Editors letter
Speed Wars: A New Hope
In the original Star Wars , the actors bicker as Han Solo programs a computer to "make the jump to light speed" and outrun an enemy spaceship. Though writer-director George Lucas' dialogue was as wooden as many of the pre-CGI models and special effects,…
Bonds: Shaken, Not Stirred
After the credit crunch and ensuing financial crisis, bond trading is still attracting interest. According to FINRA, which last week added agency debt trade data to its TRACE feed, there is $6 billion in outstanding US corporate debt, and $3 billion in…
Canada Heats Up
Although Vancouver may have been too warm for this year's Winter Olympics, Toronto and its financial markets are definitely heating up as more and more high-frequency traders are seeking arbitrage opportunities between issues dual-listed in the Canadian…
Snowball, Then an Avalanche
EDITOR'S LETTER
It's Back
After the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) repealed the "uptick" rule in 2007, I remember asking a CTO of one of the major market-makers at the time if we would ever see its return. I didn't realize the floodgates I was opening. He went on…
You Get What You Pay For... Or Do You?
For many years, the only "free" market data was delayed data, released usually after 15 minutes, to provide an indication of the market for non-professionals, while traders would still need to subscribe to expensive real-time prices. More recently, new…
Pension power plays
In early 2009, House Call noted that $200 billion pension fund manager California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), the largest in the US, announced intentions to get tough with hedge fund managers seeking its capital, requiring more…
Downhill From Here? Or Are Projects Still On Ice?
The 2010 Winter Olympics are in full swing, with some sports that display speed, some that require technical skills, others focused on grace, and some that combine all three. And no doubt fans of speed skating or figure skating can draw parallels with…
Keeping an Eye on the Prize
I must apologize in advance to all theoretical physicists out there, but I recently heard a wonderful joke. A dairy owner is trying to figure out how to maximize his milk production so he writes to the smartest man he knows-his brother, the theoretical…
Tying Down the Cloud
Maybe it's me, but in all the discussion around the adoption of cloud computing, one topic has seemed to escape comment: How does cloud computing reconcile itself with the physical requirements of the trading world?
Making That Special Connection
Valentine's Day: a time for hopeless romantics, confessions of love, overpriced meals, and for separate parties to come together as part of a greater unity. No wonder, then, that CME Group and Dow Jones Indexes should choose last week to marry their…
CEP Gets Owned
They say that one man's misfortune is another's opportunity. And industry participants and observers gave Sybase's acquisition of complex event processing software vendor Aleri's assets last week a warm response, saying that whatever misfortune prompted…
Saying Goodbye to Co-Location?
Ever since the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it would be investigating whether or not server co-location gives a small set of traders an unfair advantage, I have been mulling over ideas on how the regulator could enforce a…
Waiting for the Switchover
If there is one market that is ready to explode, it is the U.S. equity options market. Once the Options Clearing Corp.'s (OCC's) Options Symbology Initiative (OSI) hopefully concludes on Feb. 12, the industry should see some major innovations take place…
Is Sub-Penny Pricing Just Common Cents?
This Monday, the Nasdaq Options Market and its PHLX market (the former Philadelphia Stock Exchange) will expand the pilot program of quoting options contracts in one-cent increments to a further 75 IWM and SPY option issues, joining the QQQQ options…
Can HFTs Flourish in FX?
After attending an industry gathering focused on high-frequency trading in foreign exchange (FX), co-hosted by Icap and high-frequency trading incubator Trade Cross Connects, the various panel conversations left me wondering whether high-frequency…
Vive la Résistance!
Firms look set to dig in and resist change in 2010, to prevent expensive migrations and additions in the current economic environment, according to a survey of market data trends at buy-side and sell-side firms conducted by software vendor StreamBase…
Naked No More
It is time for everyone in the U.S. markets to gird themselves for the elimination of unfiltered, or naked, access thatnks to the recent proposed Rule 15c-5 change by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ( see story, page 1 ). It is out for…
Which Came First: Regulation or Fragmentation?
The Securities and Exchange Commission last week began investigating US equity market structure to determine whether the evolution of trading and related technologies such as high-frequency strategies and co-location disadvantages retail investors.
Banking on the FSA
One of my favorite quotes comes from U.S. newspaperman and author Damon Runyon: "The race doesn't always go to the swift nor the battle to the strong, but that's the way the money bets." It doesn't give you that warm fuzzy feeling you get when discussing…
New Year's Revolutions
After a cold and snowy Christmas and New Year, it warmed my heart to see further signs of an economic thaw in 2010-if not the green shoots of recovery, then at least the seed of new hiring initiatives creating a more fertile job market.