Monty's American Campaign

For New Yorkers, "Monte" -- the three-card variety -- evokes images of sidewalk hucksterism and consummate sleight of hand. For the British, however, "Monty" recalls the memory of a shrewd military strategist. Now there is another -- not entirely dissimilar -- Monty to contend with; an advanced decision support system from The Square Mile Company Ltd. of London.

Monty -- which refers to the montage functions of the system -- combines an unusually friendly front end with strong real-time data handling capabilities. It's the sort of data feed/server/LAN/workstation configuration that has no "network manager" node because almost everything is so straightforward that traders can do it themselves.

Square Mile got its start five years ago when the International (London) Stock Exchange hired a consultant to develop communications processing software for a troublesome data feed from the London International Financial Futures Exchange.

The Intelligent Peripheral Board was the result, and Square Mile was formed to expand and exploit its capabilities. The IPB is now used in the U.K. as a communications processor for incoming digital data feeds from Reuters, Telerate, the ISE's Topic, and interdealer brokers.

Square Mile recently completed development work on Monty, which integrates IPB into a full-fledged decision support system. One of the first customers was E.F. Hutton's international foreign exchange desk in London, where 40 dealer terminals access a variety of digital feeds through a single Sun 3 server.

In London, still a stronghold for 80286 machines, Monty can be up and running for as little as $6000/user, including hardware. Of course, a New Yorker's idea of decision support hardware isn't a PC. Enter Apollo Computer Inc.

Apollo, which recently inked a co-development and marketing deal with PI Systems Inc. -- a.k.a. Programit (TST, August 31) -- hosted Square Mile in New York last week at the behest of Hutton, Chicago Research and Trading, Manufacturers Hanover, and other Apollo users.

Monty contains two main software modules: the background program, which runs the network, and the foreground program, which manages the user interface. Monty's network management software is standardized on Unix System V, but the front end runs on DOS.

So when Monty's front end is seen on Apollo's Domain workstation today, it runs in one window. Square Mile is porting the front end to Unix to take full advantage of the power of the Apollo and other high-end workstations.

A typical Monty installation would include a few IPBs for incoming 9600 bits/second data feeds, 38.4 kilobits/second TTY links from the IPBs to the network server -- anything from Sun to Stratus to DEC MicroVAX -- and 30 to 40 terminals, singly or in clusters, on a LAN running TCP/IP. In addition, a user may have a cluster controller on the LAN for wide area network interface, or additional IPBs at the head end for communication with local databases or price feeds.

The server is partitioned into several magazines, each caching data for a different incoming feed. There are also local caches, and a number of server magazines are assigned for custom page management.

On this workmanlike foundation -- admittedly still constrained by the DOS terminal requirement -- Monty builds an exceptionally friendly custom page manager with some neat computational, alert, and messaging features.

Monty jumps from one data feed to another with single key strokes and page requests are made in a single standardized four character mini-window on a control line below the page display.

Monty has five screen configuration functions: cut & paste, annotation, price alerts, subroutines, and computation. Each terminal can maintain up to four custom screens in real time.

The cut and paste function is fairly standard, including the ability to selectively color background and foreground. One useful quirk is the paste function's ability to automatically append the missing portion of an "ask" quote when building a custom computation. Annotation is simply an edit/labeling function.

The price watch function can maintain alerts on up to 32 different prices, including those being displayed on a remote terminal. Price watch can also be used to monitor prices, or numbers, derived through custom computational functions.

The computational function is currently limited to addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division of only two numbers or prices at a time, but multi-step macros of any length can be developed. It is typically used for arbitrage and cross rate calculations. Square Mile is working on a spreadsheet interface to enhance Monty's computational function.

The subroutine or "trigger" function combines the computational and the alert features of Monty with the ability to invoke customized subroutines.

While Hutton may not exactly be the greatest place to be selling systems these days, Monty may appeal to other post-crash shoppers looking for simple, flexible decision support and low-ball pricing.