Colt Provides Full Hosting Capability in Taiwan

Network provider Colt Technology Services is providing full hosting capability to three Taiwanese exchanges, following the Taiwan Stock Exchange’s (TWSE) implementation of continuous trading from March 23. 

Colt will provide fully hosted services within the Banqiao proximity datacenter in Taiwan. It will also provide rack space, hardware hosting, connectivity, and market data in raw and normalized formats to customers looking to access the TWSE, the Taiwan Futures Exchange (TAIFEX), and Taipei Exchange (TPEx). 

James Hardcastle, capital markets director for Asia at Colt, says the service will provide greater convenience to traders wanting to access the Taiwanese markets. It also lowers barriers to entry, particularly for traders based outside of Taiwan, who may not have local language capability, easy access to the local currency, or familiarity with local regulation.

“All of our services, particularly front-line support and break-fix services, can be provided in English, and we also accept multiple currencies—something that is not always available in Taiwan,” he says. 

Colt has the advantage of being the only foreign licensed market data vendor and network service provider in Taiwan. 

The TWSE announced the implementation of a continuous trading model to improve trading efficiency and information transparency, which started on March 23. It will soon expand on the current range of limit orders to offer more order types such as market orders, immediate or cancel and fill or kill orders.

Continuous trading brings efficiency to quantitative-style trading. Hardcastle says that it opens up possibilities in market-making strategies, which are difficult to implement under a call auction system.

“Continuous trading allows more frequent order matching, making these strategies more efficient,” he says. 

Colt also has its PrizmNet extranet capability, which offers access to capital market content providers, including market data from all three Taiwanese exchanges delivered through points-of-presences globally.