Abstract: This invention provides a distributed data analysis system for use in analysing Limit Order Book (LOB) data. The system include a virtual machine interface module for creating at least one virtual machine. Each virtual machine is configured to create at least one compute unit for processing the LOB data. Each compute unit and the LOB data is collocated. The system includes an update module for updating the LOB data from at least one electronic trading venue. A monitoring module for tracking the activity of at least one user on the system is also provided. A software library module having at least one algorithm for processing and/or analysing the LOB data, is also provided. The system is implemented in a cloud computing environment.

Abstract: A system and method for collecting and using data are provided, in which an alignment of the different type of data may be needed in real time. The method collects data from data sources of a variety of sources, about which, it is not necessarily known in advance which data at the source matches the data desired or how the data will be labeled or organized. The data may be normalized and the information from potentially multiple data sources may optionally be consolidated. Then the method may retrieve a smaller amount, and/or less complex set, of data, which may be private data, and the method may align the retrieved data with a larger, and/or more complex set, of data (which may be public data). The smaller amount of data and the larger and/or more complex data are used to compute an index, and the index may then be used to align future sets of the smaller amount of data with the later sets of the more larger or complex data.