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ACCESSING THE

ASIAN MARKETS

ASIAN MARKETS | CONTENTS | 2

Introduction ....................................................................................................3

Why Asia?......................................................................................................4

Deregulation ..............................................................................................4

Technology ................................................................................................4

New Trading Venues .................................................................................4

Diversity of Market Participants .....................................................................5

Buy-Side....................................................................................................5

Proprietary Traders ...................................................................................6

Sell-Side ....................................................................................................6

Diversity of Asset Classes .............................................................................7

Cash Equities ............................................................................................7

Listed Derivatives ......................................................................................8

Foreign Exchange .....................................................................................9

Regulatory Framework in Asia.....................................................................11

Japan ......................................................................................................11

China .......................................................................................................12

Technology infrastructure and connectivity..................................................13

Trading Platforms ....................................................................................13

Colocation and Connectivity....................................................................14

Conclusion ...................................................................................................15

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ASIAN MARKETS | INTRODUCTION | 3

Ever since the Silk Road was first established as a trading route between the East and the West over a thousand years ago, Asian markets have presented Westerners with a myriad of interesting and unusual trading and investment opportunities.

Fast-forward to the present day and that continues to be the case. The Asian financial markets today are attracting an unprecedented level of interest from Western firms, particularly now that those markets have become more accessible than ever before.

INTRODUCTION

WHY ASIA?

1 http://www.weforum.org/news/institutions-and-innovation-increasingly-important-competitiveness

ASIAN MARKETS | WHY ASIA? | 4

According to the World Economics Forum’s 2013/14 Global Competitiveness Index (GCI)1, which measures the conditions for economic development, productivity and prosperity in 148 economies, Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan all rank in the top ten.

So it is no surprise that these markets in particular are attracting such interest from the international community. Helping to stimulate that interest are the combined factors of deregulation and technology, which are opening up the markets in new and exciting ways.

DeregulationWhereas financial centers like Singapore and Hong Kong have always competed to be the “Gateway to Asia” by having relatively loose regulatory environments, countries such as Japan, Korea and even Mainland China are now deregulating their markets too.

Japan’s proposed “third arrow” policies, designed to stimulate economic growth, contain a wide range of proposed structural reforms that will lead to a less onerous regulatory landscape, which in turn will encourage foreign investment in Japan’s markets.

In China, the recent launch of a pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ) in Shanghai is expected to accelerate the country’s deregulation of the financial sector. The FTZ has been heralded as the first of a new wave of reforms and liberalization, which are expected to be rolled out nationwide within the next few years.

TechnologyFrom an electronic trading perspective, the combination of a strong technology infrastructure and a highly connected network of trading venues are also making the Asian markets much easier to access than they have ever been in the past.

The main equity and derivatives markets of Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and Australia are all now mature electronically traded markets, offering colocation facilities for those firms who require them, open APIs to facilitate easy connectivity, and direct market access (DMA) solutions available for member firms to offer to their clients around the world.

New Trading VenuesAnother interesting development in the region is the emergence of new exchanges and execution venues such as Chi-X Japan and the Asia Pacific Stock Exchange (recently opened in Sydney), widening the choices of where and how firms can trade.

All of these factors, when considered together, are attracting many new international entrants to the Asia/Pacific markets.

DIVERSITY OF MARKET PARTICIPANTS

ASIAN MARKETS | DIVERSITY OF MARKET PARTICIPANTS | 5

Given the wide range of markets that exist in virtually every asset class in Asia - many with very deep and diverse liquidity pools containing a substantial amount of retail flow - trading, hedging and investment opportunities abound for Western firms who wish to venture into the region.

Such diversity is attracting firms from across the spectrum, from buy-side to sell-side, as well as a whole supporting ecosystem of vendors and service providers underpinning those firms’ activities.

By tapping into this diversity of liquidity and being able to access such a wide variety of counterparties across their chosen markets, firms that trade in Asia – regardless of their investment time horizon - can now transfer risk more efficiently and more cost-effectively than has ever been possible before, which in turn is opening up all kinds of trading opportunities, for every type of market participant.

