New TraderStation cuts Market Data Costs

22/11/2002

Real-time software specialist Arcontech has announced a new version of its TraderStation market data display solution that introduces a whole new level of affordability in professional workstation dealing software.

The software can display real-time market data from information providers such as Reuters or S&P Comstock, through a variety of connectivity options, including Reuters’ Triarch, TIB and RMDS platforms, as well as TCP/IP networks and the public internet.

TraderStation version 8 is a fully up-to-date application that has been tested to work under all versions of Microsoft Windows, including the latest XP version. “TraderStation 8 is our response to feedback from users,” said Andrew Miller, managing director of Arcontech. “The redesigned user interface brings it into line with modern desktop applications making it more intuitive for new users. Importantly, we’ve retained the incredibly small desktop footprint that keeps it fast to load and use on lower specification machines.”

Significantly, TraderStation can co-exist on a workstation with existing applications such as the Reuters Trader Workstation, something that for technical reasons the Reuters Kobra workstation cannot. This allows for easier migration to the new platform. It also means that multiple copies and personal layouts can be run on one PC with lower system overhead – for instance, only one Reuters Sink mount is needed when sourcing data from a Triarch platform, regardless of the number of CityVision applications running.

“We have also been careful to preserve the key aspects of object oriented design, while adding more customisable default behaviour and simpler, faster personal configuration options,” said Miller. A companion product, Excelerator, allows TraderStation to pass real-time data to Excel spreadsheets for users to create their own applications and analyses, for example for portfolio management.

At a time when banks and financial institutions are under pressure to reduce their market data costs, TraderStation provides them with the means to do just that. “Typically the TraderStation and Excelerator package costs less than £100 per month,” said Miller. “This is less than half the cost of the comparable Reuters Kobra and PowerPlus Pro applications.” Benefits from the low cost of TraderStation can be further enhanced by reductions from the removal of associated platform costs and savings possible from Arcontech’s ability to handle other competitive feeds, such as S&P and Moneyline Telerate.

Features of TraderStation 8 include:

• Dynamic menu configuration based on available data sources and permissions.
• Improved set up options, including drag and drop from other windows applications and source- independent instrument and field ‘lookup’.
• Custom displays for quotes, quote lists, chains, pages, tickers and alerts.
• Support for intraday and historic charting.
• Flexible colouring effects for visual tick and trend indications, either from feed indicators data or custom calculations.
• Support for configuration publishing and sharing between users.
• Support for internal and vendor data distribution.
• Multiple browser windows.