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London Stock Exchange Finishes Switch To Linux

Posted by Soulskill on from the takes-a-while-to-put-on-a-good-tux dept.

DMandPenfold writes "The London Stock Exchange has successfully set into live trading a new matching engine based on Novell SUSE Linux technology, following successful last-step setup procedures on Saturday. The move has been billed as one of the LSE's most significant technological developments since the increasing prevalence of electronic trading led to the closure of the traditional exchange floor in 1986. LSE chief executive Xavier Rolet has insisted that the exchange, once a monopoly, will deliver record speed and stable trading in order to fight back against the fast erosion of its dominant marketshare by specialist electronic rivals."

5 of 106 comments (clear)

  1. Re:the problem is algorithmic trading... by beelsebob · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What makes you think there needs to be exactly 1 problem?

  2. one problem by louic · · Score: 2, Insightful

    There is exactly one problem: greedy people

    1. Re:one problem by InterGuru · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Blaming an economic collapses on greed is like blaming a bridge collapse on gravity. Both are always there, you design your system around them.

    2. Re:one problem by tehcyder · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Blaming an economic collapses on greed is like blaming a bridge collapse on gravity. Both are always there, you design your system around them.

      Yes, and part of your system is not to encourage the greediest fuckers so much, and certainly not to let them escape oversight until it all goes tits up.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  3. Re:YES!!!! :) by DrXym · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I didn't say cobble together. What I meant is Linux runs on big iron, it runs on PC architectures, it runs on racks. Multiple architectures, multiple roles, same OS. It makes it easier to put the system together when everything is running the same OS. I imagine that a system like a stock exchange would have embedded systems with honking amounts of memory for low latency streaming / quotes and large mainframe backends for recording trades. All tied together with the fastest network / backbone you could lay your hands on.

    My understanding is the previous system was .NET over windows which raises large question marks over performance (e.g. unexpected garbage collections) and the sort of hardware that it could be run on.