Kx Systems Unveils Platform for High-Speed Data Management

BRADENTON, Fla. - Miami-based Kx Systems Inc. unveiled a software platform last week for managing and analyzing large amounts of financial trade data at high speed and in real time for stocks and municipal bonds.

Company co-founders Janet Lustgarten, chief executive officer, and Arthur Whitney, chief technical officer, say their platform can do things that existing data technology cannot -- namely, handle and store both historical and real-time downloads and queries for instant analysis, including past trends.

So far, Kx has conducted stock trading tests with a few companies.

"Our system is a combination of a ticker-relational database and time-series analysis that keep track of enormous amounts of real-time data that turns into historical data," Whitney explained.

He said the system could easily handle "hundreds of thousands" of bond transactions in a day.

In 1996, Kx launched a general-purpose, relational, fact-based system for storing massive amounts of data, a system now being used in telecommunications, business intelligence, electricity, and insurance industries. Last week, the company announced the release of a securities application.

"This comprehensive system, which is the application of layers on our generic database, is where we say we have no competitors," Lustgarten said. "The storage and query response rates at high speeds is the distinguishing factor about our technology."

Before starting up the privately held company, Lustgarten worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers on artificial intelligence programs, and Whitney previously worked in the fixed-income division at Morgan Stanley on treasuries, government, corporate, and asset-backed securities.