"Our previous system used packaged software," said Nelson Ying, CTO of Tai Fook Securities. "To fit that application with our trading strategy, we had to customize more than 50 percent of the software."

Since the trading applications hold not only the business process, but also the firm's investment strategy, no off-the-shelf software is able to support the firm's operation, noted Ying.

Due to the unique business requirements within the application, the firm decided to build a new application under its IT revamp project. With a development cost of HK$20 million (US$2.6 million) and a team of 60 people, including developers, users, business analysts and the testing team, Tai Fook developed a new set of trading applications.

Apart from meeting its trading strategy, another critical element of its trading system is risk management.

"Unlike banks, securities firms bear a much higher risk," said Ying. "Good risk management is critical for us."