Nasdaq, the US stock exchange has launched a testing platform that it says will improve quality assurance processes among its customers. The platform, called Validator, is designed in particular for use by exchanges, clearing houses and central securities depositaries and will lower the testing costs and delivery times of new functionalities they want to bring on stream, said Lars Ottersgård, Nasdaq’s Stockholm-based executive vice president and head of market technology.
Torbjörn Nager, Nasdaq
Among the functionalities likely to be tested by customer are matching mechanisms, new order types and new information dissemination mechanisms, according to Nasdaq. Validator has been designed to support automated testing, and requires no prior programming knowledge to operate, the exchange added. It is also designed to support any application programme interface (API) used by customers.
According to Torbjörn Nager, Nasdaq’s lead product manager for market technology: “Validator supports many Nasdaq and standard protocols out of the box, but it is also easy to add new APIs. This typically only takes a couple of days depending on the complexity of the API.”
“Other general test tools are typically limited to a single or few APIs and require training and specialised testers,” Nager said. “Validator does not require that specialisation, and it combines that advantage with the capability to design test scenarios either in a graphical user interface or in a spreadsheet form.”
