After the Show, All the News

The market data vendor booths were awash with chocolate and news this year, including product announcements, personnel changes and client news.

On the technology side, stream processing software provider Aleri Labs showed off its Aleri Labs Streaming Platform, which featured new functions such as an enhanced graphical authoring environment, greater processing throughput, reductions in latency and easier integration with off-the-shelf applications.

It also announced a Reuters adapter for the streaming platform. Aleri Labs' Reuters Adapter allows clients to integrate Reuters datafeeds and the RMDS data distribution system with other applications on the Aleri platform.

London-based data management software vendor Xenomorph also had two developments. It launched Spreadsheet Inside, which supports server-side centralization of spreadsheet calculations within Xenomorph's TimeScape data and decision management system. It is designed to respond to growing levels of market data volumes, officials say, and recognizes that usage of complex spreadsheets is growing as traders and risk managers have to deal with increasingly complex data and data analysis problems.

The vendor also announced that chief operating officer Greg Johnson is now chief executive officer, reporting to the board of directors. Brian Sentance, who was chief executive, has become marketing director and reports to Johnson. The company says Sentance's move is not an exit strategy but enables him to focus on marketing the product line as opposed to managing the day-to-day activities of the company.

The chief operating officer role is now divided up among several senior managers. A new head of sales will be announced at the beginning of July.

The issue of growing levels of data was a theme at Vhayu's booth, as the provider of ticker data analysis software announced Vhayu Velocity 6.0. The latest version is said to improve the speed and scalability of trading applications. It is designed for global equities vwap trading and best execution quote and trade snapshots and was developed in response to impending regulations on both sides of the Atlantic as well as customer demand.

Interactive Data Corp.'s divisions were out in force. CMS BondEdge released an analytical datafeed service that enables users to directly access fixed income risk measures from CMS BondEdge's eponymous fixed income portfolio analytics product (see page 4). Measures include option-adjusted duration and convexity, key rate durations, average life and option-adjusted spread for a comprehensive universe of bonds.

ComStock announced a partnership with BT Radianz to carry its PlusFeed product on BT Radianz's network in Europe and the US. According to the two companies, the deal will give ComStock access to more than 10,000 financial institutions globally.

ComStock was also involved in another announcement: the signing of three clients to use ComStock's data with Wombat Financial Software's market data platform. The new feed handler, which is designed to deliver low latency data, will be used at an unnamed hedge fund, mutual company and sell-side firm alongside the Wombat software.

Meanwhile, Australian FIX technology vendor Cameron Systems released an update to its CameronFIX platform, including enhancements to the FIX history database, which stores FIX message streams based on the FIX History Schema in near real time.

Time series analysis and tick database provider Kx Systems announced that kdb+tow version 2.3 is now available globally. Targeted at traders, it enables them to replay tick data quickly to help develop and test new algorithmic trading strategies. Data can now be replayed in bulk formation or singularly.

French data display vendor TraderForce released version 10 of its platform, which features new advanced analytics and data content. TraderForce also used the show to release its TraderForce Open Publisher, which enables clients to publish any type of trading and market information, both internally and externally, for greater sharing of information between clients. The vendor also introduced TraderForce Mobile, which provides real-time market data on a BlackBerry, smartphone or PDA.

Bigdough, a subsidiary of UK fundamental data provider Hemscott, revealed its news at its party. Bigdough is partnering with Pyxis Mobile to distribute its client relationship management application to customers anywhere via a mobile device. Users will be able to view their market data contacts and update information in the Bigdough CRM. The deal is targeted at users in the equity capital markets.