The world's premier base metal market and one of the most prominent commodity marketplaces, the London Metal Exchange (LME), has gone live with a new version of the electronic trading platform LMESelect.
LMESelect version 7, jointly developed by the LME, the Exchange's service delivery partner Xchanging and its technology provider Cinnober Financial Technology, will enable the LME to manage further increases in volumes. Trading to date this year is up more than 20 percent on 2010, itself a record year.
The decision to upgrade was based in large measure on this need to elevate performance to meet continually record-breaking volumes, as well as the wish to open up to algorithmic trading, which naturally brings in a vastly increased performance requirement both in terms of low latency as well as volumes. The upgrade also implies a number of configurable new order types that can be implemented and introduces a new FIX-based solution for market data that satisfies higher performance requirements, reduces costs and uses a standardized protocol.
"Our position as the premier base metal market in the world requires us to stay at the forefront of technology," said Michael Warren, CTO of the LME. "Our strategy is to always provide industry-leading performance and reliability. In addition, a constantly changing marketplace means being able to deliver new order types and face up to the demands of high-frequency trading."
"Our long-term partnership with Cinnober has paid off well over the years," Warren continuous. "LMESelect has continuously been enhanced and refined and our new performance and functionality implies that we are now well-prepared for the next set of market and technology challenges."
The partnership between Cinnober and the LME began back in 2003, when the Swedish supplier delivered its first version of the LMESelect platform, based on its proprietary TRADExpress technology. During this long partnership, electronic trading has grown from 2% to over 70% of the LME's market volume.
"The LME continually renews the commodity exchange business," said Nils-Robert Persson, Executive Chairman of Cinnober. "This is what being a prominent trading pioneer means - in their case combining centuries of business success with an unmatched clarity of vision. We're particularly proud to continue our close partnership with the LME, because the content of this upgrade - along with cost reductions - can't be found anywhere else in the commodity businesses."