Large sell-side firms are moving to standardize market access gateways in order to navigate the maze of connectivity created by multiple exchanges and trading venues.

“Each exchange has its own specialized products, order types, data formats and trading nuances,” said Steve Woodyatt, CEO of Object Trading, a provider of direct market access (DMA) connectivity. “Consequently, the process of establishing connections and testing them through the client interfaces can be daunting.”

Object Trading’s DMA suite provides normalized market access via real-time market data and order execution with in-line pre-trade risk constraints, greatly reducing the complexities of exchange connectivity. Through a single gateway, sell-side and buy-side firms can access equity, derivative and FX markets globally.

“We provide a normalized, standardized interface to markets across asset classes and geographies,” Woodyatt said. “It encompasses order execution, real time processing, pre-trade risk, and normalization, which gives the buy side the flexibility to access markets seamlessly and chase alpha around the globe.”

CameronTec, a provider of FIX connectivity technology and trading infrastructure, has integrated its platform with the Object Trading’s global DMA platform for equity, derivative and FX markets.

“For the first time, brokers now have access to a comprehensive market-facing infrastructure for FIX and non-FIX markets based on an open, high-performance, reliable messaging technology,” said Anders Henriksson, CEO at CameronTec. “For many firms currently constrained by proprietary infrastructures, this brings a compelling opportunity for decision-makers on both the business and technology side.”

As sell-side firms wrestle with the opposing requirements to reduce business cost and complexity without diminishing client service, they increasingly look to streamline trade messaging and market access infrastructure.

Many firms suffer with legacy infrastructures that are a drag on performance and have become expensive to manage after years of technology build-outs and add-ons. For those firms, an outsourced offering enables them to improve operational efficiency and trade performance at a lower cost than building in-house.

The joint offering delivers a packaged solution that provides CameronTec’s message transformation and routing technology with Object Trading’s Frontrunner DMA platform to provide access to more than 60 global markets. The result is a ready-to-trade solution that integrates buy-side client connectivity, trade data management, and market access across broker and client trading systems.

A number of top tier firms have combined CameronTec and Object Trading technology, and leveraged the two firms’ unique subject matter expertise to manage trade messaging and market access. The success of those projects has influenced the decision to formalize the collaboration between CameronTec and Object Trading to deliver a pre-packaged, fully integrated solution to the market.

“As the industry looks to streamline trading operations, eliminating redundant, inflexible market connectivity infrastructures has become a focus, from the CIO and CTO to the traders on the desk. Our DMA platform, paired with CameronTec Catalys, provides a simple yet very powerful proposition,” said Woodyatt. “Engaging with CameronTec, we can deliver one FIX platform, integrated with one gateway to an extensive set of liquidity venues, supporting all your trade messaging and market connectivity needs across the firm.”

CameronTec’s Catalys provides an integrated platform for operations, infrastructure and trading. Open-standard-based and centrally managed, Catalys harnesses performance, data interoperability, convergence and business insight.