AMNI online trading platform may upstage NSE’s

One NSE member actually said the software may be made available free to members. Installing the NSE software on the other hand may require an investment of about Rs 5 lakh, according to this broker. Association members said the platform should be ready for use some time around Diwali.

While details of the rival platform being planned by the brokers are not available, NSE’s Dotex International has an extensive infrastructure comprising a front-end website (Dotexplaza.com is the URL under which retail investors will be able to access the platform), applications to interact with the web and various databases along with back-end database servers all of which are based on Intel architecture.

In fact, Intel officials claim that this is the first time that Intel has created an architecture on this scale in an Application Service Provider (ASP) environment anywhere in the world.

Dotex International basically embodies an architecture which links the retail investors to brokers and the exchange in a manner which enables online trading in a seamless fashion. While the exchange in question at the moment is the NSE, it is a matter of time before other exchanges are brought into the fold.

This basically means that retail investors will be able to conduct trading activities on multiple exchanges via DotexPlaza, according to Satish Naralkar who heads NSE.IT.

Naralkar said NSE.IT had signed up with HDFC Bank and was in talks with UTI Bank and Standard Chartered to offer banking services on Dotex International.

Depository participants, banks, brokers and the stock exchange have all been integrated on the platform to allow for real-time trading.

Brokers who purchase the requisite software and thereby become part of this platform will have a micro-site on DotexPlaza which can be accessed by their clients who can then conduct trades through them. "The objective is to provide a shared facility for hundreds of brokers and provide them with dedicated server slots," says Naralkar.

"These platforms look good on the face of it," comments one NSE broker, "Think of it this way, we will be able to create small portals with little or no investment".

The key advantage of these platforms is the fact that they will house smaller brokers, according to some retail investors. Says one young investor: "I don’t have to pay the margin money that these big e-broking portals demand".

There are however certain issues that have to be grappled with before these plans come to fruition. Bandwidth remains a key concern. "Losing Internet connectivity when you want to cover an exposure can be killing," says one trader.

Besides, the IT Act, which is the only legislation which has been put in place for the cyberworld in India so far, does not touch upon payment mechanisms at all and unless this is put in place, big-value transactions on any B2B exchange are unlikely.