Hermes is a trading system that facilitates proprietary trading, routing and management of orders received from institutional and retail clients. Transactions are processed electronically with the appropriate exchange counterparty via an electronic interface to the exchange matching system.

The Hermes system architecture is based on distributed technology that provides a flexible, scalable and functionally rich trading solution. Through public and private API's, Hermes offers an open interface to allow integration with 3rd party trading systems, including program trading applications, as well as back-office and risk management systems

Benefits of Hermes broker include:

• Open environment for integration with external applications, 3rd party trading systems, back-office, risk management systems and data mining
• Hermes SETS offers extensive and rich trading order management functionality.
• Institutional connectivity for ETI and ETC utilising the internationally accepted FIX protocol
• Local support in Johannesburg, Cape Town and London.

• Customisable order books - The user decides how to group client orders and how to filter an unlimited number of order books.
• Messaging - Orders and executions can be routed to and from and to external parties using the FIX protocol. This order routing from traditional buy-sides or FIX DMA clients globally.
• The built-in OMS (Order Management System) also facilitates the internal routing of orders and fills between sales traders and executing dealers.
• Full database of orders, trades and allocations - Due to the structure of the SQL database, on-line enquiries and reports can be generated.
• Interface to JSE SETS via API - Hermes comes standard with the full JSE SETS API interface.
• Portfolio facility - To import client BDA account numbers, names, cash balances and holdings into Hermes.
• Bulking of orders - Orders from different institutions or clients for the same instrument can be bulked and placed into the market.
• Real-time view of bids, offers and full market depth - All up to the second price information on any share is available.
• Customisable watch list - Users can create their own watch lists containing shares and topics of their choice.

Hermes Xtra's

Trade Reporting

Hermes reporting is a real-time account monitoring and reporting tool. Hermes reporting interfaces seamlessly to the Hermes environment to provide daily trading summaries on a number of BDA accounts. Hermes reporting is especially useful for monitoring institutional trades as the line items are updated as they trade in the market. These are sorted and averaged "on a real-time basis" to provide summary trade information. Each account is displayed on an individual sheet and may be configured at any time during the day. Benefits include the following:

• Information can be saved to a spreadsheet at any time during the day
• Dynamically add or remove account numbers
• Able to filter

Hermes Arbitrage

Peresys provides a Microsoft Excel based basket trading application that integrates with the Hermes environment to facilitate the placing of a basket of orders into the market as quickly as possible. The baskets application can be used for index arbitrage where the system provides automatic updates for static data like shares in issue, and real-time updates of market information including depth. The system automatically calculates what percentage of a basket it would be possible to execute at current levels, and dynamically updates as market data changes at each level of depth available. The system can also be used for rebalancing of portfolios whereby orders are generated from a model and can be submitted into a market. Benefits of Hermes arbitrage include:

• Interfaces to Hermes that allows real-time access to dynamic data such as depth as well as static data like shares in issue. This is all maintained by Hermes and is thus not visible to the trader
• Price delivery is direct from the source and the speed at which execution takes place is maximised by a bulk submission of orders
• The ability to determine what percentage of success should be achieved before execution of a basket fill
• The level of success can be determined at an individual stock level as well as at a basket level
• Components are available to allow a user to integrate their existing spreadsheet based models to the Hermes API

Hermes upload

A Microsoft Excel based application that integrates with Hermes SETS to allow the sell side to bulk upload a large number of care orders into Hermes SETS from non FIX related sources such as file downloads and Excel spreadsheets.

Used by sell side participants to offer efficient management and execution of the typically large number of orders associated with portfolio rebalancing.

The application is able to handle a variety of formats of source files and can be easily configured to handle additional ones.

Hermes market maker

Hermes market maker is a product aimed at market makers in the warrants market, predominantly banks. The product is currently only used in this market, due to the fact that the trading methodology adopted by the JSE is currently order driven. Only in the warrants market are issuers expected to make a market by quoting a bid and offer.

Hermes market maker interfaces seamlessly with the Hermes environment to facilitate market making by creating and editing warrant orders based on the price and volume of the underlying share.

The system also facilitates hedging by calculating and submitting the hedge order on the underlying share when a warrant trades.

The client server architecture allows the calculation intensive process of keeping the market maker's bids and offers constantly in line with the moving market to be handles server side whilst seamlessly administered from any number of front-ends on the dealing desk.

• A fully automated model that updates bids and offers on a real-time basis when the underlying price or volume changes
• A semi-automated model, which provides bids and offers on a warrant, but requires user input to check and update the warrant if the underlying price or volume has changed

Key Features are as follows:

• The application can handle multiple put and call warrants per underlying share
• The application handles multiple bids and offers simultaneously per warrant
• Allows for the real-time adjustment of minimum and maximum volumes. The application facilitates automatic updates of warrant orders as the underlying price or volume changes
• Automatic prompts for hedge orders when a warrant trades
• Real-time watch list with price feeds directly from the source, i.e. JSE SETS
• Calculations are based on formulae and values that can be changed on a real-time basis by the market maker.
• The application manages multiple warrants simultaneously, adjusting price and volume seamlessly and without the need for user interaction.
• Placement of orders into the market with full validation from Hermes.
• Error handling - both pre and post order submission.

