Today at the 22nd Annual FIA Futures & Options Expo, New York-based Aegis Software Inc. announced that its AthenaTrader platform now supports direct connectivity to the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE).
The AthenaTrader is an Execution Management System (EMS) for global equities, futures, options and foreign exchange, with extensive support for algorithmic, quantitative, portfolio and basket trading.
ICE is a leading electronic marketplace for trading energy futures and OTC commodity products for oil, natural gas, power and emissions. Having officially certified with the ICE, AthenaTrader customers can now connect directly to the ICE to trade futures and OTC cleared contracts.
ICE offers a FIX 4.2 based interface that enables third party applications to access ICE's markets. A new feature of the interface is the ability to access market data via the FIX protocol. This feature reportedly offers substantially higher performance over the legacy market data API, and Aegis is the first ISV to certify with this new market data FIX interface.
"In today's financial marketplace asset managers, hedge funds and brokerage houses continue to rely on advanced technology to gain competitive edge," said Norm Friedman, Vice President at Aegis.
"Athena's support of ICE is consistent with Aegis' strategy of offering the fastest, most direct connectivity to all major liquidity pools.
Energy trading is so fast paced, NYMEX has listed some contracts on the CME and, in a similar vein, many of our Athena customers want direct high speed access to the ICE."
ICE operates the leading market for trading Brent crude futures, a key benchmark for pricing crude oil, as well as trading cleared Henry Hub contracts, the most actively traded natural gas hub in North America.
"This gives us a more cost-effective alternative to NYMEX contracts", said Mark Frank of InTrade LLC, "and it expands our opportunities to arb between the exchanges."