Buy-SideFrom an institutional buy-side perspective, asset managers are discovering a range of stocks that fit their investment criteria and that meet the performance goals of their funds. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index for example enjoyed a 57% increase in 2013, helped by well-performing stocks such as Bridgestone and Fuji Heavy Industries. Australia also performed well in 2013, with the country’s key S&P/ASX 200 index up 15% on the year.

From an IPO perspective, Asia also presents some interesting investment opportunities. Hong Kong is now one of the top three IPO destinations globally, and is expected to see continued growth in listings as more Chinese companies consider listings via the HKEx.

Hedge funds and alternative asset managers are also finding unique investment opportunities in Asia, across a wide range of instruments. Many funds, whether quantitative or discretionary, are now developing trading strategies that include Asian ETFs (Exchange-Traded Funds), derivatives, commodities and other instruments, enjoying returns they might not find elsewhere.

With the Asian markets increasingly well serviced by the international broker community and managed service providers (MSPs), buy-side firms need to take a number of factors into account when considering their route to market while ensuring they have the consistent control mechanisms in place to satisfy their end investors.

First they need to ensure that they have access to multiple brokers and multiple counterparties with whom they can interconnect. If going through an MSP, they need to look at how well that MSP is connected, in terms of access to venues. Quantitative and systematic hedge funds wanting to test and run strategies on a range of different markets need to look at how flexible their MSP is in terms of how they provide access to each venue. For example, can the MSP or one of their brokers offer access to a venue for a short period in order for a strategy to be tested? And what are the costs involved?

ASIAN MARKETS | DIVERSITY OF MARKET PARTICIPANTS | 6

Proprietary TradersFor proprietary trading firms, high-frequency traders and electronic market makers, the technology deployed at many trading venues in Asia is increasingly enabling them to run similar strategies to those they might run on Western venues, including single-platform strategies; multi-asset class strategies comprising equities, futures and FX components for example; on-exchange versus OTC strategies; two-way and three-way arbitrage; and delta-one strategies.

In Japan, the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) has cut its trading costs and has opened up its market to algorithmic strategies. And the competition from alternative venues such as Japannext and Chi-X has created the type of fragmented equities market that enables firms to run a variety of cross-venue strategies.

Other exchanges and execution venues in the region are now starting to offer their own incentives such as fee rebates or maker/taker pricing, to make those markets more attractive to electronic liquidity providers and market-makers. One such venue is Singapore Exchange (SGX), which, by reducing minimum order sizes and planning to reduce trading and clearing fees, is actively encouraging HFT firms to participate in its market.

As is the case in Europe and US, proprietary trading firms need to look at where it makes sense to become a direct member of an exchange versus where it makes more sense to go through a broker, particularly if the exchange offers sponsored access or where the broker offers a DMA solution.

Sell-SideAll of this buy-side and trading activity is creating a wealth of new opportunities for the sell-side. The global tier one banks and brokers already operate out of at least one, if not all, of the key financial centers of Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Sydney, offering execution, clearing, prime brokerage and a range of other services to both local and international customers.

Many of these global players are now starting to operate on a bi-directional basis, offering access to the Western markets for local Asian clients as well as access to the Asian markets for their international customers.

In order to compete not just with the global banks but also with the local players, mid-tier firms need to consider what kind of resources they need to put in place across the trading logistics chain, from pre-trade through to post-trade, clearing and settlement. Some of the key considerations when deciding which elements to insource versus which to outsource are the cost of infrastructure deployment, time to market and how to future-proof any investment made in infrastructure. For example, they might want to place minimum infrastructure at an exchange’s colocation center for their latency-sensitive clients, while deploying the rest of their infrastructure elsewhere.

