MIAC Analytics™ has transformed TBA market execution by seamlessly integrating real-time data from our TBA futures market with over-the-counter (OTC) market data. This integration enhances price discovery, improves transparency and empowers mortgage market participants—especially Independent Mortgage Banks (IMBs)—to achieve better execution. By leveraging our WebSocket API, MIAC Analytics has developed a cutting-edge solution that enhances profitability and eliminates reliance on outdated trading methods.

MIAC Analytics™ was founded in 1989 and is the industry leader in mortgage pricing models, TBA pricing data and analytical solutions. With over 120 employees in offices in NYC, Charlotte, London and Bangalore, MIAC has continually created innovative solutions for mortgage market participants.

MIAC Analytics is known for providing high-quality TBA price data in the OTC market. However, the firm sought to synchronize OTC TBA pricing with our Exchange-traded TBA futures market to improve price discovery and execution for its clients.

• MIAC Analytics generates TBA Fixings every five minutes using FINRA TRACE data.
• The firm needed a way to integrate CME Group’s real-time TBA futures prices into its platform to enable better execution decisions.
• MIAC Analytics aimed to help TBA market participants determine whether they could achieve superior price execution through TBA futures.

MIAC evaluated multiple methods for capturing and processing our real-time TBA futures data, including co-location, Google Pub/Sub and capturing from third parties. However, WebSocket API won out due to its ease of use, cost-efficiency, scalability for future initiatives and the ability to get the data straight from the source.

WebSocket API allowed the data stream to be seamlessly incorporated into MIAC’s platform, allowing mortgage originators and TBA traders to access real-time bids, offers and price information across both markets.

Our WebSocket solution has brought various enhancements to MIAC’s offerings:

• Best execution across markets: MIAC Analytics now enables clients to trade at the best available prices, whether in the OTC or TBA futures markets. By comparing real-time prices, they can execute orders where execution is most favorable.
• Real-time market transparency: Clients can see bid-offer spreads, cleared prices and arbitrage opportunities across both markets in real time.
• Streamlined trade execution: MIAC Analytics acts on behalf of nearly 100 mortgage originators and TBA participants, ensuring their trades are executed efficiently and cost-effectively.
• Elimination of pricing discrepancies: The OTC TBA market has historically relied on outdated price discovery mechanisms, such as request-for-quote (RFQ) processes. By integrating the  central limit order book (CLOB) data, MIAC offers a modernized approach to execution.

Due to the success of this integration, MIAC plans to expand into additional products in collaboration with us.

One MIAC developer was primarily responsible for the MIAC Analytics WebSocket API effort to design, test and deploy. The support of our WebSocket professionals, along with high-quality technical documentation, comprehensive test data, and easily accessible test environments, contributed to the smooth and successful process.

The use of JSON for delivering WebSocket messages, a format widely used by web developers, made it simple to send and receive structured data. In comparison to SBE, the human-readable format of JSON made development and testing easier, as well as seamless integration with applications.

At only $23/GB, WebSocket connectivity was a very cost-efficient method of consuming real-time data for MIAC, considering it could have cost thousands to consume it through other methods.

The MIAC Market Monitor™ platform gives TBA traders an actionable, side-by-side view of indicative markets for OTC TBAs and live bids and offers in TBA futures from CME Group. With this visibility, users can identify potential arbitrage opportunities in real time while also benefiting from execution levels that closely track or even improve upon trades reported in FINRA’s TRACE feed.

Using color-coded indicators, such as orange and brown, MIAC’s GUI highlights instances where pricing dislocations exist between CME Group and OTC markets. For example:

• In the May 4.5s, the CME Group offer at 95-26.25 (9:02:43 am) was meaningfully below the MMM implied cleared price of 95-27.875 (8:55 am), offering a potential pickup of 1.625 ticks.
• In the May 5s, the CME Group offer at 98-2.5 (9:02 am) compared to an OTC-cleared price of 98-2.875 (9:00 am), reflected a 0.375 tick arbitrage opportunity.

While pure arbitrage opportunities are relatively rare and fleeting, MIAC Analytics allows traders to act on them when they do occur – something that was previously impossible due to the fragmented and opaque nature of OTC trading.

Beyond rare arbitrage scenarios, the deeper value of the MIAC platform lies in its ability to bring execution quality that's in line with or better than TRACE-reported trades. Because CME Group TBA futures bids and offers frequently align with TRACE pricing, TBA market participants now have access to execution levels that were previously reserved for primary dealers and their direct counterparties.

Here’s why that matters:

• TRACE only reports trades involving primary dealers – if a TBA participant executes through a regional broker, that trade doesn’t appear on TRACE.
• In nearly all cases (99%), the regional broker turns around and offsets the trade with a primary dealer.
• In doing so, the regional broker typically charges at least 1/32 to the TBA participant to account for counterparty credit risk.

Since TBA futures are centrally cleared and carry no counterparty credit risk, all participants can access the same “inside market” prices – gaining transparency, tighter spreads ‌ and better pricing without needing a primary dealer relationship.

Building on the success of its WebSocket integration, MIAC Analytics plans to expand real-time CME Group pricing data into additional mortgage-related CME Group products and leverage the WebSocket API to seamlessly integrate new products without additional technical overhead, while continuing to promote real-time execution efficiency for IMBs and other mortgage market participants.