IEX, the buyside dark pool that aims to become an exchange, announced that it chose kdb+ software from Kx Systems for its data platform.
This isnt news exactly. In the world where investment firms are loathe to admit what technology they use – its a secret, someone might copy us, what if the SEC finds out! – a press release from Kx Systems reports that IEX put its kdb+ data platform into production when it launched in October 2013. Yes, 14 months ago. Back when Traders first profiled the team at IEX and before they became the heroes of Michael Lewis anti-HFT blockbuster “Flash Boys” in the spring of 2014.
Why did the fledgling exchange choose Kx Systems? We do feel that the kdb+ database needs to get special mention when discussing our market operations surveillance, said Robert Park, co-founder and chief technology officer at IEX. We were looking for a platform with the ability to read and write in real time, which kdb+ does well. We also liked its flexible query language because there is no ambiguity in sequencing. We can ask any question we like, the only limit is what we can think of to ask.
According to Kx, Kdb+ is a database system with a built-in time-series query language, called q. It provides unified access to streaming, real-time and historical data and is ideally suited for implementations like at IEX, where over a million queries per day are performed on quotes, trades and internal messages in real time.
In the press release, Kx says IEX now makes up approximately 1% of total market share for U.S. equities. IEXs implementation of kdb+ is designed to seamlessly scale if and when it secures approval as an SEC-approved national stock exchange.
Kx software has been used by financial firms for over two decades for among other things, implementing and back-testing algorithmic trading strategies at top institutions, said Janet Lustgarten, CEO Kx Systems. We are pleased to be part of IEXs applications and believe kdb+ will give them the best performance possible to help them achieve their goal of fairness in the markets.
Kx is based in Palo Alto, Calif.