Opinion
Editor's letter: Tell me why I don't like mergers?
I accept that mergers and acquisitions are part and parcel of the financial services industry. I don't necessarily like that fact, but I'm learning to deal with it. Mergers and acquisitions represent growth and progress, they signify the maturation of…
Store and purge
The boring world of data management is heating up and is about to boil over. Speak to today's data managers and you'll hear an interesting dissonance. Every CIO and techie assigned to storing and managing data knows that they are required by their…
Can two become one?
Max Bowie, editor of Inside Market Data magazine, scrutinises the recent Reuters acquisition by the Thomson Corporation, outlining the new management structure, predicting product integration headaches, and significantly, concluding that the only…
Blueprint for the future
The correlation between a buy-side firm's technology and its ability to trade fast and efficiently has never been stronger. Amy Muddimer explains this dependency by scrutinising technologies on the buy side that underpin the continuous drive for straight…
Register this
US Senator Charles Grassley and German Chancellor Angela Merkel make unlikely partners in commiseration. But both politicians face dim prospects in their attempts to assert more control over hedge funds, which seems to reflect a general lack of interest…
Multi-asset class trading systems...still a pipe dream?
Paul Miller and Jonathan Hammond discuss the current shortcomings of multi-asset class trading systems initiatives, and propose a new approach to this growing conundrum which involves meaningful collaboration between technology producers and consumers
The Third Time’s the Charm
With much fanfare earlier this year, the New York Stock Exchange and Euronext finalized their merger into NYSE Euronext. Several weeks later, Eurex announced its acquisition of the International Securities Exchange (ISE). And late last week, corks were…
Nasqaq’s Foreign Exchange
What exactly draws US exchanges to European brides? Ask the NYSE’s John Thain, who brokered the exchange’s merger with Euronext, or Nasdaq chief executive Bob Greifeld, who—it was revealed as IMD went to press—is about to fork out $3.7 billion to buy…
Under the Surface
The growing use of volatility surfaces is bringing greater transparency to complex instruments, but is creating significant technology storage and processing requirements. By Matt Skinner, a director at cross-asset data management vendor Xenomorph
Everything Must Go
Don't touch that dial! It's Max's crazy clearance sale! Do you need to expand your data business? We have established data vendors for sale at affordable prices! Are you an exchange? Get the latest look with your very own distribution business! How can…
And Then There Were Two
Shock news! Last week, after secret negotiations, two parties unveiled a massive deal that took the market by surprise. One of our most respected figures is taking on a new role to help steer a struggling team to a revival. Yes, Roger Clemens is…
Reuters Buy Will Face Regulatory Hurdles
Critics of Reuters' efforts to raise its share price above the £4 barrier will have enjoyed Friday's 25 percent rally to close above the £6 per share mark on news that the vendor is considering a possible takeover approach from rival Thomson Financial.
Channeling Data Flow and the Quest for Quality Metrics
Martijn Groot, head of product management at Asset Control, offers an insight into the challenges facing organizations with 'swampy' data architectures
Seeking a Shared Vision
EDITOR'S LETTER
Complexity driving automation
The global investment management industry is continually evolving in terms of sophistication and the complexity of instruments traded by buy-side firms. This, in turn, is driving the development of back-office technologies designed to process these…
A shift in the balance of power
Hedge funds, especially start-ups, operate at a huge disadvantage. Compared with larger, better established asset managers, small hedge funds do not have access to the appropriate tools to manage their trading operations. This is because, as a start-up,…
Smoke and mirrors
It's time to revisit the perennial challenge of hedge fund valuation practices. Investors may now be asking more pertinent and accurate questions by way of due diligence studies regarding how managers price their portfolio holdings, although many funds…
In search of the perfect hybrid
There has been significant consolidation in the transfer agency space in the last few years, to the point where a handful of providers now account for the bulk of the global buy-side industry. But as David White explains, not all transfer agents are…
And the Winners Are…
The results are in, the votes have been counted, and this week the Inside Market Data awards will be announced, recognizing the talent and innovation that has shone within our industry during the past year. And the winners are…
Down the Mifid Rabbit Hole
Alice heard the Rabbit say to itself, 'Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!' … Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it, and burning with…
The CEP Conundrum
Relationships can be complex. Specifically, recognizing relationships between different data inputs can be a complex process, and one that can prove even harder to transfer from the brain of a trader to a computer. And with trading strategies becoming…
Going Green, Seeing Red
It wasn't until I received a faxed notice from the Stockholm stock exchange about a trading firm last week which actually arrived ahead of the same news via an email consolidator that I realized the market data industry is pretty darned environmentally…