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Equities Trading Services

arrowhead



arrowhead Logo

"arrowhead" launched on January 4, 2010 as a cash equity trading system that combined low latency, high reliability, and scalability of the highest global standard. Upgraded on November 5, 2019 to handle a growing number of orders and spikes in order traffic, constant system development ensures that arrowhead continues to accommodate investors' changing needs and developments in the market environment.
The system handles auction trading of all cash products such as stocks and CBs.

"arrow" symbolizes speed, emphasizing high-speed processing capability.
"head" focuses the image on a trusted tip honed to penetrate any barrier, emphasizing robustness and reliability. Lowercase expresses system scalability.

System features

Low latency

Items Processing Capabilities
Order Response Time Approximately 0.2 milliseconds
Information Dissemination Time Approximately 0.5 milliseconds

Reliability

Processes trading information such as orders, executions, and order books on synchronized 3-node data servers.

Scalability

System capacity is flexibly and swiftly scalable to accommodate an increase in the number of orders.

Overview

arrowhead processes orders, etc. in the following manner.

  • Accepting orders from a wide range of domestic and foreign investors (securities companies), executing trades, and returning the results.
  • The quote price and execution price (stock price) of the accepted orders are distributed to the market as market information.

In addition, the system has functionality to monitor the trading status in order to check if there are any abnormal trends (such as erroneous orders) in the accepted orders.

Main Functionality

Participants' Connection

Function Example Explanation
Connectivity - Order/Notice Function supporting various types of orders
- Query Function
- Drop Copy		 As a basic function of the exchange trading system, arrowhead receives orders from trading participants and sends back notice messages. It also provides drop copy function which enables trading participants to let arrowhead send the same notices to multiple addresses and query function which enables trading participants to inquire about order status, stock information, etc..

arrowhead supports various order types as follows.
- On Open: Orders to be executed only during the opening auction
- On Close: Orders to be executed only during the closing auction
- Funari: Limit orders that become market orders at the closing auction if not already executed
- IOC: Immediate or Cancel Orders
Risk Management - Cancel on Disconnect
- Kill Switch
- User-Designated Hard Limit		 Cancel on disconnect enables immediate and automatic order cancellation and order entry suspension upon detection of abnormal disconnection of the network between arrowhead and trading participants' systems.
Kill Switch enables trading participants to instruct arrowhead to forcibly suspend order entries and automatically cancel all orders from a specified Virtual Server/Virtual Server Group.
User-Designated Hard Limit enables trading participants to set the threshold values (order value per single order, cumulative order/execution value per a certain time) on each Virtual Server/Virtual Server Group.

（An image of the risk management function）

[Glossary]

  • Virtual Server

  A logical connection unit for trading participants to receive and send data to the exchange system.
  Through the Virtual Server, trading participants can place orders, etc. with the exchange system.

  • Virtual Server Group

  A function that allows trading participants to set multiple virtual servers as one logical group.
  The Kill Switch function and the User-Desighned Hard-Limit for the accumulated execution value can be used on a Virtual
  Server Group basis.

Matching Engine

Function Example Explanation
Matching Engine - Itayose method
- Zaraba method		 Matching engine is the core of the trading system and it determines prices based on orders from trading participants. Itayose method is applied when the market opens and closes and Zaraba method is applied for the rest of trading hours.
Self-Trade Prevention - STP-O (Cancel Old)
- STP-N (Cancel New)

Self-Trade Prevention function prevents the execution of orders placed by the same user(*). arrowhead identifies the user of an order with STP account information. When matched orders are placed by users with the same STP account, STP function is triggered. Two types of STP are available.

 STP-O : cancel resting orders when STP is triggered
 STP-N : cancel the incoming order when STP is triggered

STP is applied only to Zaraba session (excluding the execution of simultaneous orders).
Users have to register "STP account information" to use STP.

(*) This function is assumed for use by institutional investors.

(An image of the Self-Trade Prevention Function）

STP

Market Information Distribution

Function Example Explanation
Market Information Distribution - Quote /Execution Info.
- Open /High /Low/Close Prices
- Trading Volume /Value
- Index /Statistics		 arrowhead distributes market information when an order comes or an execution occurs. It also distributes the opening price, the highest price, the lowest price, and the closing price of the day for each issue as well as the trading volume, value, index and statistics.

These data are provided as the following information services.
- FLEX Standard / FLEX Standard (WB)
- FLEX Full / FLEX Full (WB)
* WB stands for Wide Band.

For further information, please refer to the following page.
Real Time Market Data

Market Monitoring

Function Example Explanation
Market Monitoring - Real-time monitoring
- Maintenance of issue data
- Data Analysis		 arrowhead's real-time monitoring function enables the market administrator to gain and comprehend what is going on in the market from various perspectives.
It also offers data analysis function to further drill down the market activities.

Archive

Time Events
January 4, 2010 arrowhead (First generation) went live
August 16, 2010 Awarded at IT Japan Award 2010 Grand Prix (Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Award)
July 16, 2013 Cash equity market of Osaka Securities Exchange (OSE) was integrated into Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE)
September 24, 2015 arrowhead renewal (Second generation) went live
November 5, 2019 arrowhead upgrade (Third generation) went live