LME live with new trading system, TT reports data issues

The British exchange went live on Sunday with version 10 (v10) of its LMEselect trading system, a key step in the group’s ongoing efforts to modernise its trading infrastructure.

The Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing-owned venue has said the "all-new trading platform" is designed to offer clients enhanced order functionality, premium-quoted options including market-maker protections and custom strategies.

A spokeswoman for the LME said on Monday morning: “We are pleased to confirm that the LMEselect v10 trading platform and LMEsource v4 market data platform launched as planned and are currently running as expected.”

The LMEselect v10 GUI is owned and operated by Trading Technologies which reported on Monday issues with market data.

The tech firm wrote on its website at 08:38am: “We are currently investigating reports of intermittent issues with Market Data on LME. Some users may experience degraded performance or delays in data feeds. Our teams are actively investigating, and updates will follow.”

At 10.39am, the firm said: “The Market Data issues for LME have been addressed, and the situation appears to be resolved. Our teams are closely monitoring the system and performing additional post-resolution checks to ensure stability.”

At 01.16pm, the tech firm updated with: “We are continuing to investigate the intermittent market data issues affecting some LME spread contracts. Our teams are working on a potential solution and we are monitoring the situation closely.”

Alun Green, EVP managing director, Futures & Options at Trading Technologies, told FOW at 03.00pm: “Some clients encountered intermittent market data issues today for some LME products. We’ve worked closely with LME and have been in regular contact with our clients, and these issues have now been resolved.”

The new version of LMEselect was built inhouse by the UK exchange, drawing on HKEX's cash equity trading systems and Trading Technologies as the supplier of the client interface.

Marc Bailey, the chief executive officer at Sucden Financial, a Category one LME member, said the technology work is central to the exchange’s broader ambitions to reform its procedures.

“The challenge for them is that all of these reforms are reliant on technology which they still have to deliver. The inability of the exchange to modernise its technology stack remains a source of frustration. We would like to see a better technology offering from the LME,” said Bailey this month.