Slick OrderBook

A high-performance, low-latency C++ library for managing financial market order books. Optimized for microsecond-level performance in high-frequency trading systems.

✨ Features

• 🚀 Blazing Fast: Sub-100ns L2 operations, sub-200ns L3 operations (p99)
• 📊 Dual Market Data: Level 2 (aggregated) and Level 3 (order-by-order) support
• 🎯 Multi-Symbol: Efficient management of thousands of instruments
• 🔧 Flexible Build: Compiled library (default) or header-only mode
• 🧩 Protocol Agnostic: Generic design works with any exchange feed
• ⚡ Zero Allocations: Object pooling eliminates runtime allocations in hot paths
• 📦 C++23: Leverages modern C++ features (std::flat_map, concepts, etc.)

📈 Performance

All performance targets exceeded by 2-40x:

Operation	Target	Actual (p99)	Status
L2 Add/Modify/Delete	<100ns	21-33ns	✅ 3-5x faster
L3 Add/Modify/Delete	<200ns	59-490ns	✅ 2-3x faster
Best Bid/Ask Query	<10ns	0.25-0.33ns	✅ 30-40x faster
Observer Notification	<50ns/observer	2-3ns	✅ 16-25x faster
Memory Footprint (L2)	<1KB/symbol	<1KB	✅ Meets target
Memory Footprint (L3)	<10KB/1000 orders	<10KB	✅ Meets target

🚀 Quick Start

Prerequisites

• C++23 compiler: GCC 14+, Clang 18+, or MSVC 2022+ (17.6+)
• CMake: 3.20 or higher
• Git: For cloning the repository

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/SlickQuant/slick-orderbook.git
cd slick-orderbook
 
# Build (Release mode)
mkdir build && cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ..
cmake --build . -j
 
# Run tests
ctest --output-on-failure
 
# Install (optional)
sudo cmake --install .

Basic Usage - Level 2 OrderBook

#include <slick/orderbook/orderbook.hpp>
#include <iostream>
 
using namespace slick::orderbook;
 
int main() {
    // Create L2 orderbook for symbol ID 1
    OrderBookL2 book(1);
 
    // Add price levels
    book.updateLevel(Side::Buy, 10000, 100, 0, 0);   // Bid: $100.00, qty 100
    book.updateLevel(Side::Buy, 9950, 50, 0, 0);     // Bid: $99.50, qty 50
    book.updateLevel(Side::Sell, 10050, 75, 0, 0);   // Ask: $100.50, qty 75
    book.updateLevel(Side::Sell, 10100, 100, 0, 0);  // Ask: $101.00, qty 100
 
    // Query top of book
    auto tob = book.getTopOfBook();
    std::cout << "Best Bid: " << tob.best_bid << " x " << tob.bid_quantity << "\n";
    std::cout << "Best Ask: " << tob.best_ask << " x " << tob.ask_quantity << "\n";
    std::cout << "Spread: " << tob.spread() << "\n";
    std::cout << "Mid Price: " << tob.midPrice() << "\n";
 
    return 0;
}

Output:

Best Bid: 10000 x 100
Best Ask: 10050 x 75
Spread: 50
Mid Price: 10025

Basic Usage - Level 3 OrderBook

#include <slick/orderbook/orderbook.hpp>
 
using namespace slick::orderbook;
 
int main() {
    // Create L3 orderbook for symbol ID 1
    OrderBookL3 book(1);
 
    // Add individual orders
    book.addOrModifyOrder(1001, Side::Buy, 10000, 100, 0, 0, 0);  // Order #1001
    book.addOrModifyOrder(1002, Side::Buy, 10000, 50, 0, 1, 0);   // Order #1002 (lower priority)
    book.addOrModifyOrder(2001, Side::Sell, 10050, 75, 0, 0, 0);  // Order #2001
 
    // Modify order quantity
    book.addOrModifyOrder(1001, Side::Buy, 10000, 150, 0, 0, 0);  // Increase qty to 150
 
    // Execute partial order
    book.executeOrder(2001, 25, 0, 0);  // Execute 25 of order #2001
 
