ESMA guidelines issued at the end of 2015 clarify timestamp regulation in ways that make a lot of sense. The most immediately notable point was to reinforce earlier statements that GPS is an acceptable “traceable” source of time per MiFIR RTS 25. A number of parties had been insisting otherwise the face of common sense…
ESMA just released guidelines that reinforce what was already clear in the MiFIDII regulation – that GPS time is an acceptable source of “traceable” time. As Galileo time becomes available there will surely be some European preference for that source, but ESMA has made it clear that satellite time is fit for purpose. As per…
With TimeKeeper’s high quality multi-source Time Client, Windows 10 operates at the high levels of timestamp accuracy needed for: MiFID II and other regulatory compliance automated trading in general enterprise data analysis and big data Real-Time broadcast and control. Accuracy to within 10s of microseconds is no problem with either PTP 1588 or NTP time…
Algorithmic trading: Algorithmic trading records must be stored on an approved form accurate, time-sequenced records of all orders—whether placed, executed or cancelled. This rule applies not just to algorithmic trading, but to all trades; firms must keep for five years all the relevant data relating to all orders and transactions, whether for their own account…
When we began implementing the NTP protocol from scratch we found that after 30 years of sometimes smart and sometimes not-so-smart development, there were a number of security issues that we needed to address. Some of these are identified by Boston University researchers in their recent note on NTPd exploits. TimeKeeper is not vulnerable to…
TimeKeeper incorporates a defense-in-depth design to protect it from deliberate security attacks and errors due to equipment failure or misconfiguration. This engineering approach was born out of a conviction that precise time synchronization would become a business and regulatory imperative. Recent disclosures of still more security problems in the NTPd implementation of NTP show how…
There are a number of places in the new guidelines that increase the rigor required for timestamping data. One key part covers SI’s (systematic internalizers) who operate kind-of like private exchanges. TimeKeeper’s ability to produce traceable audit and to use multiple sources is designed for precisely this kind of application. Moreover, the inclusion of the…
One of the most interesting things we saw in the proposed IEEE 1588 enterprise profile was a bold suggestion on fault tolerance that looked familiar. Here’s FSMLabs press release from September 2011 TimeKeeper 5.0 offers the ability to monitor multiple time distribution channels, even those operating on different time distribution standards or of different quality…
The Best Master Clock (BMC) algorithm is a key part and key weakness of the PTP standard. The proposed enterprise profile for PTP calls it “the so-called ‘best master clock’” algorithm because it doesn’t actually pick the best master clock in an enterprise or telco environment. The BMC requires that each clock advertise a level…