020507

Nasdaq Preps Feed Changes

Nasdaq will retire its TotalView-Legacy feed at the end of next month, and will migrate remaining legacy feed subscribers to either its TotalView-ITCH or TotalView-Aggregated feeds during the rest of the first quarter, which the exchange says provide richer data and faster processing speeds. Both alternatives are already in production. In other news, Nasdaq has postponed the implementation of new data formats by the Nasdaq Securities Information Processor, following the SEC's decision to delay the full introduction of Reg NMS to March 5. The SIP formats will now change on Feb. 26.

New York-based analysis software vendor PerTrac has added access to two databases from hedge fund news and data provider HedgeFund.net to its PerTrac Analytical Platform. The addition of the HFN Asia and HFN Europe databases, which each provide weekly updates of monthly return data, brings the total number of third-party databases supported by PerTrac to more than 50, officials say.

OMX Group last week reported its full-year and Q4 financial results, showing a 21 percent rise in full-year revenue from market data sales to SEK 441 million ($63.4 million), and a 27 percent increase during Q4 to SEK 121 million ($17.4 million). The exchange says the increases are partly a result of increased numbers of real-time terminals consuming OMX data, and also as a result of audits.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission last week voted to propose rule changes that will expand its voluntary "interactive data" program to allow mutual funds to submit tagged risk/return data on investment objectives, strategies, costs and historical performance. Submitting the data in tagged format would make it easier for investors to analyze and compare data from different funds.

UBS and Bloomberg last week announced the creation of a joint Constant Maturity Commodity Index, comprising a basket of 28 commodity futures with a range of different investment maturities, which the companies say will allow investors to easily diversify across maturities and commodities, and to more efficiently adapt their commodity index investments to current economic environments.

French data and software vendor GL Trade has signed an agreement with BIt Systems, the technology subsidiary of Borsa Italiana, to offer ASP access to market data and trade execution on the Italian stock and derivatives exchanges and fixed-income market, using BIt Systems' hubs in Milan, Rome and London. Connectivity will be offered to brokers via GL Trade's GL Net broker network.

Skyler Technology, a provider of data processing technology, has begun marketing its C3 Database as a solution for compliance with Reg NMS's best-execution requirements. Officials say that C3's ability to simultaneously capture order information, national best bid and offer, and top levels of an order book means that data is synchronized and stored, allowing easy retrieval for compliance purposes.

Standard & Poor's Securities Evaluations has partnered with Independent Valuation and Risk Services Limited (IVRS) to share pricing data. Under the deal, each vendor will be able to extend the breadth and depth of coverage by offering the other's valuations through their own services.