Interactive Data Launches ASX 24 Feed on 7Ticks

Interactive Data has rolled out a connection to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) to provide existing clients of its 7Ticks network with access to the ASX's Trade24 derivatives market.

Previously, 7Ticks clients could only access the ASX facility via datacenter and hosting provider Equinix's IBX facility in Chicago, but through a new cross-connect, existing 7Ticks clients located anywhere on the 7Ticks network can now access the ASX's Trade24 market data feed.

The futures feed, which delivers real-time ASX derivatives market data in the raw ASX format, is initially available to customers on a three-month trial basis where the data can be used for free.

"Trading firms can analyze, build models, watch trends and create strategies without paying for [the] data," says Andy Bigane, senior director of global accounts at Interactive Data 7ticks, though after the trial, the feed becomes fee-liable.

Demand for the feed is coming primarily from traders in Chicago who want to take advantage of the near 24-hour trading on ASX in futures and options on the SPI 200 Equity Index, officials say, along with 30-day Notes and 90-day Bank Bills, Australian treasury bonds of three- and 10-year maturities, as well as Australian Grain Futures, which were recently added to the platform.

Interactive Data officials say that as firms look to diversify their trading strategies, the vendor is seeing demand for new content on additional markets and asset classes, prompting it to expand 7Ticks' network connectivity to the ASX derivatives market.

"With derivatives volume averaging around 350,000 contracts daily and a traded nominal value in excess of A$150 billion, ASX continues to be the dominant liquidity destination in the Asia-Pacific region," said David Ritchie, ASX vice president and regional manager for North America, in a statement.

ASX is the latest in a series of new sources that interactive Data has brought onto the 7Ticks network, which currently connects to more than 450 sources worldwide, including a point of presence in Toronto (IMD, Aug. 7) and presences in datacenters providing access to Bolsas y Mercados Españoles, the London Metal Exchange, BATS Chi-X Europe, Quote MTF, the SIX Swiss Exchange, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, Oslo Bors and the London Stock Exchange -- as well as the Idem derivatives market of its Borsa Italiana business and its Turquoise multilateral trading facility -- earlier this year (IMD, March 5, 2012).