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Connectivity Questions

Does Cboe FX charge a fee for a cross connect in NY5?
Clients connected to Cboe FX at NY5 and LD4 are subject to a connectivity fee. Pricing can be found here. Separately, clients may incur fees directly from Equinix. These are separate and apart from the Cboe FX connectivity fees.

Is there a bandwidth requirement at the co-location facility?
Yes, the requirement is 1G.

Does Cboe FX offer STP (Straight Through Processing)?
Yes, Cboe FX offers STP solutions. Click here to learn more about Post-Trade STP.

What are the STP solutions?
Cboe FX has the ability to provide a post-trade drop copy feed for STP integration with back offices. In addition, Cboe FX is integrated with various STP vendors, i.e. Traiana, Markitserv, RTNS, etc.

Is there a matching engine in Europe?
Yes. Cboe FX offers a matching engine in the UK at Equinix Slough (LD4) in addition to Equinix Secaucus (NY5). The two matching engines operate independently of one another and represent two distinct pools of liquidity and price discovery.

What is the average order completion time?
The average ack times are sub-100μs once the order hits our firewall.

What are the different connectivity options? Which is fastest?
Cboe FX market data is available through the following options: ITCH market data (real-time), FIX Bookfeed (50 or 10ms updates) and GUI (250ms updates). Full Amount is available through ITCH or FIX Bookfeed (5ms updates).

What are the bandwidth requirements for ITCH and FIX data?

• ITCH: 9 Mbps
• Bookfeed (Full Book): 7 Mbps

What fees does Cboe FX charge for connectivity?
Clients are assessed fees for physical connectivity to the Cboe FX marketplace at its data centers in Equinix Secaucus (NY5) and Equinix Slough (LD4), as well as session charges for order entry and market data IDs. Pricing information can be found here.

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FIX / API Questions

How does a client access the technical specs?
Click here to view Cboe FX technical specs.

What version of FIX protocol does Cboe FX use?
Version 4.2, with some exceptions. See Section 1 of the FIX Proxy spec.

Can I view depth of book?
ITCH allows full book (based on liquidity profile), Summary Depth (3 levels), or top of book, and a user can specify currency pairs.

FIX allows full book, top of book, and everything in between, disseminated in 50ms, 10ms, or real-time snapshots. A user may specify how many levels to view as well as specify currency pairs. GUI allows full book, top of book, and everything in between, updated every 250ms. A user may specify how many levels to view as well as specify currency pairs.

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Full Amount Questions

How is Full Amount different than the ECN?
Please see the Full Amount FAQ for more detail.

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GUI Questions

How do I troubleshoot connection issues?
Can you telnet to the Cboe FX Production IP 74.115.129.3; Port 443 (Cert 74.115.129.6; port 443)? If not, try the following:

• Confirm the network support team opened the IP address.
• If the connection is open; click here to access the Cboe FX GUI User Guide. Then go to the Contents page and click on 2. Connection for additional help regarding Network and Login issues.

What do the different top of book colors represent?

• A red flash indicates a trade occurred.
• The BBO background color turns orange when a client's price is part of the best bid/offer.

Can I view my price within a currency pair's market depth?
Yes, a client's open order has a yellow background color within the market depth. Click here to learn more about the Cboe FX GUI.

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Market Data Product Questions

How do I access Historical Market Data?
To request a recurring subscription to Cboe FX Historical Market Data or initiate a one-time request, please contact Market Data Services at [email protected] or your Cboe FX sales representative.

What is the range of historical data available?
Cboe FX Historical Market Data allows users to obtain large data sets as one-time downloads or on an ongoing basis through recurring subscriptions deliverable in an easy-to-use, digestible format. Historical data sets are available from as far back as 2003. Please see here for more detail.

Is it possible for a prospective client to receive live market data on a trial basis?
Yes, trials are available up to 60 days.

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Trading Questions

What are Cboe FX trading hours?
Cboe FX trading hours start on Sunday at 5pm ET and end at 5pm ET on Friday. Cboe FX is open five days a week with the exception of Christmas Day (December 25) and New Year's Day (January 1).

What are the available currency pairs and their minimum price increments?
All major currency pairs, Emerging Markets and Precious Metals are offered. Please click here to view the full list with price increments.

What order types does Cboe FX provide?
Order type descriptions can be found within our Operating Procedures.

What is the priority of orders?
All orders received on the Cboe FX ECN are sorted and matched based on: (i) Price, (ii) Firm versus Non-Firm, (iii) Time priority.

What is the average trade size?
The average trade size on Cboe FX is ~$600k USD.

What is the minimum order size?
Cboe FX does not restrict order submission size; however orders of less 100k units of base currency will be subject to a minimum transaction fee.

Can a client specify a minimum trade quantity?
Cboe FX is an institutional platform and as such we try to maintain a minimum trade size of $500k; however, a client is able to trade with smaller sizes and may set a minimum trade quantity. This must be at most the size of the parent order quantity. If the OrderQty drops below the minimum trade quantity due to a fill, the order will be automatically cancelled.

Who are Cboe FX market makers?
Cboe FX has a broad and diverse client base. Many clients, including Bank and Non-Bank participants, stream high quality, two-sided markets in our currencies 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. All clients can add passive liquidity to the platform (post bids/offers).

Can banks deal with each other?
All clients can trade with each other based on the liquidity profile configured by Cboe FX.

If trade activity is anonymous, why do I see counterparty names within my Order Blotter?
Post-trade activity on the ECN is anonymous (refer to Cboe FX's Operating Procedures for more detail). Clients that access the platform directly (not via a Prime Broker) and clear in their own name will see the bilateral credit names they have allocated credit to within the system. These clients will only see the counterparty Prime Broker and not the identity of the underlying client.

Does Cboe FX support trade averaging?
Cboe FX has the ability to average trades (entitlement option). Averaging is dependent on your Prime Broker's ability to support this functionality.

What is a trade date and how is it different from a calendar date?
A trade date start time is 5:00pm ET, which differs from a calendar date start time which is 12:00am ET.

• For an order placed on Nov 17, at 4:30pm EST, the trade date is Nov 17 and the calendar date is Nov 17.
• For an order placed on Nov 17, at 5:30pm EST, the trade date is Nov 18 and the calendar date is Nov 17.

How do unexecuted live orders affect available credit?
Unexecuted orders do not affect available credit; however, a client may not enter a single order for an amount larger than the client's available credit. Once the maximum credit is reached, a reject will occur for any additional remaining orders. Only risk reducing trades are allowed in the event a credit limit has been breached.