DIVERSITY OF ASSET CLASSES

ASIAN MARKETS | DIVERSITY OF ASSET CLASSES | 7

As with US and European markets, the Asia/Pacific region offers the full range of asset classes, many of which - in particular Cash Equities, Listed Derivatives and Foreign Exchange - can be traded electronically on a wide choice of venues.

However, compared with Europe and the US, trading venues in Asia are spread across significantly greater geographic distances. This means that network and connectivity are key considerations for firms who need to access these venues, particularly if firms are doing multi-asset class or multi-venue trading.

Cash EquitiesAsian equity market capitalization has now surpassed that of EU and is second only to the US.

From an electronic trading perspective, the key stock exchanges in the region are:

In addition to the primary exchanges listed above, there are a number of Multilateral Trading Facilities (MTFs) and dark pools in the region, offering alternative venues on which to trade. These include Chi-X Australia, ITG POSIT (available in Japan, Hong Kong, Australia and Singapore) and a new breed of Proprietary Trading Systems in Japan such as SBI Japannext and Chi-X Japan.

It is interesting to note how some of these alternative venues have grown. Chi-X Australia for example was launched at the end of October 2011 and is growing fast. In November 2013, Chi-X’s weekly market share of all the total Australian stock markets was 18.39% (including its one day record of 24.67%). The MTF achieved this growth by continuously adding participants, introducing innovative and user-friendly services and delivering price improvements to Australian investors of more than AUD2million a month. Other factors that have contributed to Chi-X Australia’s growth are the greater percentage of HFT activity on the MTF, Chi-X’s multiple trading platforms globally, low trading fees and application of low latency technology.

2 Formed after the merger of the Tokyo Stock Exchange and the Osaka Securities Exchange in January 2013. Figures are for the combined exchanges

Exchange Combined Market Cap (USD bn, end 2012)

Shares Listed

Japan Exchange Group2 $4,500 2,292

Hong Kong Stock Exchange $2,832 1,615

Australian Securities Exchange $1,387 2122

Singapore Exchange $754 776

3 http://www.futuresindustry.org/downloads/FI-2012_Volume_Survey.pdf

ASIAN MARKETS | DIVERSITY OF ASSET CLASSES | 8

Listed DerivativesAccording to the 2012/13 FIA Annual Derivatives Survey3, a number of Asian exchanges now appear in the list of the top 30 derivatives exchanges in the world (when measured by the key metrics of volume and open interest):

One of the most interesting of the listed derivatives in the region is the Kospi 200 Options contract, traded on Korea Exchange. This is the most heavily traded listed derivatives contract in the world, and has been for a number of years now. And despite the Korean authorities re-engineering the contract in 2012 to make it more expensive to trade, volumes have remained strong, helped no doubt by the fact that Eurex now offers a futures contract that expires daily into Kospi options.

International tie-ups like these, between exchanges such as Eurex in the West and Korea Exchange in the East, serve to open up Asian markets even more to Western firms.

In addition to these local tie-ups, some of the larger exchanges are expanding their distribution platforms and offering new instruments and asset classes by acquiring foreign exchanges. A case in point is HKEx’s purchase of the London Metals Exchange (LME), which provides the HKEx with distribution for new global industrial metals instruments and provides the LME with much needed funding for more global aspirations.

A number of Asian exchanges have begun to list new derivatives contracts in a bid to quickly scale and capture global participants. For instance, SGX has recently launched FX futures in response to strong client demand for currency management tools to complement its suite of highly liquid Asian equity derivatives.

Firms looking to trade listed derivatives in Asia need to consider how best to access these disparate markets through a single trading platform.

Rank Exchange Jan-Dec 2012 Volume

Dec 2012 Open Interest

5 Korea Exchange 1,835,617,727 1,835,617,727

13 Shanghai Futures Exchange 365,329,379 1,242,174

14 Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange 347,091,533 1,142,206

15 ASX Group 259,966,030 16,073,167

18 Osaka Securities Exchange 205,130,168 4,382,878

21 Taiwan Futures Exchange 156,731,912 238,981

23 Hong Kong Exchanges 119,802,638 5,317,952

24 China Financial Futures Exchange 105,061,825 110,386

25 Singapore Exchange 80,548,318 2,555,953

29 Tokyo Financial Exchange 66,925,893 983,014

Foot notes. Arial 6/8 pt. Color is Equinix Carbon.

