The Nasdaq shares market in the US has upgraded its
trading and reporting system to speed up processing times and
handle more trades.
Nasdaq has signed a multimillion-dollar contract with HP for the
new system. The three-year deal extends a relationship between the
two companies that has lasted more than 20 years.
Under the new agreement, Nasdaq has bought 500 faster processors
for its HP NonStop servers to improve trading processing
performance by up to a third.
"With 700 trading firms as customers, downtime at Nasdaq simply
cannot happen," said Steve Randich, Nasdaq's chief information
officer.
"HP's NonStop platform and HP OpenView software deliver
real-time capability to provide a continuously available stock
market, as well as additional customer services such as increased
and easier access for trades."
On an average day Nasdaq currently handles 7.5 million quote
updates, 4.2 million trade reports, 2.6 million orders and 2.3
billion shares, while maintaining 1/50th of a second response times
to traders.
Nasdaq said that it needed more processing head room in its
trading system because these volumes were constantly rising.