TradElect was the London Stock Exchange's main electronic trading platform from 2007 to 2011. It ran on Microsoft Windows, using .NET technology and Microsoft SQL Server. Its development took 4 years from project inception to rollout and had a total cost of £40m.The impetus for the development of TradElect was the rise of algorithmic trading and the liberalisation of the trading sector in Europe due to the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive.