TheLondon Stock Exchangehas blamed a
technical issue with its Infolect data dissemination feed for the
system failure that prevented some firms from trading yesterday
afternoon (7 November).
Some traders were unable to complete trades yesterday even
though the the exchange extended trading by more than an hour.
The company said there had been a "technical issue" with the
Infolect system that caused some firms to lose connectivity, but
emphasised that the
Tradelect trading platform had "remained operational".
The Tradelect system went live in June after a four-year project
and was upgraded last month to increase its capacity by 70% and
speed by 40% in readiness for the London Stock Exchange's
integration with Borsa Italiana.
"The cause of the technical issue has been identified and a
solution implemented," a spokesman said, but declined to give any
further details.
Bob Mc Dowall, a senior TowerGroup analyst, speculated that
unusual and inexplicable "spikes" revealed in recent research into
data transmission systems was the most likely cause of the
problem.
"With the drive to lower and lower latency in data systems with
huge volumes of data coming through in a short space of time, you
are going to get these issues as you approach the boundaries of
physics," he said.
