many trading opportunities, but may also lead to increased regulatory scrutiny of trading activities. Tick Data’s historical intraday market data products have always allowed our clients to reliably develop and test trading algorithms. We are happy to work with Options IT to offer a new way to access our research-ready data.”

*Service Mark status pending

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PIPE Velocity Clients Provided with Lowest Possible Trading Latency between the Two Cities

NEW YORK ― May 3, 2011 ― Options IT, the provider of the Options PIPE® Private Financial Cloud ^SM* services platform for sellside and buyside firms, today announced it has optimized trading connectivity between New York and Chicago for clients of its PIPE Velocity service.

As part of Options IT’s ongoing optimization of the PIPE platform, clients of its PIPE Velocity service now have access to the fastest possible lit fiber pathway offering lowest latency trading between Chicago and New York markets.

The optimization project reduced PIPE Velocity round-trip trading latency between Chicago and New York by 2 milliseconds and was prompted by increased demand from clients to trade Chicago markets from the New York Metro area.

PIPE Velocity is a complete technology solution for high frequency trading strategies providing prime exchange colocated datacenter space, ultra-low latency market data and connectivity, and optimized financial application hosting as a fully managed and integrated service.

“In the last six months, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in the number of clients that are wishing to trade multi-market, multi-asset class strategies between Chicago and New York to capitalize on new market opportunities,” said Nigel Kneafsey, CEO of Options IT. “As part of our ongoing commitment to provide an optimal trading environment for our clients, we’ve improved our network path between New York to Chicago to ensure we’re offering the lowest possible trading latency between those two market centers.”

Options IT provides on-demand Private Financial Cloud services—including ultra-low latency market data, connectivity and fully optimized application hosting services—to the banking, trading and traditional and alternative investment community.

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PIPE Velocity Expansion Comes as ISE Prepares for April Debut of new OptimiseTM Trading System

New York – Feb 22, 2011 – Options IT, a leading provider of ultra-low latency market data and connectivity, fully managed application hosting, and high-performance technology Infrastructure-as- a-Service (IaaS) for the buyside and sellside, today announced it has expanded its PIPE Velocity service for high-frequency trading firms to provide access to the International Securities Exchange’s (ISE) new OptimiseTM trading platform and full suite of market data offerings.

The expansion of the PIPE Velocity service comes as ISE prepares for the rollout of its new Optimise trading platform in April. Optimise is expected to be a leader among US options exchanges with regard to latency and performance.

PIPE Velocity is a complete HFT technology solution, providing ultra-low latency market data, high throughput market connectivity and vendor neutral application hosting as a single, fully managed service for all available major markets across North America, Europe and Asia.

“The reduced latency and increased throughput and capacity anticipated with the launch of ISE’s new trading platform provides a significant opportunity for traders that incorporate speed of execution into their strategies,” said Nigel Kneafsey, CEO of Options IT. “We anticipate ISE’s new platform will lead to a general increase in overall options trading volume as new trading opportunities often arise from these types of significant system upgrades.”

“We are very pleased that Options IT, with its full suite of managed technology services, will be able to provide firms with efficient, low latency access to the full range of ISE’s market data products,” said Jeff Soule, Head of Market Data at ISE.

PIPE Velocity is one of three services offered on the Options PIPE® platform, a fully managed and optimized global technology infrastructure and network connectivity environment providing on- demand, private cloud technology solutions to more than 120 investment banks, proprietary trading shops, brokerages, and traditional and alternative asset management firms globally.

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The Full Suite of ULLINK Offerings, Including Low Latency Pre-Trade Risk Management Solutions, Now Available as a Fully Managed, On-Demand Service

NEW YORK - Jan. 31, 2011 - Options IT, a leading provider of ultra-low latency market data and connectivity, managed application hosting, and high-performance technology Infrastructure-as-a-Service for the sellside and buyside, today announced ULLINK, a leading provider of low-latency connectivity, risk management and trading solutions, has deployed its UL NET+ service on the Options PIPE platform.

UL NET+ is ULLINK's global, fully hosted and managed low-latency offering with a unique combination of high-speed market access, order routing, pre-Trade Risk management and advanced monitoring that allows firms to connect immediately to all global derivatives and cash markets. Sell-side and buy-side firms now have access to the full suite of ULLINK solutions as a fully managed service on the Options PIPE platform.

The Options PIPE platform is a fully managed and optimized global technology infrastructure and network connectivity environment providing on-demand, private cloud technology solutions to more than 120 investment banks, proprietary trading shops, brokerages, and traditional and alternative asset management firms globally.

