Inside Reference Data Awards 2013 special report

Click here to download the PDF

Celebrating Data's World Series Winners

Each year, as sure as Christmas, taxes and A-Rod choking during the postseason, the Inside Market Data and Inside Reference Data Awards provide an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of the financial data industry over the past 12 months, highlighting the hard work of those who design, build and implement new products and processes to facilitate a more data-driven industry.

And for an event that awards innovations that score a home run, it was only appropriate that this year's event should be introduced by baseball broadcaster Keith Hernandez, who won two World Series during his time with the St Louis Cardinals and the New York Mets.

Notable mentions from the evening include SuperDerivatives, which hit it out of the park by winning two awards for its brand-new DGX real-time data terminal, and a third for Best Data Provider for Derivatives; Bloomberg, which continues its run as MVP (most valuable provider) to the industry, taking home the title of overall Best Data Provider-a category it has won every year since the awards began in 2003, and picking up wins in reference data categories as a result of its acquisition of PolarLake last year; rival Thomson Reuters, for winning the overall Best Reference Data Provider award; and Steve Listhaus of Wells Fargo, who won Market Data Executive of the Year for his efforts to enforce stricter contract negotiation and renewal standards and data license compliance initiatives at the bank.

These continue to be uncertain times, however, and as necessity breeds innovation, we look forward to seeing more newcomers among the winners in future years, such as Social Market Analytics, which won the Most Innovative Market Data Project (Vendor) for its proprietary scores for volatility and market sentiment based on social media activity.

As the saying goes, however, you have to be in it to win it, so as we finish congratulating this year's winners, allow us to remind everyone that it won't be long before next year's awards process begins. If you know a colleague who deserves recognition for their achievements, or if you're working on a project, deal or new product or service you believe sets your company apart from the rest, start practicing your wind-up now and get ready to start pitching us your very best if you want to be Mr. October next May.

Click here to download the PDF