• Spreadsheet look and feel
• Placement of orders into the market with full validation from Hermes. Real-time watchlist with price and depth feeds directly from source. Error handling - both pre and post order submission
• Real-time trade notifications. Configurable permissions and market tolerance levels. Determination of the number of shares required for a particular basket size
• Reporting on levels trades. Pre-determination of index level of basket to be traded. Determination of available volumes of each share code at each level of depth available
• The application is as easy to use as a spreadsheet
• Calculations are based on formulae and values that can be changed on a real-time basis by the market maker
• The application manages multiple warrants simultaneously, adjusting price and volume seamlessly and without the need for user interaction

Hermes API's

API for Orders and Executions (Private information)

Hermes connect provides an open API to the trading services of Hermes SETS solution. This API enables the broker to run external trading applications without the need to write directly to the exchange specified API. Benefits include:

• Open API - The API is accessible via Microsoft SQL stored procedures.
• Persistence and queuing - With Talaria DB on top of Microsoft's SQL technology the solution is able to provide the intersession persistence of orders and trades, obviating the need for the client application to perform this role.
• Supports the full range of message types required to effectively trade on JSE SETS.
• Reduced Exchange dependency - Exchanges tend to adapt their trading practices and API's. The Talaria DB can buffer a broker from all but the most fundamental of changes.
• Clients can also integrate Talaria DB into in-house systems such as Risk Management, Surveillance, Management reporting and private client trading.

Public API

Hermes data monitors and persists all broadcast message flows from the exchange, and as such provides an interface that allows developers to gain access to public information contained in the API for use in third-party applications and websites.

Hermes is a trading system that facilitates proprietary trading, routing and management of orders received from institutional and retail clients. Transactions are processed electronically with the appropriate exchange counterparty via an electronic interface to the exchange matching system.

The Hermes system architecture is based on distributed technology that provides a flexible, scalable and functionally rich trading solution. Through public and private API's, Hermes offers an open interface to allow integration with 3rd party trading systems, including program trading applications, as well as back-office and risk management systems

Benefits of Hermes broker include:

• Open environment for integration with external applications, 3rd party trading systems, back-office, risk management systems and data mining
• Hermes SETS offers extensive and rich trading order management functionality.
• Institutional connectivity for ETI and ETC utilising the internationally accepted FIX protocol
• Local support in Johannesburg, Cape Town and London.

• Customisable order books - The user decides how to group client orders and how to filter an unlimited number of order books.
• Messaging - Orders and executions can be routed to and from and to external parties using the FIX protocol. This order routing from traditional buy-sides or FIX DMA clients globally.
• The built-in OMS (Order Management System) also facilitates the internal routing of orders and fills between sales traders and executing dealers.
• Full database of orders, trades and allocations - Due to the structure of the SQL database, on-line enquiries and reports can be generated.
• Interface to JSE SETS via API - Hermes comes standard with the full JSE SETS API interface.
• Portfolio facility - To import client BDA account numbers, names, cash balances and holdings into Hermes.
• Bulking of orders - Orders from different institutions or clients for the same instrument can be bulked and placed into the market.
• Real-time view of bids, offers and full market depth - All up to the second price information on any share is available.
• Customisable watch list - Users can create their own watch lists containing shares and topics of their choice.

Peresys offers a comprehensive FIX environment with services and solutions for the most advanced FIX compliant organisation as well as institutions and brokers new to the FIX family, concepts and benefits.

Peresys currently facilitates order routing into the South African equity market using the FIX protocol through the perFIX hub and network for over thirty buy and sell side participants. These participants are based in Johannesburg, Cape Town, London, Paris, and New York, to mention major centres, and growing steadily.

The perFIX order routing solution has been up and running since April 2003, and messages supported include indications of Interest, orders, notice of execution, done for day, allocations and off market trade reporting. Order Routing services are available to clients with their own FIX compliant Order management Systems or via perFIX trader, a hosted Execution Management System (EMS) provided by Peresys.

Similarly perFIX DMA facilitates any combination of FIX compliant front-end trading system and broker OMS, as well as the optional perFIX trader EMS provided by Peresys.

Where a client's OMS is not FIX enabled, Peresys offers a FIX enabling service via the implementation of an application FIX engine (AFE) in a hosted or on-site implementation.

A key differentiator of the perFIX solution is an optional translation service inside the perFIX hub, which enables clients to outsource the conversion of FIX message between the different versions of FIX where messaging counterparties comply with different versions of the protocol or nuances thereof.

perFIX trader is the next generation execution management system (EMS) for buy side and sell side clients. It is an instant off-the-shelf FIX compliant EMS for equity DMA, order routing and equity derivative trade reporting. Using the latest technologies this sophisticated EMS is hosted in the Peresys BPN (Business Process Network) and requires no software installation, simply login and trade.

• Top line watch list and market depth for equity instruments
• DMA, order routing and single stock future pricing and reporting
• Historical trade reporting. All history stored and available
• Import orders from a spreadsheet
• Export orders for allocation, reporting and reconciliation
• Smooth update technology, with custom time intervals for order status
• Alerts ticker for notice of execution, cancels, amends, etc…
• Ability to add, edit, cancel orders. Fill orders, price single stock futures and report them automatically from a filled equity order