Overview of Pearl® Trading Platform

State of the Art Operations

Technology is the backbone of any marketplace solution. HKMEx has built an electronic trading system and technology infrastructure that are among the most advanced of any exchange in the Asia-Pacific region. With no legacy systems to impede development, we have been able to independently evaluate the offerings of the leading technology providers and select businesses that will provide us with a leading-edge advantage and adaptability for years to come.

The Exchange’s technology infrastructure is built on a foundation of two Data Centres located many kilometres apart from each other to ensure maximum reliability and security. They offer a “hot-hot” trading system designed to eliminate downtime in the event of hardware failure. Additionally, no single power failure or telecommunications disruption can affect trading on the Exchange.

HKMEx deploys fully redundant blade server technology in the two Data Centres connected by both a primary and a secondary network employing two-tier network security.

HKMEx’s industry-leading technology is designed to offer maximum flexibility and speed to meet the requirements of the most demanding market participants. The infrastructure is built around the Pearl^® trading system, a bespoke architecture built on trading platform technology provided by Cinnober Financial Technology AB and front-end trading systems supplied by Patsystems plc and other leading global providers.

Extensive testing shows that Pearl^®’s performance is among the fastest in the world. Performance tweaking is underway and continuing improvements are expected in a standard which is already world-class.

Cutting Edge Technology

Pearl^® Trading System

We are deploying Pearl^®, HKMEx’s state-of-the art trading system built on Cinnober TRADExpress technology, to provide one of the fastest trading systems available while offering reliability designed to approach 99.999 per cent. The Pearl^® trading engine allows HKMEx to handle high liquidity and trading volumes on a secure and scalable high-end platform. It delivers the flexibility to introduce new functionality allowing the rapid development of new contracts, services and types of trading, thereby ensuring that Pearl^®remains in the forefront of commodities industry development. A user-friendly interface provides easy access for all types of market participants including end users, brokers, investment banks and proprietary traders.

Pearl^® will continuously provide:

• Current bids and offers;
• Depth of market views outside best bids/offers;
• Spread bid/offer, or the price differentials between different contract months;
• Generation of implied prices where no active market currently exists using values from trading in other contract months.

Pearl^® is also exceptionally scalable, providing HKMEx with the ability to scale as and when the market demands, never leaving the Exchange on the back foot as growing volumes and/or volatility increase demands made on matching engine performance.

The Exchange is wholly committed to pre- and post-trade transparency to encourage liquidity and trading volumes. There will be pre-trade transparency in orders placed in the market, preserving the anonymity of members placing orders while ensuring maximum price discovery for the market as a whole.

Pearl^® Features

Major characteristics of the Pearl^® Trading Platform include:

• Reliability - No single point of failure. Trading information is stored in two geographically dispersed data centres;
• Functionality - Pearl^® is equipped with state-of-the-art electronic exchange functions;
• Scalability - Pearl^® is built to allow the system to grow, implement enhancements and/or increase capacity in the future;
• Performance - The system possesses high transactions and messages throughput with low latency.

Working Together

HKMEx is cooperating with a number of leading firms in different industries to establish the Exchange. They range from data centre facilities to equipment providers who deliver the wide array of services and products necessary for launching a world-class commodities exchange in Asia. They include: