IMD & IRD Awards 2023: Best low-latency data or technology provider—Refinitiv, an LSEG business

Overview

Refinitiv parent company LSEG announced the acquisition of low-latency technology and market data provider MayStreet in May 2022. The acquisition has expanded Refinitiv’s Low-Latency Solutions suite, via its Real-Time–Direct and Real-Time–Ultra Direct offerings.

The solution

Real-Time–Direct is Refinitiv’s direct feed service, both managed and deployed, delivering market data feeds directly from exchanges and other trading venues to front-office trading applications. The service supports electronic and algorithmic trading, as well as AI and machine learning projects requiring low-latency data. Data is normalized to the Refinitiv data model and can be integrated with other Real-Time solutions, providing connected data across the enterprise.

Real-Time–Ultra Direct provides ultra-low-latency feed-handler software, including libraries to power applications and a suite of tools for capture, normalization, and book-building. Coverage includes every major region and asset class. Real-Time–Ultra Direct is for the most latency-sensitive use-cases, requiring packet captured (PCAP) and/or normalized Level 1, 2, and 3 data, and best bid and offer/national best bid and offer (BBO/NBBO) data from exchanges.

Secret sauce

The MayStreet acquisition demonstrates Refinitiv’s commitment to the evolving low- and ultra-low-latency needs of its clients, combining MayStreet’s technology with LSEG’s scale. Refinitiv’s portfolio of low-latency solutions meets the need for both low-latency software and low-latency captured data. It offers customers flexibility and choice: Real-Time–Ultra Direct’s ultra-low-latency software, enables customers to work with raw exchange data and provides them with control over how they capture their data, while for customers wanting integration with Refinitiv Integration Codes (RICs), Real-Time–Direct provides an alternative.

Recent enhancements

• Relaunching all MayStreet products under the Refinitiv brand, including Real-Time–Ultra, formerly Bellport Enterprise
• Real-Time–Ultra Direct has released several new feed handlers, expanding coverage in Asia-Pacific, Canada and Spain, supported by a recovery framework
• Real-Time–Direct continues to enhance its low-latency data feeds around the globe

Future objectives

• Refinitiv and LSEG will continue to invest in the year ahead, expanding coverage and functionality to support new use-cases and investing in the technology that underpins these solutions.
• The firm will expand the coverage of Real-Time–Ultra Direct and Tick History–PCAP to additional Asia-Pacific and emerging market venues. It will also make available FX matching data and cross-asset class data.

Why they won

Refinitiv wins the best low-latency data or technology provider category in this year’s IMD & IRD Awards on the back of its Refinitiv Low-Latency Solutions suite, significantly enhanced by its acquisition of real-time data and infrastructure specialist, MayStreet, exactly a year ago. Refinitiv’s proposition in this market is largely contingent on two offerings―Real-Time–Direct and Real-Time–Ultra―providing capital markets firms with all the data and ancillary services they could possibly want to underpin their high-speed and high-frequency trading functions/strategies.