KX is a

data analysis Data analysis is a process of inspecting, cleansing, transforming, and modeling data with the goal of discovering useful information, informing conclusions, and supporting decision-making. Data analysis has multiple facets and approaches, enco ...

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...

developer and vendor. It is a business unit of AIM-listed technology and services group FD Technologies
LON: FDP
. Its KX Insights platform is built upon the proprietary

time series database A time series database (TSDB) is a software system that is optimized for storing and serving time series through associated pairs of time(s) and value(s). In some fields, ''time series'' may be called profiles, curves, traces or trends. Several ea ...

kdb+ kdb+ is a column-based relational time series database (TSDB) with in-memory (IMDB) abilities, developed and marketed by KX. The database is commonly used in high-frequency trading (HFT) to store, analyze, process, and retrieve large data set ...

and its programming language q.

Kdb+ kdb+ is a column-based relational time series database (TSDB) with in-memory (IMDB) abilities, developed and marketed by KX. The database is commonly used in high-frequency trading (HFT) to store, analyze, process, and retrieve large data set ...

is optimized for ingesting, analyzing and storing massive amounts of structured data in real-time and has set multiple records in STAC Research benchmarks.

is used in financial modeling and data analysis by

Wall Street Wall Street is an eight-block-long street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs between Broadway in the west to South Street and the East River in the east. The term "Wall Street" has become a metonym for t ...

investment banks, and energy, telecommunications, government, and other industries. The company was founded in 1993 by Janet Lustgarten and Arthur Whitney. Whitney is the developer of the k language. In 2014, First Derivatives increased their ownership interest to a 65 percent share of the

privately held company A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in the respective listed markets, but rather the company's stock is ...

as it began expanding its databases to retail, pharmaceuticals, and utilities. In 2018, First Derivatives (now FD Technologies plc) announced plans to buy out the remaining shares of KX. KX has offices in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

London, England London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, and

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

Overview

In 1993, Whitney and Lustgarten joined together to commercialize the k programming platform Whitney had created after building the A+ language and other trading systems at

Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment management and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in more than 41 countries and more than 75,000 employees, the fir ...

. The purpose of the software was to access and explore large data volumes in financial services computer systems. Initially, Kx Systems had an exclusive contract with

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

global

financial services Financial services are the Service (economics), economic services provided by the finance industry, which encompasses a broad range of businesses that manage money, including credit unions, banks, credit-card companies, insurance companies, acco ...

firm

UBS UBS Group AG is a multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company founded and based in Switzerland. Co-headquartered in the cities of Zürich and Basel, it maintains a presence in all major financial centres ...

to provide them with the K language. In 1998, the contract with UBS expired and the firm launched the

database. As part of

, Whitney developed a new language named q that operates with k and uses English keywords. In 1999, the firm reached a marketing agreement with

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

based firm, First Derivatives. Kx Systems opened an office in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

in 2002, offices in

and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

in 2003, and an office in

in 2009. In 2014, First Derivatives purchased a 65 percent share of Kx Systems, which began a trend in offering

to other data-driven industries. Kx Systems has also partnered with the equity trading platform,

IEX Investors Exchange (IEX) is a stock exchange in the United States. It was founded in 2012 in order to mitigate the effects of high-frequency trading. IEX was launched as a national securities exchange in September 2016. On October 24, 2017, it ...

Group Inc., to conduct real-time market surveillance, which can be used to monitor actions such as insider trading. To demonstrate this expansion of

into verticals outside of finance, Kx has entered into a partnership with Aston Martin Red Bull Racing and has become a technology supplier to

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

's Frontier Development Lab. As of 2019

is available as an on-demand solution via the

Amazon Web Services Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) is a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Amazon that provides Software as a service, on-demand cloud computing computing platform, platforms and Application programming interface, APIs to individuals, companies, and gover ...

(AWS) Marketplace. In July 2018, FD Technologies bought all remaining shares in KX Systems that it did not already hold. Co-founders Whitney and Lustgarten then went on to found Shakti.

Fusion Interfaces

As of mid 2018, Kx released a ‘Fusion’ initiative to increase the interface options for kdb+. These include: * Python * Java * R * Kafka * Jupyter * C#

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://kx.com/ 1993 establishments in the United States Companies based in California Technology companies of the United States