A.B. Watley Group — a financial services company that also owns and operates A.B. Watley Inc., a NASD registered broker/dealer — says its new Java-based direct-access trading software is in the final optimization stages for Mac OS X. UltimateTrader II, a Java-based client-server application for direct-access trading will be the first direct-access software suite to be optimized for a Mac operating system, according to Leon Ferguson, A.B. Watley Group CIO.
“We have always believed in ‘thinking different’,” he said in a statement. “I am very pleased that Apple has made as strong a commitment to the new Java application as we have. It is a great competitive opportunity to be the first to offer direct-access trading to the Apple community. Apple users have been asking us for high-quality financial services applications for quite some time. Their incorporation of Java in the Mac OS X has made it possible for us to deliver to them among the best products available. We expect a short optimization process with the newly released Mac OS X and then we will release our software to the OS X-using public.”
According to Apple, Mac OS X provides a highly-optimized, tightly integrated implementation of Java 2 Standard Edition 1.3, including the client version of the HotSpot virtual machine. Apple says X is the “only high-volume desktop operating system to ship with Java 2.”
“Direct-access stock trading software allows the user real-time equity and equity option trade execution into exchanges and ECN’s,” said Tony Huston, A.B. Watley Group president. “This software also allows users to see all Nasdaq Level II information and can afford the trader a transparent view of the market place and its participants. Mac users fit our direct-access profile quite well and are a great target market for us. Among the most important aspects of the Mac user’s financial services profile is their brand loyalty. Mac users fit our demographic and client psychographic extremely well. Apple has captured 17% of primary home computer market share, nearly double the 9% reported last year. We are very excited about being the first to offer this kind of product to the Apple community.”
A.B. Watley Group licenses software technology and provides end-to-end solutions for brokerage firms and clearing corporations. The company’s competitors include NYFIX, E-Speed, OM Group, Trade Cast, Charles Schwab, Ameritrade, and TD Waterhouse.