By Wiley Warton, Head of Product Development, TMX Australia Exchange
As we prepare for our upcoming technology migration to the TMX Trading System, our team approaches this transformation with strong consideration of the daily operations of our market participants. Upgrading core infrastructure requires careful planning, transparent communication, and above all, a collaborative approach. Our primary objective throughout this migration is to deliver a performant, resilient trading platform while actively minimising operational impact and development overhead for our members, vendor partners, and institutional investors.
Grounded in listening and regional context
Reflecting on prior exchange transition programs across the Asia-Pacific region, our team recognised the necessity of aligning project milestones with the real-world operational rhythms of market participants. We understand that for many trading firms, market makers, and technology providers, the fourth quarter represents a critical annual window for budget planning and technical resource allocation for the upcoming year.
Rather than withholding information until every precise calendar date was fixed, we have chosen to share high-level quarterly targets early in the planning process. This approach, participants have told us, gives their technology teams the lead time required to schedule development bandwidth, and budget, effectively. Furthermore, we purposefully structured our execution timeline to pre-date several major exchange technology upgrades scheduled across the Asia-Pacific region throughout 2028 – such as the ASX Omnet sunset, HKEX Orion Derivatives platform launch, OSE J-Gate sunset, KRX T+1 settlement implementation, and ASX24 futures platform migration – minimising overlapping project demands for regional technology teams.
Understanding the TMX TEAM Matching Engine
At the core of this transition is the TMXTrading ENhancedAdaptive Modular (TEAM) matching engine. TEAM represents a next-generation, unified trading architecture designed to consolidate TMX trading venues onto one consistent, multi-asset capable platform. Built as proprietary technology to TMX, the platform was created to streamline the trading experience while optimising performance, scalability, and long-term innovation across our markets.
We recognise that introducing new matching engine technology to active market participants requires proven reliability. The TEAM architecture is production-ready with product deployment across North America, specifically the Montreal Exchange derivatives market and most recently having been the foundation of the successful launch in January 2025 of AlphaX in the United States. That implementation demonstrated increased automation and operational efficiency, providing our teams with a tested, robust and resilient technology blueprint for upcoming market transitions.
Infrastructure stability and protocol equivalence
In designing our target technical solution, our primary engineering objective was to achieve 1:1 operational equivalence while maintaining physical infrastructure stability. Primary Data Centres will remain unchanged at Equinix SY5 and Equinix SY2, with Disaster Recovery anchored at DigiCo (formerly Global Switch). Physical connectivity choices continue to offer standard 1Gb and 10Gb fibre port options, though new physical cross connects will be required for TMX connectivity. TMX will cover the costs of the new cross-connects until launch.
At the logical layer, existing interfaces map directly to clean counterparts on the TMX platform, ensuring a bounded development scope for internal developers and vendor partners:
| Trading Function | Existing Cboe Protocol | Target TMX Protocol | Operational Details |
| Order Entry & Management | Standard FIX | TMX FIX | Standard session mechanics preserved |
| Low-Latency Order Entry | BOE (Binary Order Entry) | TMX Binary | High-performance binary execution |
| Dedicated Low-Latency | BOE Dedicated Core (BOE DC) | Binary ‘Ultra’ | Ultra-low latency binary solution |
| Risk & Liquidity Management | Purge – Amend Port | Purge – Amend Port | Fully supported on target engine |
| Execution Reporting | FIX Drop | TMX FIX Trade Feed | Direct execution drop copy feed |
| Order & Trade Monitoring | ODROP | TMX FIX Drop Copy Feed | Full order and trade event updates |
| Full-Depth Market Data | PITCH Multicast | ITCH Multicast | Binary, event-by-event order book feed |
| Level 1 Market Data | TOP Multicast | HSVF | High Speed Vendor Feed in ASCII format |
Preserving core market mechanics
Alongside protocol equivalence, it is our intention that core market mechanics carry over with complete parity. The Integrated Order Book matching priority maintains the familiar hierarchy: Price, Visibility, Pegged, and Time. Essential order attributes – including Post Only, BestX, MarketX, all Pegged variants, Iceberg, Minimum Execution Quantity (MEQ), and MEQSE- are fully preserved. Additionally, Time in Force parameters, Broker Preferencing, Order Conversion Services, Self Trade Prevention controls, and Trade Reporting mechanisms remain unchanged.
Execution roadmap and community engagement
To support internal planning, our structured migration roadmap provides a comprehensive sequence leading to production launch:
- Q4 2026: Release of Technical Specifications and Impact Documents, opening of cross-connect ordering, and launch of weekly project newsletters.
- Q1 2027: Hosting of the Industry Webinar covering test environment access and technical specifications.
- Q2 2027: Opening of the General Test Environment (GTE), offering a full six-month testing window prior to production launch.
- Q3/Q4 2027: Dedicated pre-production environment testing and Industry Wide Test (IWT) weekends leading to final Production Launch in late 2027.
Our dedicated migration microsite is live at tmxaustralia.com/tech-migration as a centralised documentation hub. Our team welcomes regular and direct engagement with market participants, vendors, and industry associations. To schedule a direct session with our project team, please reach out via email at [email protected] or call +61 2 8078 1701. We are grateful for your continued partnership and look forward to collaborating closely with you.
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