NASDAQ plans to launch NASDAQ Data On-Demand in the second half of 2010 to provide easy and flexible access to large amounts of detailed historical NASDAQ Level 1 trade and quote data for all U.S.-listed securities. Tick data is increasingly used in quantitative environments for back testing of algorithmic trading strategies. As the securities trading industry pushes the limits of high frequency trading, algorithms require ever more rigorous back testing and fine tuning based on actual historical data. Obtaining and collecting tick data can be onerous and time-consuming as firms are required to establish feeds and maintain large amounts of data on-hand. By providing this data on-demand and allowing it to be purchased on-line, NASDAQ Data On-Demand will make it easier than ever for firms to back-test their strategies.

"We are always looking to reduce costs of consuming data," said Randall Hopkins, NASDAQ OMX's Senior Vice President of Global Data Products. "Today our customers spend a large amount on technology infrastructure, not the market data itself. With NASDAQ Data On-Demand, we want to drastically cut data management costs by running the technology infrastructure on the cloud for our clients and delivering to them the data they need, when they need it, and how they need it."

Unlike traditional means of market data delivery, such as feeds and files, on-demand market data distribution gives applications a way to cherry pick the specific subset of data that the application needs with pinpoint accuracy. Instead of combing through very large data sets of historical tick data, developers will be able to program their applications to select very specific data sets and obtain them on-demand and process them instantly. NASDAQ Data On-Demand will also allow clients to download large tick data subsets on a scheduled basis.

"NASDAQ has decided to bring significant cost savings to one of the industry's highest priority requirements-timely access to high quality market replay information-by leveraging the industry's most powerful technology innovation today-on-demand cloud computing," said Stephane Dubois, CEO of Xignite. "This clearly shows NASDAQ's commitment to staying ahead of their customers' needs and reducing their costs. We are thrilled to partner with them on this industry-leading solution."

"We're excited about working with Xignite to launch NASDAQ Data On-Demand," said Mr. Hopkins. "We had experience using the cloud to store and manage the large volumes of data we collect every day and we needed someone to help make this data accessible to our clients in an easy, scalable and reliable manner. Xignite's proven technology and years of experience with on-demand market data and cloud computing will give us a tremendous jumpstart, saving us at least a year of development time."

Xignite developed XigniteOnDemand specifically to help financial marketplaces grow revenues for their market data businesses and accelerate product launches. XigniteOnDemand includes a complete, end-to-end solution ranging from a high-performance, scalable cloud computing technology platform to professional services for turnkey sales, marketing and customer support.