ASIAN MARKETS | DIVERSITY OF ASSET CLASSES | 9

Foreign ExchangeForeign Exchange (FX) is now a 24-hour worldwide market. The table below illustrates the world’s largest FX trading centers, by notional value.

The chart below shows world FX trading split by Europe, North American and Asia Pacific regions. It can be seen that the Asian market has the highest growth rate. (The rest of the world is not included and counts for the difference).

FX market turnover comparison by geography from 2010 to 2013 (% of the total global volume)

Source: Bank of International Settlement & Kapronasia, 2014

2010 201360.00

40.00

20.00

Europe North America Asia Pacific

54.63

55.91

19.50

20.38

17.43

20.92

FX Centers ranking 2013

Countries Proportion of world volume

UK 40.90%

US 18.90%

Singapore 5.70%

Japan 5.60%

Hong Kong 4.10%

Switzerland 3.20%

France 2.80%

Netherland 1.70%

Germany 1.70%

Denmark 1.50%

Source: Bank of International Settlement & Kapronasia, 2014

ASIAN MARKETS | DIVERSITY OF ASSET CLASSES | 10

The challenge for banks, brokers and ECNs who offer FX trading in Asia is how to build upon this growth by enticing a higher proportion of the UK and US volume across to the Asian time zone.

While Singapore trades the highest notional value of FX in the Asian time zone, the center of the electronic FX market is undoubtedly Tokyo, which hosts all of the major FX trading platforms and is the third global electronic hub for FX trading after London and New York.

Japan traditionally has had a big retail FX trading market, which has attracted a number of FX matching engines seeking to capitalize on the retail flow. As well as providing routes for Japanese clients to other markets, a growing number of FX venues are in the process of placing their matching engines in Tokyo. Some providers, such as FXCM, FX Spotstream and ICAP EBS, have already deployed local matching engines, while others have deployed local access nodes for their clients.

REGULATORY FRAMEWORK IN ASIA

4European Market Infrastructure Regulation. 5Markets in Financial Instruments Directive.

ASIAN MARKETS | REGULATORY FRAMEWORK IN ASIA | 11

Unlike the West, there is no single regulatory framework that oversees the Asian financial markets. There is no equivalent of Dodd-Frank for example, or even EMIR4 or MiFID5. So it is worth keeping in mind that, from a regulatory perspective, each country in the region will have its own idiosyncrasies.

In fact, gaining a clear understanding of local tax, legal, administrative and regulatory issues can be one of the biggest hurdles that international firms face when setting up to trade locally in Asia, which is why having a local partner who understands all this is essential.

At present, it is much easier for foreign investors to set up a company in Hong Kong, Singapore or Australia than it is in Japan or China.

Australia, probably closest to the West in terms of regulation, is overseen by two regulatory authorities, ASIC (Australian Securities and Investments Commission) and APRA (Australian Prudential Regulation Authority).

Hong Kong enjoys a fairly light regulatory environment and offers a number of incentives to firms wanting to open up in Asia, such as a low tax regime and an efficient and transparent regulatory environment.

Singapore, although highly regulated under the auspices of the MAS (Monetary Authority of Singapore), also provides an open and welcoming environment to Western firms, encouraging international participation in its markets. One thing worth considering in Singapore is that the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has very strict laws about where data must reside and what kind of facility that data sits in.

China and Japan are both going through a process of deregulation, but it will take many years before these markets become fully open to Westerners.

JapanCurrently the Japanese markets are regulated by three entities, Japan FSA, METI and MAF. These regulatory silos create a reporting and compliance overhead and discourage cross-asset trading in all but the largest of the trading entities. However, the Japanese government has made it very clear that the environment will change and to that end is pushing for a comprehensive exchange that would ultimately see the merger of JPX (which comprises of TSE and OSE), TOCOM and TFX.

