VIDEO: Chi-X Australia Case Study

Chi-X Australia began operating as an alternative to the Australian Securities Exchange in October 2011. It wanted to offer choice, price improvement and more flexibility in trading styles. Chi-X Australia's strategy was to go to its clients instead of making market participants come to it to connect.

It wanted to ensure proximity to the market participants and also key service providers, network operators and other major participants in the broader electronic trading community. "We needed to make sure that when we started we kept the costs impact to them (customers) very low so part of that was looking for where they had already made significant investment in data centres," Chi-X Australia chief technology officer Mike Aikins says.

Chi-X Australia looked at all the major data centres in Australia and Equinix was the clear leader in financial services.It had a dense financial services ecosystem, plus world-class service levels, reliability and security. 

The company required a swift rollout and was up and running in about six months from when its licence was granted. Most secondary markets launch with just six or seven participants, but due to Equinix's existing financial services customer base, it was easy for many participants as they just had to cross-connect. "I think it is not accidental that we got 23 participants from day one," says Aikins.

CASE STUDY: Chi-X

PROBLEM: Wanted to offer customers choice, price improvement and more flexibility in trading styles

PROCESS: Data centre operator Equinix

RESULT: Rapid rollout, able to launch with three times as many participants than most secondary markets