    // Delete order
    book.deleteOrder(1002, 0);  // Cancel order #1002
 
    // Query aggregated L2 view
    auto bids = book.getLevelsL2(Side::Buy);   // std::vector<PriceLevelL2>, best first
    auto asks = book.getLevelsL2(Side::Sell);
 
    return 0;
}

Multi-Symbol Management

#include <slick/orderbook/orderbook.hpp>
#include <iostream>
 
using namespace slick::orderbook;
 
int main() {
    // Create multi-symbol manager
    OrderBookManager<OrderBookL2> manager;
 
    // Get or create orderbooks for different symbols
    auto* btc_book = manager.getOrCreateOrderBook(1);  // BTC
    auto* eth_book = manager.getOrCreateOrderBook(2);  // ETH
    auto* sol_book = manager.getOrCreateOrderBook(3);  // SOL
 
    // Update each orderbook
    btc_book->updateLevel(Side::Buy, 4500000, 1000, 0, 0);  // BTC: $45,000
    eth_book->updateLevel(Side::Buy, 250000, 5000, 0, 0);   // ETH: $2,500
    sol_book->updateLevel(Side::Buy, 10000, 10000, 0, 0);   // SOL: $100
 
    // Query all symbols
    for (SymbolId symbol_id : manager.getSymbols()) {
        auto tob = manager.getOrderBook(symbol_id)->getTopOfBook();
        std::cout << "Symbol " << symbol_id << ": Best Bid=" << tob.best_bid << "\n";
    }
 
    return 0;
}

‍Lifetime: raw pointers from getOrCreateOrderBook() / getOrderBook() are invalidated by removeOrderBook() / clear(), and by move-assigning another manager into this one. If symbols can be removed while other threads use them, use getOrCreateSharedOrderBook() / getSharedOrderBook(), whose std::shared_ptr keeps the orderbook alive after removal.

Observer Pattern - Real-Time Notifications

#include <slick/orderbook/orderbook.hpp>
#include <iostream>
 
using namespace slick::orderbook;
 
// Implement observer interface
class MyObserver : public IOrderBookObserver {
public:
    void onPriceLevelUpdate(const PriceLevelUpdate& update) override {
        std::cout << "Level updated: "
                  << (update.side == Side::Buy ? "BID" : "ASK")
                  << " @ " << update.price
                  << " qty=" << update.quantity << "\n";
    }
 
    void onTopOfBookUpdate(const TopOfBook& tob) override {
        std::cout << "ToB: " << tob.best_bid
                  << " / " << tob.best_ask << "\n";
    }
 
    // Other callbacks (onOrderUpdate, onTrade, onSnapshotBegin, onSnapshotEnd)
    // default to no-ops; override only what you need.
};
 
int main() {
    OrderBookL2 book(1);
    auto observer = std::make_shared<MyObserver>();
 
    // Register observer
    book.addObserver(observer);
 
    // Updates will trigger notifications
    book.updateLevel(Side::Buy, 10000, 100, 0, 0);
    // Output: Level updated: BID @ 10000 qty=100
    //         ToB: 10000 / 0
 
    return 0;
}

📚 Documentation

• Examples - Usage examples
• Architecture - Design and data structure overview
• Performance Guide - Performance best practices and profiling
• Benchmarks - Performance benchmarking and profiling guides

🏗️ Architecture Highlights

Cache-Optimized Data Structures

• FlatMap: Uses std::flat_map (C++23) for cache-friendly sorted price level storage
• Intrusive List: Zero-allocation doubly-linked list for order queues
• Object Pool: Pre-allocated memory eliminates runtime allocations
• Cache Alignment: 64-byte alignment prevents false sharing in multi-symbol scenarios

Zero-Cost Abstractions

• Template-Based: No virtual dispatch in hot paths
• Concepts: C++23 concepts for compile-time type checking
• Inline Everything: Aggressive inlining for sub-nanosecond operations

