In high-performance trading environments, access to timely and precise visibility of a trading firm's status in the market is essential. One such offering from the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) that supports this need is the ICE Private Order Feed (POF). For firms trading on ICE markets, understanding the function and value of this feed is critical — especially when integrating with platforms like OnixS to maximise operational efficiency and performance.
What is the ICE Private Order Feed?
The ICE Private Order Feed is a participant-specific drop copy feed of orders provided by ICE. It delivers order and order state messages on a per-participant basis, with content tailored specifically for that market participant. Unlike public or multicast feeds, the POF provides personalised visibility into a firm's own order activity and interactions with the matching engine.
It includes firm-specific acknowledgements, order state changes, executions, priority indicators, and sequencing — all delivered with low latency. For firms engaged in algorithmic or high-frequency trading, this stream of information enables more precise risk control and faster, more informed decision-making.
Why does it matter?
The ICE Private Order Feed gives trading firms a much clearer picture of what’s happening to their orders in real time. Instead of waiting for trade confirmations via public feeds or relying on polling mechanisms, firms can see acknowledgements and state changes directly from the matching engine. This is especially important for strategies that rely on rapid order amendments or cancellations.
While ICE also offers the iMpact multicast feed to provide a full market view of the central order book, the POF serves a different and complementary purpose. It is a private, point-to-point feed optimised specifically for order status monitoring. The two serve different use cases in a trading architecture.
For many firms, the POF supports operational transparency, enabling better monitoring and risk oversight. The detailed, participant-specific view of each order can help meet internal audit requirements, support compliance workflows, and assist with trade surveillance activities.
How OnixS supports integration
For firms looking to integrate with the ICE Private Order Feed, OnixS offers a certified, production-ready SDK as part of our directConnect product line. The OnixS ICE Private Order Feed Handler SDK is optimised for low latency using our high-performance FIX Engine libraries in C++, .NET and Java. It includes ICE-specific message handlers and a reference implementation, making development and testing significantly faster.
We support Windows and Linux platforms, with compatibility across .NET Framework, .NET Core, Java, and C++ environments. Our SDK is used by proprietary trading firms, market makers, and clearing teams alike to achieve fast, reliable integration without the overhead of building in-house solutions from scratch.
The SDK is also kept aligned with ICE’s evolving specifications and protocols, so clients don’t need to worry about ongoing maintenance or certification changes. With OnixS, you’re integrating with confidence and speed.
Who uses the POF?
The ICE Private Order Feed is especially useful for firms that need real-time insight into how their orders are being processed — including proprietary trading firms, market makers, quant desks, compliance teams, and those responsible for trade surveillance. For any organisation where execution transparency and visibility into the matching engine matter, the POF provides a clear operational edge.
Looking to integrate the ICE Private Order Feed into your infrastructure? Explore our ICE Private Order Feed Handler SDK with a free 30-day evaluation or get in touch with our technical team to learn more.
