CQG Adds BrokerTec Link, Module

NEW YORK—Charting software vendor CQG is readying a new version of its data and trading workstation that will feature a link to the BrokerTec fixed-income market and a module for automated trading, say CQG officials.

The ability to trade via BrokerTec is currently still in development, but is just a matter of connecting to the online interdealer bond transaction platform, and should be ready to enter live production sometime in the first quarter of next year, CQG officials say.

The move would enable traders to use CQG to deal in the underlying cash market for the derivative instruments that they are transacting via the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) and Eurex, says Tom Schneider, account manager at CQG in New York.

The new version will also feature an alerting tool designed to make traders' lives easier by notifying them of trading opportunities, or even generating orders automatically, CQG officials say. The system monitors prices on instruments set up by the trader and, once a price hits a certain level, generates an order. It then either alerts the trader with a request for authorization to proceed, or it can be set up to automatically route the order directly to the exchange or market.

The new version may mostly appeal to short-term traders who are moving in and out of securities many times per day, because of a new bid/ask volume charting package, Schneider says. The charts show the momentum of markets by providing a color-coded graphical representation of the volume of orders at each bid or ask price. He says the charts can be applied to data from any exchange that trades electronically and provides bid/ask volume as part of its price feed.

CQG offers two delivery models. The vendor can install the software directly on Intel-based servers running the Microsoft Windows operating system at clients' sites, along with Cisco Systems networking switches and routers.

The other model allows smaller firms to connect over the Internet from a front end to a server farm running the software, and hosted by CQG, say CQG officials.

Originally founded in January 1999, BrokerTec was started by a consortium of 14 major financial services firms that needed a global fixed-income wholesale trading platform. In May 2003, BrokerTec was acquired by Icap, and by September 2003, BrokerTec and Icap launched a combined voice and electronic liquidity pool.