20060910 11 months on from this report. When will DMA be a reality? I suspect pretty soon. Couple of comments are in order here. Korea experienced the big bang boost to volume and liquidity through DMA. But the DMA is open and available to both institutions and the individual traders/investors, creating a level playing field for the market mechanism and price discovery to flourish. The average derivatives trading volume in Korea is well over 1m shares per day. So, Bursa need to make DMA accessible to all, in my opinion. 

Bursatrade Open API should be expediated

20060908 As traders all know, "The Trend is Your Friend". The trend worldwide is definitely tilting towards online trading via the internet.(Finextra article above) Not just online trading but direct straight through processing which eliminates the human button pusher. Even a young exchange like Thailand Futures Exchange commenced online trading for futures end Aug 2006. For Bursa, the open API release should be expediated, as soon as Bursatrade is launched, so that trading on Bursa can move down this path towards the 'big bang'. TFEX approach is interesting to note, they use a centralised software developer SETTRADE, who consulted the experts in this field, from S Korea. Korean's futures market have bounded exponentially in volume and participation ever since they incorporated online trading in 1997. Using an exchange developed platform will cut costs and pass on the economies of scale benefits to market participants.