Back in 2008 NSE started offering NSE NOW as a digital trading platform to all its members or brokers. NSE NOW has been a key factor in the establishment of new discount brokers as the cost of setting up a trading platform is quite high and NOW was already available to use free of cost for both old and new brokers.
Over the last 12 years, since the inception of the NOW platform, many brokers have moved on from NOW to offer their own trading platform solutions to the clients. Still, out of 800+ trading members of NSE, about a third of them are using NOW as their trading platform solution. NSE has given 90 days to the brokers dependant on NOW, to move on to other solutions for the platform.
NOW has been marred by severe technical glitches and the complaints over the years about it were piling up at NSE. There were severe incidents this year as well where trading for the retail brokers was halted. The brokers association even wrote to NSE alleging severe loss to its members due to the technical glitches.
As the NOW will be discontinued, NSE is providing APIs to its members for developing customized solutions for trading platforms as per each broker’s requirement. With the end of NOW, brokers can either choose to develop their own front-end trading solutions on top of the APIs provided by NSE or they can choose to go with other options such as Omnesys NEST, ODIN or BSE’s BOW to name a few. If you are not using NOW for your trading, then its shutdown would not affect you.
Happy Trading!
