JSE Preps Usage Reporting Tool, Eyes Derivatives Upgrades

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange is preparing to roll out a new web-based portal, dubbed Nova, through which JSE market data recipients can report their monthly usage of JSE data directly to the exchange.

The exchange will make Nova available to clients this quarter, says Ana Forssman, director of market data at JSE. Once live, data administrators will be able to log in to Nova to view the JSE data products that their firm subscribes to via the system's usage reporting screens, and can also access their firm's historical usage figures.

In a future release of Nova, firms will also be able to upload data files for processing to automatically populate the application with their usage data, Forssman says. "This streamlines what was before a very manual process, so it should free up some capacity for our clients," she says.

In addition, the intuitive interface and historical usage information may also help ease transitions when data managers switch roles or leave a firm, Forssman says. "We're finding ways to automate as many of our interactions with our clients, to enable them to interact with us in a more user-friendly manner and to speed up the level of service that we provide to them," she adds.

Separately, JSE is planning the migration of its equity derivatives market to a new matching engine and data platform from London Stock Exchange subsidiary MillenniumIT, to help bring its derivatives data in line with its equities data. Following JSE's migration of its equities market to MillenniumIT's platform last year (IMD, Dec. 5, 2011), the exchange is working with Millennium IT, and has tentatively scheduled the deployment of the new trading and data platform for its derivatives market for 2015.

"At this stage, we are contemplating what the end state would be, so we can advise our clients what the roadmap will be for development and deployment over the next two years, so that our clients can equally plan their resources," Forssman says. "From our consultation with our clients... it would make sense to try and achieve a consolidation within one particular environment for both [equities and derivatives] markets, because of the benefits in terms of development, support, removing complexity, etc.," she says, adding that both JSE and its clients will be able to leverage the infrastructure and connectivity they have already set up for their equities businesses.

Currently, JSE's derivatives data is distributed from South Africa over individual connections using a proprietary protocol, whereas the deployment of MillenniumIT's platform for its derivatives market will enable the exchange to deploy a FIX-based multicast feed that can be distributed from its UK point of presence -- set up via low-latency data and infrastructure provider Fixnetix (IMD, Dec. 19, 2011) -- from which it already distributes equities and index data to global clients, Forssman says, adding that JSE's location makes it challenging and costly for individual clients to connect to the exchange. "For us to make the connection cost-effective, we need to change the feed so that we can transport it to London in a bandwidth-efficient manner," she says.

In addition, JSE is preparing to roll out a new release of the MillenniumIT platform for its equities market, which will provide additional features within its low-latency ITCH-based feed, including the incorporation of market data statistics, such as VWAP and high/low prices that are currently only available via its FIX feed. The exchange is now determining when to upgrade the platform, though Forssman says this is likely to take place in the second half of this year.