Wombat Financial Software

Wombat’s Distributed Ticker Plant is comprised of components of the existing “Universal Feed Handler Suite”. The ticker plant incorporates data from direct exchange feeds, aggregated vendor feeds and internal data sources. In many cases it's possible to source a considerable amount of this data from direct exchange feeds, with aggregated vendor feeds being used to provide redundancy, or for sourcing data that is not directly available. Wombat’s “platform agnostic” APIs and modules can be used to publish data onto any platform required. Flexible normalization and symbology modules make it possible to publish data in different formats depending on customer requirements.

The first key point to note is that the standard functionality provided by Wombat feed handlers closely resembles that generally associated with dedicated ticker plants. The feed handlers incorporate role of the caching and normalization engines in existing architectures. In effect all these components have been compressed into the single level architecture.

A summary of higher level functionality available with the Wombat Distributed Ticker Plant includes:

Issue	Description
Real Time Data	The Distributed Ticker Plant provides real time data at near zero internal latency. There is no queuing of real time data within Wombat’s ticker plant software.
Data Normalization	All data from either direct change feeds or aggregated vendor feeds is normalized to a standard Wombat format in the feed handlers. Mapping of exchange codes and other similar issues can be incorporated at this stage. The process of always mapping data to the Wombat format effectively makes it possible to convert a data stream from any supported input source/format to any support output platform/format.
Symbology mapping	There is already basic symbology mapping within the feed handlers. Hooks are in place to support customizable mapping functions or pre-loaded lookup tables.
Caching	Unlike most other market data distribution systems, caching within the Wombat Distributed Ticker Plant occurs within the feed handlers. The most recent image is available for every security. Note: Some additional caching of certain trade-related fields provides a simple “roll-back” capability; for example, to adjust value added fields for errors, cancellations or corrections.
Entitlements	Wombat’s Distributed Ticker Plant supports the use of the Reuters DACS and TIB Entitlements Version 4 systems, as well as Wombat’s own entitlements system. One major advantage of using Wombat’s own entitlements system is that it includes an API that is independent of the market data distribution middleware. In other words, the entitlements API can be used in conjunction with customer applications that might redistribute market data via some proprietary means (e.g., a web trading application).
Static data (fundamental data, corporate actions, etc.)	It is possible to inject static data, including corporate actions, per share fundamental data and official codes (e.g., CUSIP, ISIN, etc.), into the ticker plant. Today, this is achieved by explicitly injecting the static data into each individual feed handler. In the future, Wombat plans to add a centralized “Security Master” to handle corporate actions and static data.
Value added data, derived fields and order books	Value added calculations, BBO, order books and other derived fields are calculated in the feed handlers and published with the trade and quote messages. The “roll-back” functionality in the cache makes it possible to ensure that calculated fields are adjusted for errors, cancellations and corrections. Locating value added calculations in the feed handler gives Wombat the lowest latency calc server in the business (<1 ms). See below for more discussion about value added data and derived content.
Request/reply (snapshot)	Although the feed handler modules support snapshot requests, high volumes of such requests are better handled by a one or more instances of a special type server that can handle such requests more efficiently. A product that is similar to the Cascading Cache will provide such functionality, including the ability to perform batched snapshot requests via a direct TCP connection from the subscribing application.
Streaming fanout	Web based applications with streaming data need a means to send abbreviated and/or compressed data through relatively low bandwidth TCP connections. The Streaming Fanout server will provide such functionality (and will also reuse many Cascading Cache modules).
Server side conflation	A future feature of the Distributed Ticker Plant is server side conflation. Server side conflation is not recommended for use the primary market data backbone but could be very beneficial if used by a Cascading Cache (see below). Client side conflation is also possible.
Retransmission Service	Wombat plans to add a component to provide on-site retransmission service.

1) Any data feed supported by the Wombat Universal Feed Handler Suite can be incorporated into a Wombat distributed ticker plant. A full list of the feed handlers currently supported, including a discussion of the derived data and value added fields available is included in the Universal Feed Handler Suite Product Sheet. This can be downloaded from (link).

2) A high level overview of the concepts underpinning the Wombat "single level architecture" is available in the online article "Two-Level Market Data Distribution Architectures: Are They Really Necessary?".

3) The Wombat distributed ticker plant can publish onto any market data platform supported by the Wombat PAPA API. A list of the platforms currently supported by PAPA is available online at (link to Technical/PAPA).