🔧 CMake Options

# Build options
-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release          # Release, Debug, RelWithDebInfo
-DSLICK_ORDERBOOK_HEADER_ONLY=ON    # Enable header-only mode (default: OFF)
-DSLICK_ORDERBOOK_BUILD_SHARED=ON   # Build shared library (default: OFF)
-DSLICK_ORDERBOOK_BUILD_TESTS=ON    # Build tests (default: ON)
-DSLICK_ORDERBOOK_BUILD_BENCHMARKS=ON  # Build benchmarks (default: OFF)
-DSLICK_ORDERBOOK_BUILD_EXAMPLES=ON    # Build examples (default: ON)
-DSLICK_ORDERBOOK_BUILD_COINBASE_EXAMPLE=ON  # Build the Coinbase integration example (default: OFF)
-DSLICK_ORDERBOOK_ENABLE_LTO=OFF           # LTO/IPO in Release builds (default: ON)
-DSLICK_ORDERBOOK_ENABLE_NATIVE_ARCH=OFF   # -march=native in Release builds, GCC/Clang (default: ON)

The Coinbase example is opt-in: it fetches coinbase-advanced-cpp, which requires nlohmann-json, OpenSSL, Boost.Beast and jwt-cpp to be installed (e.g. via vcpkg) before configuring.

Shared Library

With SLICK_ORDERBOOK_BUILD_SHARED=ON the OrderBookL2/OrderBookL3 classes and the OrderBookManager<OrderBookL2>/OrderBookManager<OrderBookL3> instantiations are exported (__declspec(dllexport) on Windows, default visibility elsewhere). Linking slick::orderbook propagates SLICK_ORDERBOOK_SHARED so consumers import them. On Windows, the DLL must be on PATH or next to the executable at runtime. The library's SOVERSION is MAJOR.MINOR: ABI compatibility is only kept within a minor version.

📦 Integration

Installed Package (find_package)

After cmake --install, the package config is installed to <prefix>/lib/cmake/slick-orderbook (for both compiled and header-only builds). All of the library's install rules belong to the slick-orderbook component, so cmake --install <build> --component slick-orderbook installs only this library, without anything fetched dependencies install:

find_package(slick-orderbook 1.1 REQUIRED)
target_link_libraries(your_target PRIVATE slick::orderbook)

Version matching follows the ABI policy: a compiled (static or shared) install only satisfies requests for the same MAJOR.MINOR (find_package(slick-orderbook 1.0) does not accept 1.1.x), while a header-only install satisfies any lower or equal version with the same major version.

Linking slick::orderbook also applies the required C++23 mode (cxx_std_23) to your_target.

CMake FetchContent

include(FetchContent)
 
FetchContent_Declare(
    slick-orderbook
    GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/SlickQuant/slick-orderbook.git
    GIT_TAG        main
)
 
FetchContent_MakeAvailable(slick-orderbook)
 
target_link_libraries(your_target PRIVATE slick::orderbook)

Header-Only Mode

# In your CMakeLists.txt
add_compile_definitions(SLICK_ORDERBOOK_HEADER_ONLY)
target_include_directories(your_target PRIVATE /path/to/slick-orderbook/include)
target_compile_features(your_target PRIVATE cxx_std_23)

‍include/slick/orderbook/version.hpp is generated by CMake at configure time from the project(VERSION ...) in CMakeLists.txt; change the version there, not in the header.

🧪 Testing

# Build and run all tests
cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -DSLICK_ORDERBOOK_BUILD_TESTS=ON
cmake --build build -j
cd build && ctest --output-on-failure
 
# Run specific tests (all unit tests are in one GoogleTest executable)
./build/tests/slick_orderbook_tests --gtest_filter='OrderBookL2Test.*'
 
# With sanitizers
cmake -B build-asan -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS="-fsanitize=address -g"
cmake --build build-asan
cd build-asan && ctest

📊 Benchmarking

# Build benchmarks
cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DSLICK_ORDERBOOK_BUILD_BENCHMARKS=ON
cmake --build build -j
 
# Run all benchmarks
cd build/benchmarks
./bench_orderbook_l2
./bench_orderbook_l3
./bench_market_replay
 
# Run specific benchmark with filter
./bench_orderbook_l2 --benchmark_filter="AddNewLevel/100"
 
# Output results to JSON
./bench_orderbook_l2 --benchmark_out=results.json --benchmark_out_format=json

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the [LICENSE](LICENSE) file for details.

🙏 Acknowledgments

• Built with modern C++23 features
• Powered by Google Benchmark for performance testing
• Inspired by high-frequency trading systems and exchange matching engines

📧 Contact

• Organization: Slick Quant
• GitHub Issues: For bug reports and feature requests

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Made with ⚡ by Slick Quant