BM&F Bovespa to Switch to New Interface for Mega Bolsa

Mega Bolsa, the equities trading platform, is switching over to a new communications interface, that performs ten times faster than the current system.

As of April 20, 2010, the Brazilian Securities, Commodities and Futures Exchange (BM&FBovespa) is switching over to MegaDirect, a new electronic communications interface for all automatic direct market access (DMA) connections to the Mega Bolsa equities segment trading platform. MegaDirect will become the only form of access for all automatic DMA connections to the Mega Bolsa.

The tool enables the insertion, modification, and cancellation of offers placed on the Mega Bolsa system. The new interface performs up to to tenfold faster than the current systems and allows for greater capacity of data processing, according to the release. MegaDirect will replace the Multigateway, the previous interface. Both systems will run simultaneously until April 20th.

These improvements in speed and capacity are the result of using more modern technology and a direct connection to the system's matching engine, thus reducing the steps between the forwarding of orders and their arrival on Mega Bolsa.

MegaDirect will use the FIX 4.2 protocol, an international communications standard used by the financial markets, for the development of trading systems and order routing.

Once MegaDirect is implemented, brokerage houses will be able to use trading screens from companies authorized by BM&FBovespa. In the past, the system allowed only the use of Mega Bolsa trading screens.

Ivy is Editor-at-Large for Advanced Trading and Wall Street & Technology. Ivy is responsible for writing in-depth feature articles, daily blogs and news articles with a focus on automated trading in the capital markets. As an industry expert, Ivy has reported on a myriad ... View Full Bio