Millennium Exchange

Millennium Exchange
Developer(s) London Stock Exchange Group
Operating system Linux
Platform Commodity hardware
Type Electronic trading platform

Millennium Exchange is the electronic trading platform currently used and developed by the London Stock Exchange Group. It has also been sold and is in use by a number of other exchanges around the world.

History

In 2009, the London Stock Exchange Group was unhappy with the cost and the insufficient speed of their electronic trading platform, TradElect, so after only 2 years of operating TradElect they decided to switch to a new platform. The LSE investigated the possibility of building a new system in-house, but eventually decided on acquiring the existing, Linux-based system, Millennium Exchange, which had a lower, sub-millisecond latency.[1]

Acquisition

It acquired this system by acquiring the company that created it, Sri Lanka-based MillenniumIT, in 2009, for £18m.[2] In its annual report, the LSE said that it expected the switch to Millennium Exchange to save $16m per year starting from the 2012 financial year.[3]

Software launch and initial problems

In October 2010, the London Stock Exchange claimed that Millennium Exchange had broken the world record for trade speed, with 126 microsecond trading times being recorded on the Turquoise dark pool trading venue, and said that it would go live on 1 November.[4]

The system was taken out of service following a 2-hour outage of the Turquoise venue on 2 November 2010. The incident was, according to LSE officials, caused by human error that "may have occurred in suspicious circumstances." Plans were to introduce Millennium Exchange on the main share trading platform as well, in December. The LSE stated it was hoping the software would be ready for use again early in 2011.[5][6]

Competing against specialist electronic rivals

In February 2011, the London Stock Exchange finished the switch to Linux. LSE chief executive Xavier Rolet said that the exchange, once a monopoly, would deliver record speed and stable trading in order to fight back against the fast erosion of its dominant marketshare by specialist electronic rivals.[7]

Users

As well as the London Stock Exchange the system has been sold to a number of other exchanges including Borsa Italiana, Oslo Stock Exchange and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

References

  1. ↑ "London Stock Exchange to replace Tradelect with Millennium". Computer Weekly. 4 September 2009. Retrieved 19 October 2013.
  2. ↑ "London Stock Exchange Group to Acquire MilleniumIT for US$30M (£18M)". London Stock Exchange. 16 September 2009. Retrieved 19 October 2013.
  3. ↑ Maria Korolov (14 December 2009). "Clock is Ticking on London Exchange". Securities Technologies Monitor. Retrieved 19 October 2013.
  4. ↑ Leo King (2010-10-20). "London Stock Exchange smashes world record trade speed with Linux". Computerworld UK.
  5. ↑ "London share trading halt 'suspicious'". BBC Business. November 3, 2010. Retrieved November 3, 2010.
  6. ↑ Guevarra, Vladimir (November 3, 2010). "LSE Delays Engine Upgrade After Outage". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved November 3, 2010.
  7. ↑ Leo King (2011-02-14). "London Stock Exchange finished the switch to Linux". Computerworld UK.
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