Xignite, the leading cloud services provider of on-demand global financial market data and application components, today announced the immediate availability of two game-changing Web services that make equity options data available for an emerging class of small companies developing a new breed of innovative applications.
The first Web service, XigniteOptions, delivers delayed options data while XigniteRealTimeOptions, the second Web service, makes real-time options data available. Both services source their data from the Options Price Reporting Authority (OPRA).
Live options data ranks among the most expensive market data to process, placing it out of reach for all but the largest financial services companies. Options data is exceptionally expensive due to the vast quantity of data to be processed, requiring costly networking equipment, hardware and software. As a point of comparison, a real-time equity feed from NASDAQ requires bandwidth of less than 30 Mbps, while a full options data feed from OPRA can require more than 200 Mbps.
"Given the information overload associated with option data, an on-demand delivery model works very well for our customers," said Stephane Dubois, CEO, Xignite. "Managing option data on-premises can be very costly, and most of our customers only use a fraction of one percent of all the options data that pours out of the markets every day. It just makes good business sense for them to pay only for the data they use and get it right when they need it."
Creative companies are now building a new generation of innovative applications that are economically viable thanks to the cost advantages of Xignite's on-demand Web services. For example, New York based iVerit Inc. is currently using XigniteRealTimeOptions to develop an iPhone application that will deliver real-time options data directly to private and professional investors alike. "Our goal is to give options traders the freedom to leave their desks with their iPhones and trade options from anywhere," said Michael Iver, President of iVerit.
Xignite's on-demand delivery model has enabled iVerit to put otherwise costly options data within reach of private small investors. "Real-time U.S. options data is the most densely-packed data on the planet," explained Mr. Iver. "Xignite brings it down to a manageable size so we can deliver it directly to iPhones without lots of additional server processing. That way, most of the analytics and other processing can be done right on the iPhone itself." Mr. Iver plans to launch the company's new iPhone application in the first quarter of 2010.
With the release of XigniteOptions and XigniteRealTimeOptions, any company or department can now afford live options data. Organizations getting options data from Xignite no longer need expensive infrastructure to manage large quantities of data. Instead, their applications can quickly retrieve highly targeted data on-demand over the Internet. Using XigniteOptions or XigniteRealTimeOptions, any application can get instant access to a single option chain. Xignite also offers usage-based pricing so organizations using less data are charged less than heavy data users.