Charleston Regional Development Alliance

Berkeley, Charleston & Dorchester Counties

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Charleston-based firm plays growing role in Nasdaq trading

Oct. 1, 2003
LocalTechWire.com
By Worth Civils, Special To LTW
CHARLESTON - Far from Wall Street, a South Carolina-based firm helps traders stay connected with Nasdaq.

A pioneer of automated limit-order trading technology, Automated Trading Desk (ATD) currently accounts for 2-3 percent of Nasdaq’s volume, and had its first 100 million-share day in 2002.

But instead of operating on the real Wall Street in Manhattan, ATD is headquartered at 11 eWall Street in Mt. Pleasant, SC, near Charleston, where its 68,000 square foot facility and communications center has the capacity to process up to four billion shares per day. The corporate campus spans 22 acres, with redundant communication and power feeds.

BellSouth supports ATD with communications capabilities necessary to run its business effectively and is providing voice and data solutions. ATD says it also uses BellSouth high-speed data connections to secure faster trading turnaround time for customers.

“Automated Trading Desk provides a significant amount of liquidity to the marketplace by placing limit-orders for institutional clients, as well as on our own behalf, for an average of 65 million shares per day for 2003” said Jonathan Butler, chief technology officer of ATD. “Communications and secure, reliable connections to all the major trading venues are at the center of everything we do.”

In order to leverage the speed and accuracy of its technology, ATD created an automated platform, known as the Brokered Order Routing Gateway. The system manages and monitors all parts of the trading process and is responsible for approximately 95 percent of the orders that are serviced by ATD daily.

“We maintain redundant connections to all of the major trading venues ... for enhanced security and reliability” said Jorge Riano, director of data center and operations at ATD. “Due to its unmatched commitment to customer service and the integrity of its network, BellSouth is ATD’s preferred provider for these key real-time links, as well as other crucial components of our communications infrastructure.”

In addition to providing long distance data connections from Charleston to major trading venues throughout the country, BellSouth’s solution provides advanced voice options for ATD, including multiple voice switches and voice over IP capability from Cisco.

ATD must also be able to receive and make voice calls to ensure constant communication between its clients and financial institutions. All of ATD’s voice and data traffic is routed over a fully redundant, BellSouth fiber optic ring. The optical ring automatically reroutes traffic in the event of a fiber cut to provide the highest level of business continuity.

“Financial institutions are in need of more secure and reliable solutions, backed by outstanding customer service, to meet the requirements of their clients and regulators,” said Harry Lightsey, BellSouth president in South Carolina. “BellSouth has the network and employees in place to deliver these capabilities and continue to serve as the trusted provider for companies such as ATD.”

BellSouth says part of its strategy to better meet the needs of business customers involves focusing on several key vertical markets, one of which is finance. The Atlanta company says it continues to work with businesses like ATD to develop solutions to meet the operational needs of the financial industry, while also addressing other market segments. 		related information