Colt Technology Services, the global digital infrastructure company, announced a major Asia-Pacific milestone. The company has signed a market data connectivity partnership agreement with Nextrade, South Korea’s first Alternative Trading System, positioning itself as a critical partner in the region’s rapidly evolving alternative trading ecosystem.
The move reflects a growing demand for extended trading hours and lower-cost execution, where institutional investors are increasingly seeking alternatives to traditional exchanges for more flexible trading strategies and cost efficiencies.
“Hong Kong and Singapore investors have been underserved when it comes to flexible, cost-effective access to Korean markets,” said Amana Lau, regional sales director and head of Hong Kong, Colt Technology Services. “Combined with our ultra-low latency infrastructure, we’re enabling our APAC customers to compete on equal footing with global players.”
Real-time data and low latency execution – building the infrastructure to support trading strategies for Colt’s APAC customers
For investors in Hong Kong and Singapore, the Nextrade partnership addresses a longstanding challenge: accessing Korean equities during regional trading hours with competitive pricing. The 12-hour trading window aligns with the APAC business day, enabling traders to respond to market-moving events in real time beyond the constraints of conventional Korean market hours.
Nextrade launched in March 2025 as the first ATS in South Korea under the Korean Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act. It offers 12-hour trading sessions (8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Korea time) – an extended trading window compared to existing Korean markets – and trading fees 20% to 40% lower than conventional venues. Within months of operations, NXT has achieved approximately 30% of Korea’s overall daily average trading volume on individual stocks, signalling strong institutional appetite for alternative liquidity sources. The multi-year agreement enables Colt to serve as a designated partner to distribute real-time market data within KT Yeouido Data Centre, Nextrade’s primary access point and the region’s closest gateway to both Nextrade and KRX stock markets.
“The rapid growth of alternative trading platforms like Nextrade and JAX demonstrates a fundamental shift in how institutional investors approach Asian equities,” said Wesley Elder, product director, Capital Markets at Colt Technology Services. “By securing primary access to Nextrade, we’re giving our customers a first-mover advantage across the region’s most dynamic markets.”
Colt’s capital markets network connects to over 80 exchanges and trading venues worldwide, including major financial centres in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Seoul. The company’s PrizmNet infrastructure provides secure, low latency connectivity designed to support the evolving demands of algorithmic trading, quantitative strategies, and cross-border capital flows.
