By Edward Mangles
At the FIXGlobal Face2Face Forum in Seoul, Korean firms announced the formation
of a FIX working group and the Korean Exchange’s intention to build an ultra low
latency trading platform.
The opening speaker at the FIXGlobal Face2Face Forum Korea was keenly anticipated by the 200+ delegates, (a quarter of whom were made up of the buy-side and a third the sellside), as he was raising many of the issues that surround the HFT arena, but that are rarely touched on at industry events in Korea. By placing HFT in context , Edgar Perez, author of the recently published “The Speed Traders”, highlighted many of the opportunities and challenges that markets around the world face, in the low latency trading strategies environment. Not least, he pointed out the colossal task facing regulators and associated technology costs, just to monitor high-frequency trading, post trade, let alone real-time.
A recurring theme throughout the day, latency was covered by most of the presentations, especially in the context of FIX. Deutsche Borse’s Hanno Klein, and NYSE Technologies Asia Pacific CEO, Daniel Burgin, stressed that FIX standards are quite at home in the low latency environment, with exchanges around the world already using FIX for their low latency systems. As Mr. Burgin pointed out, “FIX is not slow, but through poor implementation, it can be made slow – and this has happened in various markets”. These comments rang true with the attendees, especially as Mr. Kyung Yoon, Division Head of Financial Investment IT Division of KOSCOM, outlined their plans not only to implement the latest version of FIX at the Korean Exchange, but also that when the new exchange system is rolled out in 2013, that speeds as low as 70 microseconds will be their benchmark. To the ‘icing on the cake’ Mr. Yoon then expressed KOSCOM’s commitment to helping establish a FIX liaison group in Korea that will ensure a highly ‘standard’ implementation of the FIX Protocol.
MC for the day, FIXGlobal’s Edward Mangles, (also FPL Asia PacificRegional Director), welcomed the announcement, stating that he and the FPL Asia Pacific group, looked forward to working more closely with KOSCOM, KRX and the Korean trading community as a whole. With delegates staying put to hear the bi-lingual presentations/discussions throughout the day, (with a few afternoon speakers actually commenting that the crowd in the room was unusually large for the final sessions), the updates on algorithmic trading (Josephine Kim, BAML) and TCA (Ofir Geffin, ITG) provoked a number of follow-up questions and discussions, indicating the delegates’ appetite surrounding these issues.
The event exhibitors especially enjoyed the networking between sessions, as even when speakers began their presentations in the conference hall, many groups hung back to discuss specific issues with the different experts attending. This was a full, lively and informative day, that clearly kick-starts a bright new era of dialogue and cooperation around the FIX Protocol arena, where Korea is now clearly gaining momentum and ready to start implementing FIX.
