Overview
Pragma has entered into a multi-year agreement with the New York Stock Exchange to provide NYSE Equity Floor Brokers with Polaris, a high-performance EMS. Clients of the Floor Brokers must establish FIX sessions to Polaris in order to maintain the ability to route orders to the Floor Brokers as they migrate away from BBSS later this year and into 2023. Please see the FAQ for more information on Client Connectivity.Deployment Details
Phase 1 of the Polaris deployment will begin in the third quarter of 2022. View the complete timeline below.Key Insights
- No clients are required to migrate during Phase 1; existing workflows via Pillar and BBSS will continue to be supported until later this year.
- Phase 1 enables a new optional workflow (“One-touch”). With One-touch, Clients can direct Closing dOrders to the NYSE matching engine via a Floor Broker. Floor Brokers are no longer constrained by present day handheld batch order limitations.
- View the Polaris FIX Specification.
Timeline
May 6, 2022
- Client Portal is Live
- Connectivity Agreement and Order Form available from Client Portal
May 12, 2022
- FIX Test environment is Live
October 2022
- FIX UAT and Conformance environment is Live
December 2022
- December 10: Production Weekend Test
- December 12: Phase 1 is Live
Frequently Asked Questions
What do Clients need to do to trade with NYSE Floor Brokers?
Please discuss with your Floor Broker what steps you need to take to onboard with Polaris for order entry.
What is the benefit of Polaris Phase 1?
Clients can direct Closing dOrders to NYSE via a Floor Broker in an automated manner. The Floor Broker retains control over the order, including risk. For more information, please contact your Floor Broker.
Will BBSS run in parallel with Polaris for a period of time?
Yes. NYSE has a targeted decommission timeline for BBSS in the second half of 2023.
When are the NYSE Floor Brokers transitioning from BBSS to Polaris?
The initial phase is targeted to begin in November 2022 and is limited to One-touch Closing dOrders. The second phase is targeted to begin in early 2023 and will begin the transition of all Floor Brokers from BBSS to Polaris.
What is the incentive to certify now if Polaris will not be live till November?
Polaris will certify connectivity on a first come first serve basis. Certified Clients are prepared to use the new One-touch workflow once live.
Polaris will provide a FIX Test environment for Clients in May 2022 and a Client Conformance environment in October 2022.
When will Client connectivity testing be available?
Polaris will provide a FIX Test environment for Clients in May 2022 and a Client Conformance environment in October 2022.
Will BBSS run in parallel with Polaris for a period of time?
Yes. NYSE has a targeted decommission timeline for BBSS in the second half of 2023.
When are the NYSE Floor Brokers transitioning from BBSS to Polaris?
The initial phase is targeted to begin in November 2022 and is limited to One-touch Closing dOrders. The second phase is targeted to begin in early 2023 and will begin the transition of all Floor Brokers from BBSS to Polaris.
What fees are associated with connectivity to the Polaris infrastructure?
Pragma charges $550/month per session.
I use a Service Bureau / OMS provider to connect to my Floor Broker relationships. Will my OMS connect for me?
OMS providers are able to connect to Polaris on behalf of their Clients. The process is similar to that of a Client connecting to Polaris.
Can both buy-side and sell-side Clients connect to the Polaris directly?
Yes — both buy- and sell-side Clients can connect to Polaris directly or via a broker OMS. Please discuss the connection with your Broker to determine how you should connect.
Will Clients be able to use existing Pillar Gateways to send orders to Polaris?
No, Pillar Gateways cannot be used to route order to Polaris. You will need to establish connectivity to the Polaris infrastructure via the Polaris FIX specification.
What do Clients need to do to trade with NYSE Floor Brokers?
Please discuss with your Floor Broker what steps you need to take to onboard with Polaris for order entry.
What is the benefit of Polaris Phase 1?
Clients can direct Closing dOrders to NYSE via a Floor Broker in an automated manner. The Floor Broker retains control over the order, including risk. For more information, please contact your Floor Broker.
How do I connect to the Polaris secondary site?
Polaris provides both a primary and a secondary site. Clients may choose to connect to the secondary site for a session; there is no additional session cost.
How do I connect to the FIX Test environment and the Client Certification environment?
The FIX Test environment is accessed via the internet. The Client Certification environment is accessed via NYSE IGN.
Must I continue to send MPID and Sub-MPID (previously Mnemonic)? Can I continue to send Badge# or Agency?
Polaris requires MPID on the New Order – Single message, and passes this on to NYSE. Polaris supports Sub-MPID and Agency as optional fields on the New Order – Single message; and Sub-MPID is also passed on to NYSE. Badge# is not supported on the New Order – Single message. Please see the Polaris FIX Specification for details.
How will I identify myself on an order?
As defined in the Polaris FIX Specification, you will put your Client identifier into FIX tag 115 for New Order – Single messages. This must be the client identifier used for CAT reporting. Please see the Polaris FIX Specification for details.
What is the capacity of Polaris?
Polaris supports up to 5000 trading messages per second, per FIX session. Please contact Pragma for more detail on capacity, such as system constraints.