"We're delighted to work with ULLINK to provide an optimal hosting environment for trading firms wanting to leverage the full range of ULLINK solutions," said Nigel Kneafsey, CEO of Options IT. "In light of the SEC's looming compliance deadline banning unfiltered market access, we anticipate a huge surge in demand for a pre-trade risk management solution that fulfills regulatory obligations without impeding trade performance."

Added Mo Takhim, Head of Managed Services at ULLINK, "In a post naked-access market environment, high frequency trading firms must now find a fully compliant pre-trade risk management solution that is robust, flexible and introduces the least amount of trading latency. We are happy to work with Options IT to offer our clients, a fully managed global low latency direct market access solution with SEC compliant advanced risk controls on the Options PIPE platform."

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London-based Hedge Fund Manager Selects Options PIPE® Core, a Complete Office and Mobile Technology and Support Service for Financial Services Firms

London ― Jan. 18, 2011 ― Options IT, a leading provider of ultra-low latency market data and connectivity, fully managed application hosting, and high-performance technology Infrastructure- as-a-Service for the buyside and sellside, today announced that Occitan Capital Partners, a London-based hedge fund manager, has chosen Options IT as its technology infrastructure provider.

Set up in Q4 of 2010 by Thomas de Garidel-Thoron and Hervé Gallo, Occitan Capital Partners provides fundamental long/short investing across the entire spectrum of pure equity products, specifically through the cash, volatility and dividends markets.

Occitan has selected the Options PIPE Core service, a complete business technology infrastructure 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 financial technology infrastructure services available on the Options PIPE platform.

The Options PIPE platform is a fully managed and optimized global technology infrastructure and network connectivity environment providing on-demand, private cloud technology solutions to more than 120 investment banks, proprietary trading shops, brokerages, and traditional and alternative asset management firms globally.

“The changing market environment over the past few years significantly increased the level of operational sophistication fund managers must demonstrate to investors and regulators alike,” said Sophie Thieux-Billiard, COO at Occitan Capital Partners. “Working with providers like Options IT, enabled us to quickly implement a robust and secure business infrastructure with much greater efficiency than if we had set out to build it ourselves.”

“We’re delighted that Occitan has chosen Options IT to provide and support the fund’s technology infrastructure,” said Nigel Kneafsey, CEO at Options IT. “PIPE Core, like all PIPE services, provides a resilient and fully managed enterprise strength solution delivered on- demand, freeing clients to focus on their core business. PIPE services provide full compliance with regulatory requirements and can speed investor due diligence process as a check-the-box solution from a trusted provider.”

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Options PIPE Velocity Clients now Have on-Demand Access to Redline’s Accelerated Ticker Plant Technology

NEW YORK ― Dec. 13, 2010 ― Options IT, a global provider of ultra-low latency market data and connectivity, fully managed application hosting and high-performance technology Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) for the sellside and buyside, today announced that Redline Trading Solutions, Inc., a provider of low-latency market data solutions, has deployed the Redline InRush 10G Accelerated Ticker Plant on the Options PIPE platform.

Trading firms may now leverage the InRush 10G ticker plant on-demand as a fully managed service powered by Options PIPE Velocity, Options IT’s ultra-low latency, market data, connectivity and application hosting service.

The Redline InRush 10G embedded ticker plant is an ultra-low latency market data platform engineered for high-frequency trading, smart order routing, and other applications requiring the lowest possible latency. InRush leverages cutting-edge hardware acceleration to deliver consistent performance in the face of market volatility.

PIPE Velocity is one of three IaaS offerings on the Options PIPE platform, a fully managed and optimized global technology environment providing on-demand, private cloud technology solutions to more than 120 investment banks, proprietary trading shops, brokerages, and traditional and alternative asset management firms globally.

“Trading firms’ appetite for increased throughput capacity and lower-latency market data solutions continues to grow across all market regions,” said Nigel Kneafsey, CEO of Options IT. “We’re delighted to work with Redline to offer firms an additional option for leveraging a high- performance market data solution that is fully managed and optimized within the Options PIPE environment.”

“InRush 10G is squarely targeted at increasing trading profits for firms seeking ultimate trading performance,” said Mark Skalabrin, CEO at Redline Trading Solutions, “Our hardware accelerated solution can bring together multiple directly connected equity, option, and futures exchanges with market leading performance under the most demanding market conditions. We are pleased to work with Options IT to make this solution available on-demand from the Options PIPE platform.”

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