I'm developing a product for a local firm to batch prepare trades for the ASX.

Its becoming evident that while there are s***loads of data feeds for prices etc. there are very few providers with distributed transaction APIs. CommSec has been completely hopeless - their technical support people don't even know what I'm talking about.

Anyone know someone who offers this sort of thing?

You would be best to contact the ASX directly. I am sure they would have a well policed list of all the companies that could offer APIs.

Yeh I sent them an email.

I seem to be hitting a wall; I didn't think that this sort of thing was super whizz bang new..

Have a look through this forum, it is for data and trading API. You might be able to find one for an Australian broker in there. The software (Medved QuoteTracker) allows for trading through 3rd party providers so it sounds like they are doing what you want to do. Might be a place to start at least.

Quotetracker Streaming API Board

Why don't you just Call the ASX?

Because everything should be Google-able, damnit.

especially when it's a sex service

last edited by natslovR at 16:20:39 22/May/08

How about you implement ITS directly with ASX?

And by trades do you mean orders? Because I don't get what you mean by distributed transaction API for placing trades.

your not going to afford asx streaming data from asx

your not going to get the data you need from a place like commsec who moslty deal in retail brokerage

iress is the only thing in oz that i think will meet your needs but its pricey at about 1k a month

update- The IRESS charge for a single licence is $1,190 per month, including Australian GST and compulsory royalties.

http://www.iress.com.au/products_detail.aspx?view=7

gees, that is cheap

that's nothing in finance sector. all the traders use bloomberg over here, or am i barking up the wrong tree?

I'm not really after market data - its actually hooking into a retail trades service I'm interested in. The client is also nowhere near a big enough player to become a direct participant with the ASX - we need a 3rd party retail solution.

As I mentioned in the other ASX thread there are a number of 3rd party providers of market data (such as Morningstar etc) that I can subscribe to at varying rates. The requirements for the data feed are very basic - along the lines of "what was CBA worth at close yesterday". This is simple enough and there are lots of providers. The expensive statistical analysis stuff is being handled by the client's advisors and isn't in scope.

The hard part is being able to place & query orders - say buy 10k of CBA when it reaches $X. Also need to query the status of those requests - when CBA hit $X there was 7k of stock available so you still have 3k standing.

This is the sort of thing that CommSec does well and the client is already using them, but they don't seem to have a web service / online RPC in place. I'm hoping that at minimum they will be able to retrieve & submit an XML or CSV batch or something similar. Manually processing batch files would be OK, but ditching manual placement of orders via CommSec's software is a core part of the solution. Dealing with CommSec's support personnel has been like pulling teeth so far.

This is the sort of thing that Web Services are just so f***ing great at doing that I thought it would be commonplace but it doesn't seem to be - certainly nobody involved with ASX that I can find is advertising it on their product websites.

That said E*Trade do sound like they are at least going that way. Given that the article was late 06 I'm hoping they might have something available if not explicitly advertised .. Hopefully the 30 or so emails I sent out today will be answered by someone who can assist or I'm boned :p

last edited by Hogfather at 21:53:52 22/May/08

bloomberg would be overkill with 1000 uzis and a nuke

Only 1000 Uzis?

To put it in perspective, they are manually processing 50-100 orders a week at the moment.

As well as some basic-ish portfolio management & maintenance, we need to automate the order process with CommSec (or another provider if they are unhelpful).

I don't know what their fees to CommSec are like but the manual admin alone is costing 3-4k a month. Got a few promising replies just now from my enquiries today so might pull it off yet. Thanks for infos..

pay some indians to ring commsec for you.

in that case you want a CHESS back end... prepare to spend bigger bucks ... wayyy bigger bucks

basically you would need access that the brokers and banks like comsec have.. you need to be connected to the CHESS clearing computers

create your 'black box' interface it with CHESS and bob's your uncle

i havnt really needed this level of access however all my brokers have direct web inputs to CHESS so your orders are processed and cleared in real time

i cant imagine a mom and pop business with only 100 orders a week paying for a system like that

CHESS is operated by the ASX Settlement and Transfer Corporation (ASTC), a wholly owned subsidiary of the ASX. ASTC authorises participants such as brokers, custodians, institutional investors, settlement agents and so on to access CHESS and settle trades made by themselves or on behalf of their clients.

-edit i remember speaking to a broker along time ago and i think he said his chess access was worth 5000 a month.. but it was along time ago

last edited by Superform at 04:30:18 23/May/08