Editors letter
The year of hedging dangerously
As the calendar winds down, I don't know whether it's more reassuring to look ahead or to look back. This was a rough year. While not entirely an annus horribilis , it was one that traders, IT staffers and industry observers will remember for the lessons…
The end of an illusion
It's getting ugly out there. That's hardly surprising news, but still arguably shocking. The Great Credit Crunch of 2007 has now officially expanded beyond the first wave of casualties - hedge funds over-exposed to shadily structured mortgage-backed…
Thanksgiving and Turkeys
Thanksgiving, the quintessential American holiday, stems from the first harvest gathered by British pilgrim settlers after being taught how to hunt and grow native crops in the New World by Native Americans. As the story goes, having survived their first…
Achtung, Baby!
Retired Formula 1 racing champ Michael Schumacher returned to a Ferrari for testing duties last week, and promptly put his younger rivals in the shade. However, Schumi is the exception to the rule: in the market data industry, older inevitably means…
No Time for Downtime (or Sub-Prime)
Having spent the last week complaining to anyone who would listen about missing luggage and a six-hour stopover in Heathrow Airport on my way back to the US, the glitch that disrupted trading and data distribution from the London Stock Exchange last week…
The Lion City Roars
The big news in Singapore last week wasn’t our prestigious Asia-Pacific Financial Information Summit, or even the influx of foreign cash (and resulting linen shortage) as I raced around the city trying to replace my luggage (which apparently decided to…
It's Raining Shoes
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
End of Days?
It is November and the end is not in sight. Even though the European Union has been talking about Mifid for some time now, the financial news media and industry experts have instead focused on projects such as Boat, Turquoise and Submarine, and the…
Editor’s Letter: Concentrating on the little things
Most of you are no-doubt aware that the IRB 2007 Rugby World Cup has just finished. This is somewhat fortuitous as it affords me the opportunity to indulge my journalistic passion of sports commentary/analysis, the area of journalism on which I cut my…
Asia Data: Prepping for Take-off, or Flying High?
By the time you read this, I—along with a few of my industry colleagues—will be making the long, long flight to Singapore for Inside Market Data’s Asia-Pacific Financial Information Summit, to gauge how much the market has evolved over the past 12 months.
Mapping Market and Reference Data
Whenever I return from New York to London-for example, for our European Financial Information Summit-I realize there's a certain something that I miss about the old country. Maybe it's the rolling countryside, cream teas and postal strikes. Maybe it's…
Taking Control
Hands up-who's ever downloaded a song from an online file-sharing program without paying for it? Yet how many of you are scrupulous about data audits and appalled by data piracy? Ultimately, we're talking about the same action on a different scale. And…
New York Sweeps Boston... Sort Of...
For the benefit of non-US readers, we're in the Post-season. The baseball season is over, and the winners now battle it out for the World Series-the Cubs, Indians, Diamondbacks, Angels, Rockies and Phillies, and of course arch-rivals the Yankees and Red…
Report From Rhode Island
With its cruises, mansion tours and beachfront clambakes, you might be forgiven for thinking that the FISD's World Financial Information Conference in Newport, Rhode Island last week was just one big market data love-in. However, there was a range of…
Anticipating Change
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Editor's Letter: Wake me up when the data bit's done
Like it or not, data management is boring. It's tedious, it's uninspiring but it's also undeniably crucial to every financial services organisation regardless of their business focus or location. This much emerged during my recent conversation with Mike…
Know your fund manager
Forget 'Know Your Customer', one of the recent vintage of compliance initiatives that mandates investment firms to know whose money is in their hands. In these days of risky hedge funds with shady characters handling billions of dollars, clients too have…
Rhode Island Bound
Imagine a situation where key business and technical figures in the market data industry were isolated from their companies and staff, unable to reach their workplace to perform the mission-critical duties that keep the financial world turning. What…
Speed Machines
Italian sportscar manufacturer Lamborghini unveiled its latest creation at the Frankfurt Motor Show last week—the fighter jet-inspired Reventon. The car goes from 0-62 mph in 3.4 seconds, and will empty your wallet even faster. Only 20 will be made and…
106 Shopping Days 'Til Christmas
The arrival of the latest Hammacher Schlemmer catalogue in my mailbox last week reminds me that Christmas is barely three-and-a-half months away, and that there must be someone who wants an animatronic singing Elvis, a DVD projector in the shape of R2D2,…
The Heat is On
If you managed to get away during the summer—whether you needed a parasol in Panama or a brolly in Blighty—we hope IMD 's readers had a good break. Because with market data issues showing no sign of any summer lull, you're going to need it.