Opinion
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…
Editor's Letter - The greed for speed
Speed is good. At least, when it comes to the increasingly popular phenomenon of high-frequency trading it is. Speed plays such a crucial role in this respect that if it were absent, high-frequency trading (HFT) would simply be known as... trading.
Prop trading: RIP?
Once when I was 16, about six months after I started driving to school and work, my heavy foot got me two speeding tickets within 24 hours. A major component of the parental wrath incurred was the loss of my car keys for a fortnight. The thrill (and…
Transaction monitoring: driving efficiency in real-time trading
The dire effects of the recession on certain financial services firms has forced CIOs and other IT managers to examine new technologies that could improve online transactional efficiencies across all aspects of the business. As early adopters of…
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.
Outlook: Cloud to Reign in 2010
Cloud computing is gaining board-level attention as a technology that delivers value. But while it offers a range of opportunities for the data world, cloud also presents a unique set of challenges. By John Akbari, an independent consultant to the data…
Waxing Brazilian
As the developed markets of the West hope for a better year in 2010, some are devoting even more attention to emerging markets in the hunt for higher returns, and specifically to Brazil, which saw a number of data-related initiatives either get underway…
Pennies from Heaven
The American statesman and scientist Benjamin Franklin once said, "A penny saved is a penny earned." Looking at the year ahead, this will definitely be the theme for 2010.
2010: Virtual Reality
Opinion
2010 Forecast: Very Cloudy
Opinion
Firm Be Nimble
Open Platform
If I Were CIO ...
Open Platform
Plenty of Possibility
EDITOR'S LETTER
Crossing the Data Chasm
The main driver for outsourcing reference data management is typically cost control, but data control is also a key concern. Netik's Colin Close explains how this can be addressed
Bottom-up reform
What little difference a year makes. Twelve months ago, financial services participants, observers and press - including yours truly - were anticipating major regulatory overhauls and new oversight of the industry following Barack Obama's election and…
Happy Holidays!
Once again, we have reached the end of another year of editorial coverage of the financial IT industry and there is a strange sense of déjà vu. That friend of capitalists everywhere Karl Marx once said, "History repeats itself, first as a tragedy and…
'Twas the Night Before Christmas...
'Twas the night before Christmas, and empty was Wall Street,
Beware of Geeks Bearing Gifts
So, with less than two weeks of shopping days left until Christmas, what do you get that special market data someone? Perhaps a VoIP phone in the shape of a Star Trek communicator? A Jedi mind-control game? A new job? Or any job, for that matter? Or…