Architecture overview
Plxtra has been architected around these principles.
It can be configured in meet various trading platform use cases. For example:
- A full retail exchange platform with registry, exchange engine, FIX server, and brokerage platform,
- A retail exchange platform using an external registry,
- An exchange platform with multiple brokers,
- A brokerage platform connecting to one or more external exchanges.
Full Exchange Platform
Section titled “Full Exchange Platform”At the highest level, Plxtra is a full exchange as shown below:
The main functionalities are:
- Registry - Implemented in Foundry
- Exchange Engine - Lists symbols, provides trading books and matches orders to generate trades. In addition, it provides news feeds and supporting exchange services. Implemented in Prodigy
- Fix Server - Industry standard FIX server (data and trading). Implemented in Prodigy
- Brokerage Platform: Implements services typically operated by a broker
Brokerage Platform Functionalities
Section titled “Brokerage Platform Functionalities”The diagram below shows a top level view of the functionality within the Brokerage Platform.
Note that when used as part of the Plxtra exchange platform (above), this does not imply that an exchange needs to have a broker. The exchange itself can carry out the brokerage operations. Also, note that this diagram shows an external registry/settlement (as would typically be the case with brokers) whereas the Plxtra exchange platform itself already contains a registry.
The functionalities are:
- Feed Server - A Zenith plugin which connects to an exchange and provides streaming and/or historical market data to other Zenith services. Implemented in Zenith
- Trading Adapter - An OMS plugin which connects Order Management to a trading feed for an exchange Implemented in OMS
- Trade Feed Adapter - Generates a specialised feed which assists settlement and registries from booking trades to accounts and generating contract notes. Implemented in OMS
- Order Management - Manages the life cycle of all orders and maintains account holdings, balances, orders and reservations. Implemented in OMS
- Trading Agent - Maintains an in-memory picture of Order Management data for caching proxy and orchestrates vetting of order requests. Implemented in Zenith
- Vetting - Check each order request against a rule set to reject order requests that do not meet the required criteria. Implemented in Zenith
- Authority - Implemented in Authority
- Caching Proxy - Fulfills subscriptions and data requests from APIs using either cached data or obtaining the data from a Feed Server or the Trading Agent. Implemented in Zenith
- Alerting / Scanning - Implemented in Zenith
- Motif - A web-based desktop trading application designed for professional traders and DTRs. Implemented in Motif
- Arclight - Implemented in Arclight
- MotifXL - Microsoft Excel add-in making data and trading available from within Excel. Implemented in MotifXL
Components
Section titled “Components”The above functionalities are implemented in various Plxtra components. The full list of components can be accessed here.