The Warsaw Stock Exchange, known as GPW or WSE, combines three features that deserve more attention from professional trading firms: rapidly growing equity trading, a market whose potential has attracted international interest, and an established foundation for algorithmic and high-frequency trading. UTP (Universal Trading Platform) was GPW’s previous electronic trading system, responsible for processing and matching buy and sell orders. GPW WATS (Warsaw Automated Trading System) is its new, exchange-developed successor. The recent move from UTP to GPW WATS adds a new stage of modernisation to infrastructure that has supported automated trading for more than a decade.
A fast-growing market with more potential to explore
GPW’s 2025 financial-results presentation, published on 24 March 2026, reports Main Market cash-equity turnover of PLN 470.3 billion, up 41.9% year on year. It also reports 49.6 million equity transactions, an increase of 28.5%. The broad-market WIG index rose 47.3% during the year.
The momentum continued into 2026. In September 2026, total Main Market equity turnover reached PLN 61.5 billion, up 60.1% year on year. Electronic order-book turnover reached PLN 59.4 billion, up 57.5%, with average daily order-book turnover of PLN 2.7 billion. WIG gained 34.2% between the start of the year and the end of September.
For algorithmic trading firms, the significance extends beyond rising share prices. More trading activity makes GPW a more substantial venue to evaluate for automated execution, market making and systematic strategies. The opportunity still depends on the instruments and strategy, but the scale and pace of growth provide a concrete reason to look more closely.
An overlooked market attracting international attention
In May 2025, The Economist described Poland as an overlooked stockmarket performer. Its article connected renewed investor interest with Poland’s economic development and changing perceptions of the market.
The Financial Times also reported renewed foreign interest in Polish equities in 2025, discussing valuations, dividends and economic conditions. Together, these reports frame a market gaining recognition beyond its domestic investor base.
The opportunity is the combination: growing trading activity, international interest and an exchange with established support for professional automated trading. Making access easier could help more trading firms evaluate that potential.
Built for algorithmic trading and HFT for many years
GPW’s preparation for latency-sensitive trading predates the latest rally. UTP entered production on 15 April 2013. The exchange then launched colocation and High Performance Access (HPA) on 2 September 2013, as recorded in GPW’s review of that year.
These services allowed participants to place their systems close to the exchange’s trading platform and reduce communication delays. That is an important foundation for HFT and other strategies sensitive to the timing of market data and orders. GPW has therefore offered key infrastructure for this form of participation for more than thirteen years.
Our assessment is that Warsaw should be evaluated as an established venue for professional algorithmic trading, with a long history of low-latency access. Recent investment builds on that foundation.
From UTP to WATS: a new phase of modernisation
On 5 October 2026, GPW WATS replaced UTP in production. In its 9 October implementation update, GPW confirmed that the first four trading sessions had proceeded without major incidents or unplanned downtime.
The exchange reported 1.02 million transactions, 74.4 million orders and PLN 9.4 billion of turnover during those four sessions. It describes WATS as designed to support 40,000 operations per second and up to 300 million operations per session. These are exchange-reported system figures; individual participants’ performance also depends on their access and applications.
Equinix strengthens the access ecosystem
The WATS programme also brings GPW’s primary trading platform to Equinix WA3 in Warsaw. Equinix’s announcement describes a dedicated trading colocation environment and access through an international ecosystem of connectivity and specialist service providers. The location was announced in 2023; WATS went live in October 2026.
For international trading firms, this places a growing market within a familiar infrastructure ecosystem. In our view, the combination strengthens GPW’s appeal as a venue to assess for algorithmic trading and HFT.
Fintech91: making the opportunity easier to access
Fintech91 is developing a service designed to give professional trading firms straightforward, low-latency access to GPW market data and ready-to-use infrastructure dedicated to algorithmic trading. The aim is to make receiving timely data and deploying trading applications simpler, while reducing the need for each customer to build and operate the supporting infrastructure from scratch.
The planned offering brings together GPW market-data access and infrastructure options, with an emphasis on performance and reliability outlined on our technology page. Service availability and performance remain subject to validation, with market-data licensing agreed for each customer’s intended use.
GPW’s growth and modernisation create a timely reason to explore the market. Fintech91’s role is to make that exploration, and the path towards deployment, more accessible. Contact Fintech91 to discuss your organisation’s data and algorithmic-trading requirements.
Sources and related reading
- GPW — Financial results Q4 2025 and 2025, 24 March 2026 (exchange presentation hosted by Mondo Visione).
- GPW — Investor activity in September 2026, 2 October 2026.
- The Economist — Poland: the ignored stockmarket superstar, 14 May 2025 (subscription may be required; also published by Mint with The Economist attribution).
- Financial Times — Polish stocks enjoy big rally as investors seek havens from trade war (subscription may be required).
- GPW — The Year 2013 on Warsaw Stock Exchange (exchange release hosted by Mondo Visione; UTP and HPA milestones).
- GPW — Successful implementation of GPW WATS, 9 October 2026.
- Equinix — GPW selects Equinix for WATS, 9 October 2023 (infrastructure announcement; its original launch schedule was superseded).
- GPW — Official market-data information.