Genesis Software Issues

That is exactly the purpose here from my perspective anyways. I am not out to rip Genesis one bit. I know every software has its issues and I think there is a lot of good with Laser in terms of speed etc and now STOPS within the last couple of months. HOWEVER the software is NOT performing up to its standards and something NEEDS to be DONE. It is has simple as that. As I said in my last post, trading is enough of a challenge without having to constantly battle against technology glitches. Please GENESIS get the LASER platform performing up to its potential!! Let your traders know what you are doing to resolve these issues. We want to trade with you and your software but step forward and admit that changes need to take place and ACT. I want to remain a customer for a long time to come!!

Very Sincerely,

 

LOL, I guess I don't have to now, LOL.

Redi has gotten so much better since Goldman took over SLK. The platform has been really stable and writing to the API is easy as well.

(I know very little about Genesis or Laser, and am not making any judgement about either).


Don

 

We would like to apologize to those who are inconvenienced by this data volume explosion.

Genesis considers the data issues our #1 priority. Without quotes, traders cannot trade. We understand this, and we are addressing the problem.

The general cause of quote data problems, street wide, has been a tremendous, exponential increase in quote data volume, due in large part to algorithmic strategies entering large amounts of quotes. Black boxes send out lots of limit orders and cancel them and again and again, etc. This has overloaded many systems, and many exchanges, ECNs as well as trading platforms, even NYSE itself, have been affected. Multiple regional exchanges like the ISE, CHSX, EDGX, and NSX go down daily, as their infrastructure simply cannot deal with this issue.

Just yesterday, NYSE couldn’t send order cancel acknowledgements. Today, 1/15/2008, NASDAQ dropped connectivity to their primary data center to multiple connections. Today, BATS stopped quoting on NSX due to NSX issues. Today, NASDAQ declared self-help vs. CHSX. The data volume is creating a huge strain on technology, and the exchanges are not ready.

Genesis is working feverishly on solving this data volume issue.

Specifically, to address ARCA and Direct Edge:

- For ARCA, they send us data in unicast or TCP. TCP will ensure data delivery by making bit test. This has been good enough for a long time, but the data volume has recently gotten to the point where ARCA simply cannot send the data fast enough using unicast. That is why you are seeing continuously delayed ARCA quotes. Genesis is connecting directly to the ARCA unicast feed because we want to make sure that all data is delivered. Unfortunately, when we get delayed quotes from ARCA unicast, the traders also get delayed data. ARCA IT has put their effort into a new transmission method called multicast, and Genesis is currently working as quickly as possible to implement multicast on our side. We have finished programming and are testing it now. We expect to release it next week. Traders will see significant improvement in ARCA quote data.

Some info directly from ARCA, sent last month:

“In early January [THIS IS 1/07] we were sending around 150 million messages per day. Yesterday we sent near 600 million. TCP is not a good way to deliver this data.”
“… even with all of our nodes we are seeing market data delay. When we launched multicast we expected client to migrate to it quickly. This migration would allow much more capacity on the TCP platform. The migration has not gone as planned.”

- For Direct Edge, the quote volume has also caused the same problem, on their side, street wide. Direct Edge IT is working to implement a re-architecture of their market data feed which they feel will alleviate latency issues. In the meanwhile, there is really nothing we can do with EDGE except advise traders to hide the EDGE book if quotes become crossed.

Genesis has and is investing over seven figures to upgrade our infrastructure (hardware, software, networking, LAN, WAN, etc.) and re-engineer our quote system to deal with the increased quote volume. Our new architecture will handle many, many times multiple of data volume and should last for many years to come. As an example, we have recently upgraded our NYSE data feed to transmit using our new proprietary technology that has alleviated NYSE data queuing delays significantly.

Traders trading thru internet are also more susceptible to the data volume explosion. Their ISP may not be able to pump so much data volume continuously. The ISP may cause some queuing.

Genesis is here for the long term. We are a self-clearing broker dealer, not just a software company. We have invested millions into our infrastructure, and we will continue in our mission to provide cost effective, technologically advanced solutions to the trading community for years to come.

We listen to our traders. We want to give the traders the best weapon: quote speed, order execution, price, and customer service.

Thank you.



Management

Genesis Securities, LLC.

 

I use blackbox and Laser to trade at Genesis. Depends on which route I use, I get 4-8 ms order ack.
If I colocat at the Nasdaq, I may shave another 1 ms for NDAQ.
But I may also increase latency to other exchanges.

The order ack time is a function of how and where you measure your start and end.
for example: your 10ms may not be the same as my 10ms.

blackbox-LAN-executor-LAN-WAN-exchange-WAN-LAN-executor-LAN-blackbox

In the models where I use strictly the level I data, Genesis is the fastest. I know that because I'm also comparing with other broker/dealers.

best

 

Thanks for your reply. It's much appreciated-- more than daily advice to remove the stuck ECNs from my L2.

Your reply raises a few questions.

--ARCA slowness: I can appreciate that quote volume is up across the board, causing everyone problems, but the debilitating ARCA slowness seems to be unique to Laser. I haven't noticed any quote problems in eSignal or two other companies' executionware. Could these companies have already been hooked up to ARCA multicast? Or could the problem be internal to Genesis and have more to do with a bottleneck in quote distribution?

--your new NYSE data feed and proprietary technology: I'm still noticing lag on the NYSE quote in the L2. Will your fix eliminate the lag and queue delays once the entirety of the new architecture is in place?

--internet traders: it's all very well to point out that some of the slowness could be due to traders' own setups/connections. So can you give us some minimum and recommended standards for CPU speed, RAM capability, and bandwidth?

--ETA for complete fix: I know it would be impossible to commit to a deadline, but in the meantime, could you provide us with more updates about where you are in the process? Traders aren't just leaving because the system is sucking, they're leaving because they feel strung along by being told to hide specific ECNs as the complete solution.

Thanks again for your reply.

 

Arca slowness:

We stayed with TCP longer because we wanted to maintain security in the data - TCP acknowledges each quote packet was transmitted. But lately, it is not possible to maintain TCP as it is coming from ARCA - so we are switching to Multicast. The problem is only TCP vs Multicast on ARCA side - it cannot be an issue on our side or all quotes would be delayed.

NYSE L2 lag:

We do not see any lag internally, which may indicate an issue with your connectivity or hardware. Also keep in mind ARCA slowness is separate from NYSE quotes. Please call me at 212 668 0888 x 140, my name is Alex Kravets, to discuss - faster than posting back and forth on elite.

Complete fix:

Once the ARCA issue is resolved next week, things are pretty much back to normal, except EDGE, which we have to wait for the fix on their side.

 

Same problems here for me !!!

I'm at the point of giving up on it completely because it's just getting too expensive in errors and problems.

excuse excuse excuse is all I get too.

If we ALL leave then maybe that will make a difference and they will spend the $$$ and hire some competent programmers that will fix these problems and make the necessary improvements the software needs, it's basically unchanged in what 3 years ???.

Money talks.... so let's walk and see if they like that better.

 

After the fix, I'm not seeing 5-25 stuck levels of ARCA on any given side of the L2. But I am still seeing one or two levels of slow, lagged ARCA quotes. Constantly.

This is still unacceptable, and could be considered even worse than before, since it's not immediately obvious there's a problem-- often a large ARCA order will cross the market, and these stuck quotes look like a false positive read on that situation.

Are there still some bugs to work out of the fix, or is this the best we can expect?

 

I have no problem with quotes today.
Today is one of my best trading days.

Singer:
Are you trading on the internet?
I don't trust trading via internet - too many uncontrollable factors.
A dedicated line is worth the money.
Perhaps you should call your Genesis rep and try to resolve the issues there.
Genesis is pretty responsive to my needs.

Good trading.

 

This is the first day Genesis released ARCA multicast, we are monitoring the feed and are committed to fixing any issues that arise.

Please make sure that Enable Auto Correction is checked, and Enable Time Threshold is checked and set to 0, in Level II tab in Trade Settings.

Please call me directly if you have issues.

-Alex