The trading and clearing systems for Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited's (HKEx) derivatives market – HKATS (Hong Kong Futures Automatic Trading System) and DCASS (Derivatives Clearing and Settlement System) – have completed the stabilisation period that followed their upgrade earlier this month to Genium INET, a new technology platform that provides better performance and supports the further development of the market.

The upgrade multiplied the systems' clearing and trading capacity, equipped HKATS with ultra-low-latency trade processing capability and improved DCASS' clearing processing by shortening batch running times.  In addition, there are new Central Gateways for Exchange and Clearing Participants to reduce the hardware footprint at Participants' premises and the associated network bandwidth requirements.  The new platform also offers new functionalities such as Tailor-Made Combination (TMC) orders with auto-matching capability (TMC is a new trading function for investors to execute option strategies with multiple legs at one net price).

As a result of the upgrade, the trading system's average order latency has been reduced from about 4 milliseconds to a low sub-millisecond level.  A large majority of orders have been submitted to HKEx through the Central Gateway and Exchange Participants have been making use of the TMC functionality.

HKEx would like to thank the Exchange and Clearing Participants affected by the upgrade for their support during the process.

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