Morgan Stanley Overhauls Equity Systems to Cut Microseconds

Morgan Stanley has overhauled its trading infrastructure for U.S. equities to keep pace with a marketplace in which millionths of a second count.

The bank modernized its technology for stock trading to save fractions of a millisecond and is now moving clients onto the new platform, Bill Neuberger, global co-head of Morgan Stanley Electronic Trading at the New York-based company, said by phone. A millisecond is a thousandth of a second and a microsecond is a millionth. When carrying out buy or sell orders for customers, the changes will enable the bank to get 99 percent of the shares available on exchanges at a specific price, up from the high 80s two years ago, he said.