Charles River Development (Charles River), an award-winning provider of financial software and services to the global investment management community, today announced that the Charles River Network, its broker-neutral financial network for global real-time electronic trading via FIX (Financial Information eXchange), has grown to 30 Australian brokers, following the addition of 13 specialized local firms: ABN AMRO Morgans; Austock Securities; BBY; Bell Potter; Commonwealth Securities; Euroz Securities; Foresight Securities; GSJBWere; Linwar Securities; Patersons Securities; Shaw Stockbroking; Southern Cross Equities; and Taylor Collison.
The Charles River Network is fully integrated with the Charles River Investment Management System (Charles River IMS), offering quick and reliable direct-connect access via FIX between buy-side clients and sell-side brokers. Unlike hub-and-spoke models, the Charles River Network's point-to-point architecture ensures seamless operation, eliminates latency and delivers faster, scalable FIX performance. Buy-side clients can easily leverage new FIX capabilities and support multiple asset classes, algorithmic trading and FIX allocations.
According to Cameron Field, Managing Director, Asia-Pacific, Charles River Development, Australia was a first adopter of FIX in the region. Electronic trading in Australia has progressed beyond international equities to include small-, mid- and large-cap domestic equities, futures, options and foreign exchange. Charles River's clients have extensively used the protocol for several years and, today, more than a third of Charles River's Australian clients conduct all of their FIX trading through the Charles River Network.
"Our Australian clients demand increased control over their trading strategies," said Field. "The Charles River Network gives them even greater choice and access to the region's growing variety of advanced execution methods and venues via these specialized local brokers - as well as hundreds of broker-dealers, algorithms, crossing platforms, light and dark pools and other liquidity sources worldwide."
Launched in 2005, the Charles River Network now has more than 100 Charles River clients, over 320 tested and certified brokers and more than 3,200 broker-client connections. Over 90% of new Charles River IMS clients use the network for electronic trading, and more than 100 new brokers and buy-side connections are added each month.
Charles River offers remote FIX administration services - the only one of its kind in the region - that provide 'one-stop support' for both investment management system and FIX-related needs. Charles River also offers proven, 'Australia-ready' international interfaces and long-standing relationships with premier regional partners, including: Liquidnet Asia; Macquarie; Omgeo; Quick; and Instinet.