Opinion
FX Hits Warp Speed
Opinion
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After the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) repealed the "uptick" rule in 2007, I remember asking a CTO of one of the major market-makers at the time if we would ever see its return.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…
Editor's Letter - This one's a goner
Naked sponsored access is as good as gone. I cannot see how there can be any other conceivable conclusion to the SEC's January 13 proposals than an immediate ban on the practice whereby non-member trading firms are granted unsupervised access to…
Getting the balance right
Outsourcing is an established model for managing technology. For many buy-side firms, particularly smaller ones with increasingly complex technology demands, being able to access the services and skills-base of a large supplier can be an effective way to…
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…
Risk tech reviewed
Following the market collapse of 2008, 2009 was a year when asset managers regrouped in terms of portfolio performance and operational margins, which now stand at about 15%, on average, across Europe. But what will happen in the sector this year? Where…
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…
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…