“Abenomics”, the economic policies advocated by Prime Minister Shinzō Abe based upon the combined “three arrows” of fiscal stimulus, monetary easing and structural reforms, are already encouraging growth in the economy. The “third arrow” of structural reforms to Japanese financial markets, while taking longer to implement than the first two arrows, will have the widest impact for overseas investors in Japan, as they will lead to markets becoming more open with regulatory barriers coming down.

At present however, there are still a number of regulatory hurdles to consider. For example, firms who own equipment in Japan that is used for trading may be liable to specific taxes on trading profits. So for Western firms wanting to establish a trading presence in Japan, it is worth exploring managed service offerings in order to minimize those tax liabilities.

ASIAN MARKETS | REGULATORY FRAMEWORK IN ASIA | 12

ChinaThe new government in China has also been focusing on economic reform, and the establishment of the pilot Free Trade Zone in Shanghai mentioned earlier is clear evidence of this.

Although it can still be very difficult for foreign firms to navigate through China’s regulations, they can invest in the region by setting up a Wholly Foreign-Owned Enterprise (WFOE), which is a limited-liability corporation organized by foreign nationals and capitalized with foreign funds. Unlike most other investment vehicles in China, a WFOE does not require the involvement of a Chinese investor.

China also operates the QFII (Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor) and FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) programs, which allow foreign investors to buy and sell a range of asset classes in the country.

For Western firms looking to access these markets, having the right trusted partners who understand the local regulatory issues is essential.

ASIAN MARKETS | TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE | 13

The technology infrastructure in the four key markets of Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia, particularly in the equity and derivatives markets, has now reached a level of maturity that is on a par in many ways with the US and Europe.

With over 30 electronic trading venues in Asia - and new ones being launched all the time - connectivity to, from and between these venues is an important consideration. This is particularly the case in light of Asia’s geography and the physical distances between locations, which of course has an impact on round-trip latencies as well as network costs.

In the equities and derivatives markets, both Hong Kong and Singapore have single, dominant exchanges, whereas in Japan and Australia the markets are more fragmented. This has a bearing on where firms might want to locate their infrastructure. If they are trading a single market and are very latency sensitive for example, they may want to colocate at the exchange’s own facility, but this can be a very expensive proposition. Also, putting the necessary infrastructure in place to trade those markets can quickly become a Byzantine and complex task.

So it is worth looking at the offerings of independent, highly-connected data centers and managed service providers who can take care of all the infrastructure, connectivity, market data feeds and management of trading gateways at a range of electronic execution venues across the region. That way, firms can concentrate on their core business.

Trading PlatformsThe electronic trading landscape in Asia is complex, with diverse trading platforms across multiple venues and a number of local idiosyncrasies, such as unusual order types (e.g. TSE’s Funari order type). So it is important to work with partners who understand these characteristics.

From a matching engine perspective, the most common trading platform used across electronic exchanges in Asia is Nasdaq OMX’s low latency Genium iNet trading platform (or a variant of it).

In 2011, Singapore’s SGX launched its Reach trading platform, based around Nasdaq OMX’s Genium iNet technology. The HKEx followed suit in late 2013, when it migrated its derivatives market onto Genium. The Australian Stock Exchange uses the Genium technology for both its cash equities and derivatives markets.

In Japan, the JPX derivatives market currently uses the J-Gate platform, which is also based on Nasdaq OMX’s Genium technology. However, the exchange has announced that it is looking for a new derivatives trading platform as it plans to grow derivatives trading by 50% next year. The JPX cash equities market uses “Arrowhead”, a homegrown Fujitsu-based matching technology. Japan’s TFX exchange has indicated they will use the same system.

