Despite past problems, Australia maintains the fight to enable financial cancer to spread.
From Sydney Morning Herald:
The ASX will have another chance to prove the reliability of its technology today when it launches a new high-frequency trading platform.
The Australian Securities Exchange, which has been beset by trade-halting glitches in recent months, will unveil its ASX PureMatch this morning following approval from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission earlier this month.
Last month, the ASX suffered a four-hour outage on a key trading day, halting millions in share exchange and infuriating investors. Earlier problems with the ASX's technology had been singled out by ASIC in an annual assessment released last week that outlined the concerns of the regulator for the exchange.The ASIC report concluded that despite the recent problems linked to technology upgrades, "it is not unusual to go live with an upgrade to a trading platform with a number of issues remaining on the risk register.""This means that the risk has not been totally resolved but is subject to ongoing monitoring," the ASIC report said.The PureMatch platform will cater to so-called high-frequency traders, or investors using software based on computerised algorithms to make investments. The strategy typically uses lightning fast purchases and sales on the market to exploit minor movements.PureMatch will begin trading the 10 most-liquid stocks expanding to the top 200 most-liquid shares, next month, with a lower pricing aimed at attracting bigger investors.ASX has been forced to invest in more technology over the past year to compete against emerging alternative markets such as Chi-X, which went live in late October.
