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To a Bloody War and Quick Promotion
The nice thing about financial technology is that every three years everyone takes a step to the left. At press time, Credit Suisse announced that Karl Landert will be filling in for departing Tom Sanzone as the über technologist at the Swiss financial…
No Country For Old Men
In a recent posting on his blog, Reuters chief executive Tom Glocer suggested his own addendum to Clayton Christensen's theories in The Innovator's Dilemma about why it is hard for large companies to innovate as much as their smaller competitors. While…
Avoiding the Carr Wreck
I finally have gotten my hands on a copy of Nicholas Carr's The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google and I can see why this is literary napalm in the IT community.
Regulators Bare Their Gums
Perhaps the only thing greater than data professionals' curiosity about which businesses competition authorities on both sides of the Atlantic would force Thomson and Reuters to divest before blessing the proposed merger of the two data giants is their…
Bagging Elephants
Now that many plan sponsors have changed their policies, allowing their asset managers to invest in listed equity options, the options markets faces interesting challenges in servicing these new institutional orders.
Explore Your Options
Too many options: not just a problem for those who can't decide what to buy their valentine, but also for anyone serious about trading in the options markets today-and dealing with the sheer volume of data generated by US options trading.
The Rainbow Connection
Raise your hand if you truly were surprised by the announcement of the formation of Project Rainbow, the new bank-backed multilateral trading facility (MTF) that is targeting interest rate swaps (IRSes).
What's in a Name?
Is content still king? In this age of low latency, is speed everything? Or, with everyone trying to make the most of the market's merger and acquisition frenzy, is branding the next big thing?
Energy: The New Taste Sensation
It's official: Independent software vendors (ISVs) playing in the energy markets are the flavor of the month.
Get Ready for Super Tuesday, IMD-Style
Anyone following the US Democratic and Republican primaries will be aware that time is running out to be nominated and pick winning candidates in the lead-up to so-called Super Tuesday. In Inside Market Data 's case, Super Tuesday will be on April 29-the…
The Shock in SocGen
Last week's €4.9 billion ($7.2 billion) write-down by Société Générale (SocGen) for losses incurred by junior trader Jérome Kerviel has finally dethroned former Barings Bank bad boy Nick Leeson as the poster boy for unauthorized trading.
Opra Sneezes, Exchanges Get the Hiccups
Much of the financial markets' technology focus post 9/11 has centered on business continuity, resiliency, and eliminating single points of failure, where an issue with one link in the chain that is today's financial markets can potentially impact all…
The Exchanges Strike Back
What a difference a week can make. Last week the industry was wondering what NYSE Euronext CEO Duncan Niederauer planned to purchase and he surprised us with a twofer-the American Stock Exchange (Amex) and Wombat Financial Software.
A Busy Week for the NYSE and Friends
According to Benjamin Disraeli, there are lies, damn lies, and statistics. Allow me to add another category-rumors. Sometimes these rumors get swept under the carpet; other times they turn out to be true. Take, for example, the New York Stock Exchange,…
And Then There Were Five?
According to press reports, NYSE Euronext chairman Duncan Neiderauer is following in his predecessor's footsteps with the rumored purchase of the American Stock Exchange (Amex), one of the few non-demutualized exchanges left in the U.S.
Will "Caring" Exchanges Prevent Flight to MTFs?
We've barely begun 2008, yet already our front page is filled with news from the participants in what will be one of the key battlegrounds for this year-the struggle for trading volumes between exchanges, ECNs and new, multiple dealer-backed venues,…
New Year, Old Challenges
The beginning of every January brings that short, but brilliant, burst of collective optimism that this year will be better than last year: Business will pick up, IT will have enough resources to meet all the demands placed upon it by the business lines…
Welcome Back... and Welcome!
I was fortunate to be invited to spend the holidays this year in the company of friends in the San Francisco area. On Christmas Day, I was presented with a gift marked "from Satan." A typo, I wondered? Is Santa dyslexic? Sadly no-the gift that emerged…
A Very Green Holiday Season
Wall Street has gone green. No, I'm not referring to the flashes of green from employees blowing their year-end bonuses, but rather the industry's growing appetite for emissions trading.
A Market Data Christmas Carol
After returning home from the FISD's holiday party last week, I was woken by the sounds of a horrible wailing and the noise of chains dragging on the ground as the specter of late, great market data manager Jake Marley appeared before me.
Time to Boot the Grid?
Comments emanating from last week's CityGrid conference in London make me wonder how many quarters it will be before we see industry members simply get rid of the day-to-day management of their grids and start to outsource it.
No Rest for the Wicked
Given how much end users and data vendors complain about the burgeoning Opra feed of US options data, you might think they would have been grateful for a little respite. Not so, apparently, because when a double-punch hardware and software failure…
Toffler, We Are Here
A reader took me to task for The Daly Open column I wrote last month on Web 2.0 ( DWT , Nov. 12), arguing that mashups and social networking platforms should not be avoided-as I suggested in my editorial-but rather, should be adopted because of their…
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…