McObject's eXtremeDB Financial Edition Database Adopted by TradeStation for Next-Generation Order-Execution System

ISSAQUAH, WA--(Marketwire - Nov 12, 2012) - McObject® announced that TradeStation, a Monex Group company (TSE: 8698) and the parent company of an award-winning broker-dealer and futures commission merchant, will integrate McObject's eXtremeDB® Financial Edition in-memory database system (IMDS) into its next-generation order-execution system, now under development. McObject's technology was selected after it performed "an order of magnitude" faster than alternative database systems in a proof-of-concept, indicating that eXtremeDB Financial Edition will extend the speed advantage already provided to TradeStation's customers, a TradeStation official said.

TradeStation's order-execution system processes trades from the moment orders are placed until they are filled and recorded. Database processing must be extremely fast to avoid introducing latency. Between order placement and execution, the order-execution system accesses its database many times to accomplish time-critical tasks ranging from checking customer funds and margin limits to risk management, order routing and comparing bids and offers on different trading venues.

"Milliseconds, even microseconds, can affect the price for customers' order executions," said Joe Pautler, TradeStation senior software engineer. TradeStation presents order-execution speed as a key differentiator of its services, noting on its website the "price improvement opportunities" made possible by trade processing that is many times faster than the industry average.

In addition to speed, reliability is a key requirement for database management within TradeStation's order-execution system. TradeStation's website states that it "relentlessly pursues [its] goal of 100 percent uptime" for order execution via redundant system hardware and software, among other strategies to maximize up-time. eXtremeDB Financial Edition enhances reliability with its High Availability sub-system, which will enable TradeStation to deploy multiple, fully synchronized copies of the order-execution system database, with automatic failover in the event of failure on one node.

"TradeStation built its reputation on technology features that benefit active traders, including innovative analysis, back-testing and automated trading," said T. Keith Black, TradeStation chief technology officer and vice president of product development. "Traders who rely on these strengths also expect fast and reliable order execution. eXtremeDB Financial Edition's performance and fault-tolerance make it a natural fit for database processing in the enhanced order-execution system TradeStation is developing. We are excited about the end-user benefits that eXtremeDB Financial Edition will help to deliver as part of our live trading technology," Black said.

To further safeguard reliability and data integrity in the order-execution system, TradeStation will also rely on both eXtremeDB Financial Edition's support for ACID (Atomic, Consistent, Isolated and Durable) database transactions, as well as the technology's transaction logging feature, to enable recovery of interrupted transactions. The company will deploy the 64-bit version of McObject's database running on the Microsoft Windows Server.

"Companies in capital markets are pressed to drive down latency at all levels in their information systems, while providing customers with a wider range of capabilities as well as fault-tolerance," said Chris Mureen, McObject's chief operating officer. "McObject designed eXtremeDB Financial Edition to meet the demand in capital markets for an exceptionally fast, scalable and robust database system, and we are pleased that it has proven an excellent fit for TradeStation as the company develops its highly optimized next-generation trading infrastructure."

eXtremeDB Financial Edition provides features to optimize capital markets systems for speed, fault-tolerance and scalability. These features include:

• A core in-memory database system (IMDS) that delivers database responsiveness measured in microseconds
• Embedded architecture to eliminate client/server inter-process communication (IPC) overhead
• Support for column-based as well as traditional row-based data layout (including hybrid designs)
• A rich library of vector-based statistical functions to analyze time-series data
• An ultra-short execution path (code size is approximately 150K) that minimizes demand for CPU cycles and maximizes L1/L2 cache efficiency
• Distributed database scalability, performance and fault-tolerance, through both Clustering and High Availability sub-systems
• Multiple application programming interfaces (APIs) including standard SQL and faster, type-safe native C/C++ API (native Java and C# APIs are also provided).

eXtremeDB Financial Edition is available now through McObject. For pricing, please contact sales@mcobject.com or call 1 (425) 888-8505.

About McObject

Founded by embedded database and real-time systems experts, McObject provides the eXtremeDB database system product family to build low latency, high scalability and reliability into real-time financial systems while harnessing the growing volume of data in capital markets. McObject counts among its customers industry leaders such NSE.IT, SunGard Kingstar, Transaction Network Services, Dalian Commodity Exchange, Financial Technologies of India Ltd. (FTIL), BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman, Siemens, Philips, EADS, Spirent Communications, F5 Networks, Motorola and Boeing. Based in Issaquah, WA, McObject is committed to providing innovative technology and first-rate services to customers and partners. For more information, contact at +1 (425) 888-8505, or visit http://financial.mcobject.com.

About TradeStation Group, Inc.

TradeStation Group, Inc., through its principal operating subsidiaries, TradeStation Securities, Inc. and IBFX, Inc., offers analytical and trading platforms to the active trader and certain institutional trader markets. The TradeStation platform offers electronic order execution and enables clients to design, test, optimize, monitor and automate their own custom equities, options, futures and forex trading strategies. TradeStation Group is a wholly owned subsidiary of Monex Group, one of the largest online financial service providers in Japan.

TradeStation is an award-winning online brokerage firm and trading platform, frequently recognized for providing advanced technology, including analysis tools, back-testing capability and real-time market data, as well as the EasyLanguage programming language, which automates trading strategies. In March 2012, Barron's magazine, in its annual review of 24 online brokerage firms, awarded TradeStation its highest overall star ranking (4 1/2 stars), as well as Best for Frequent Traders, Best Trading Experience and Technology and Best for International Traders. Also in March 2012, TradeStation won for Best Trading System -- Stocks, Best Trading System -- Futures, Best Institutional Platform, Best Professional Platform, Best Online Analytical Platform and Best Real-Time Data in the annual Readers' Choice Awards given by Technical Analysis of Stocks & Commodities magazine.

TradeStation Securities, Inc. (Member NYSE, FINRA, SIPC, NSCC, DTC, OCC & NFA) is a licensed securities broker-dealer and a registered futures commission merchant, and also a member of the Boston Options Exchange, Chicago Board Options Exchange, Chicago Stock Exchange, International Securities Exchange and NASDAQ OMX. Its TradeStation Prime Services division, based in New York, seeks to provide prime brokerage services, including securities lending, to small and mid-sized hedge funds and other firms. IBFX, Inc. (Member NFA) is a Retail Foreign Exchange Dealer (RFED) that provides forex brokerage services directly and through its TradeStation Forex division. The company's technology subsidiary, TradeStation Technologies, Inc., develops and offers strategy trading software tools and subscription services. TradeStation Europe Limited, an FSA-authorized brokerage firm, introduces UK and other European accounts to TradeStation Securities, Inc. and IBFX, Inc.

McObject and eXtremeDB are registered trademarks of McObject LLC. All other company or product names mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.