FAQ

For Firms

1. What are your Clearing arrangements?

Answer:

SILLEX is a clearing and broker neutral OEMS. While we already have streamlined processes in place with many of the top tier clearing firms, we are constantly increase the network of our certified partners.

2. Can you provide customized order and activity reports?

Answer:

Yes, depending on your firm's needs, we can generate custom reports, regulatory reports (e.g. OATS), complete order audit trails and real-time order flow reporting (e.g. FIX Drops).

3. Can you pass through ECN rebates in End-of-Day give-ups and set up custom commission profiles?

Answer:

Yes, depending on your clearing firm and execution agreements we can pass through ECN rebates, Maker/Taker rebates for Options order flow as well set up custom commission profiles for your clients.

4. Do you support FIX drop copies?

Answer:

Yes, we support both, inbound and outbound FIX drop copies.

5. How about risk controls for traders?

Answer:

Obsidian has a myriad of risk controls available to minimize and control your firm's risk exposure, including but not limited to: clip size limits, buying power controls, max position enforcements, asset class limitations, Hard-to-Borrow enforcements and P&L Controls.

6. Do you have a management system; I need to monitor 100 accounts?

Answer:

Silexx offers robust risk management systems. Organize accounts into account groups, simple filter functions allow risk management to sort by account, expiration, symbol, or a host of user defined filters. Risk Radar monitors "Event Risk" and calculates Portfolio Margin in real-time and Position Analyzer offers a convenient way to visualize the risk of complex option positions. Let SILEXX OEMS be a one stop solution to monitor client activity and risk exposure.

7. Can you load our Start-of-Day Position files?

Answer:

Yes, Silexx will work with your firm on a custom automated importing solution for your firm's start-of-day position & buying power files. We are able to seamlessly reload files intra-day, immediately reflecting any changes in the trader's terminal.

8. What are the Obsidian network requirements?

Answer:

Obsidian can be accessed over the public internet. If you are on a network that restricts outgoing network access, please have your network admin grant outgoing access to ports:

• 80 (Order Flow)
• 7000
• Server: 74.201.181.83 (login.silexx.com)
• If Account Settings enabled: port 9001

For Traders

9. What is the difference between Silexx OEMS Obsidian & SILEXX OEMS Obsidian Pro?

Answer:

Obsidian is our base offering and includes all the basic tools a trader requires, from multiple Order Entry controls, to our advanced Option Chain, highly customizable Order Book, real-time Portfolio and various others. Obsidian Pro includes several modules for professional traders and fund managers that are not part of the basic Obsidian offering. These modules include the Risk Radar, Position Analyzer, DDE Link, Charting, Delta Hedging, Spread Maker and our Earnings & Dividends calendar.

10. Can I trade pre & after hours?

Answer:

Yes, most of our order routing lines go online at 5:30 AM EST and offline at 8 PM EST. Please make sure to send after hours’ equities order with Time-in-Force (TIF) code "ETH" (extended trading hours).

11. I can't seem to log in to SILEXX OEMS Obsidian, is my firewall the cause?

Answer:

Depending on the strictness of your firewall settings, your personal or office firewall might restrict outgoing access to connect to our infrastructure. Please make sure your firewall grants outgoing access to ports:

• 80 (Order Flow)
• 7000
• Server: 74.201.181.83 (login.silexx.com)
• If Account Settings enabled: port 9001

12. How much bandwidth does SILEXX OEMS require, how many symbols can I watch?

Answer:

Silexx uses a highly efficient proprietary compression and transmission protocol and we do not employ any symbol subscription limitations. On a regular 3Mbit/sec DSL line you can easily subscribe to several thousand symbols and we have clients with huge portfolios that are subscribing to north of 50,000 active tickers. As a rule of thumb, depending on the activity of the symbols you are watching, Silexx consumes ~15Kbit/sec per 500 symbols.

13. The millisecond war, how fast are you?

Answer:

All those millisecond and microsecond numbers that you see being thrown around in the press ignore multiple factors of latency and often are a result of incorrect/inadequate measurements. For a manual trader, the single biggest source of latency are your fingers and if you can click more than 5 times per second, that's really good. If you put this in numbers, the avg. person has a 200ms to 300ms delay from thinking to clicking the mouse, to actually executing the click. The second biggest source of latency is introduced by your physical connectivity to our order gateways. Depending on your location, sending an order from San Francisco to New York, takes around 30-40ms. Now, for bragging rights, after our order gateway receives your order, we run all necessary risk checks, validate the order and send it out to the exchange our mean-time latency is ~150µs (microseconds), which is ~3,000 times faster than the time it takes for the order to travel to us. Bottom line, yes, our systems are insanely fast and deliver your orders to the exchanges with negligible overhead.

14. Do you support Algorithmic Orders?

Answer:

SILEXX OEMS Obsidian has access to various algorithmic execution strategies. If you are looking for VWAP, TWAP or more advanced strategies like Implementation Shortfall, we have the answer. Our execution partners offer an array of order handling methodology; from proprietary to user defineable solutions. From liquidity rebate oriented order flow routing, to dark liquidity matching, flexible participation, and a host of other advanced order routing strategies are at your fingertips.

15. I am looking for connectivity and data for my proprietary strategy?

Answer:

SILEXX OEMS Obsidian API offers a complete solution for data and execution services for a low monthly fee. This allows traders to maintain full control of their proprietary strategy, while giving them full access to market data and execution.