Rolfe & Nolan to launch RANorder Pro

UK derivatives systems provider, Rolfe & Nolan (R&N), is poised to launch a new trade-order entry system for institutional traders called RANorder Pro.

The system was developed through an alliance set up last year with front-end specialist Eccoware. It accepts fills and market depth information, and sends orders to R&N's central order routing and administration server. This in turn sends and receives orders and fills to derivatives exchanges.

RANorder Pro is Windows NT-based, and was developed in C++. It combines Eccoware's T-Ware, the component-based front-end behind all Ecco products, with R&N's order infrastructure. Ecco wrote its front-end to R&N's application programme interface (API), and R&N wrote 'push' technology to send fill data and market data to the front-end. R&N APIs were previously request-response, said R&N chief financial officer for North America Jim Birney.

The release will not include Ecco's spreading capability, which performs immediate hedging of trades.

R&N can interface with open outcry markets as well as electronic exchanges, unlike traditional ISVs, said R&N Systems chief executive Bob Sylverne in Chicago. This allows traders to trade on electronic and open-outcry markets through a single front-end. Birney said this is good from a risk management perspective, as the back office collects data for all trades from only one system. The R&N central routing and administration server can interface to back-office systems from any vendor, as well as to proprietary systems.

RANorder Pro is now in beta tests with US futures commission merchants ADM and Alaron Trading, said Sylverne, and due for launch later this month.