In other technology initiatives in the region, HKEx recently introduced the Orion Market Data (OMD) platform, providing low latency distribution of market data for the first time. In addition to this, a number of Chinese domestic exchanges are gearing up for internationalization, by enhancing their matching infrastructure and developing their own colocation offerings.

Given the diversity of trading platforms, firms face similar issues to those encountered in Europe, e.g. how to access all chosen venues through a single trading platform with a normalized API?

Also, how to ensure consistent pre-trade risk checking is performed? As individual exchanges and regulators do not necessarily mandate pre-trade risk checks, it comes down to member firms to put the correct policies and the appropriate technology in place to ensure they have adequate, consistent controls. Sell-side firms offering services to low latency or high frequency clients should consider whether specific technologies are needed to minimize disruption to order flow, such as FPGA-based risk gateways for example.

TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE AND CONNECTIVITY

ASIAN MARKETS | TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE | 14

Colocation and ConnectivityWhen firms look to establish a trading presence in Asia, one of the key things they need to consider is the subject of colocation and proximity hosting. I.e. where do they host their infrastructure, how do they manage that infrastructure and what kind of connectivity do they need? Not just between their local servers and the markets on which they trade, but also to the wider ecosystem of their trading partners, their service providers and the wider international community.

While many of the exchanges discussed in this document operate their own data centers and provide dedicated colocation (usually at a premium cost), firms need to take other factors into consideration when deciding where to host their infrastructure. For example, does it make sense to colocate clearing, settlement, reporting and other back-office functions? Where are counterparties across the wider banking and financial community located? Where are the market data vendors, ISVs and managed service providers located? And most importantly, particularly in Asia, where is the network density?

For firms running sophisticated strategies across multiple locations and taking data feeds from different sources, being close to one particular venue does not necessarily offer an advantage, it is often more important to be close to the network rather than the venue.

If a firm is running a low latency trading operation on a single venue, then close proximity to the exchange’s matching engine is obviously a key requirement. However, even for such firms, it may make more sense to decouple their trading applications from the rest of their operational infrastructure, so that premium exchange colocation rates are only paid for the essential trading components and everything else is hosted in a more cost-effective environment.

Firms also need to consider how they will future-proof their investment in infrastructure. Operating in a network-neutral and vendor-neutral environment for example, gives the ability to change providers as and when needed over time, allowing firms to be more reactive and flexible.

CONCLUSION

ASIAN MARKETS | CONCLUSION | 15

This paper barely scratches the surface of issues to consider and opportunities that exist when accessing the Asian markets.

Whilst it is impossible to fully predict the future, there are a few trends that can easily be identified.

Firstly, Asia is on the rise. The evolution and adoption of technology, the population growth and rising middle classes combined with deregulation and the evolution of the markets all indicate a prosperous future. Historically there was a strong trend towards a purely inbound investment strategy, but whilst the inbound aspect continues, the amount of outbound activities indicates that Asian countries will become ever more significant global players.

Secondly, whilst it is impossible to predict the precise nature of change, what can be predicted is change itself. Markets will evolve, trading strategies will mature and they will cross more asset classes and venues. Change will happen.

Historically, much of Asian business culture is based on establishing and maintaining the right relationships with partners who know how to operate locally to achieve results within the culture and regulation. The same still stands true in the world of technology and infrastructure.

In order to be scalable, cost-efficient, flexible and achieve quick time to market, firms need to find the right partner who can, under a single SLA, offer connectivity across all of their chosen trading venues and easy access to their counterparties.

Making the wrong decision now could seriously impact future opportunities or growth. Future-proofing technology and infrastructure deployment is key to ensure agility and business adaptability.

To support this goal it is essential for a firm to grow its business in established communities, locate in the right locations, already containing the necessary infrastructure, service providers, counterparties and partners across the Asia Pacific Region.

To explore this subject in more depth, we recommend that readers download future Equinix white papers and come along to the round tables and webinars, featuring industry experts discussing the challenges and opportunities associated with accessing the Asian Markets.

Visit equinix.com or contact an Equinix representative for more information.

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