IPC Survey Reveals Tech Spend Shifting to Cloud, Away from HFT

The top priority around cost reductions perhaps explains the one-sided breakdown of responses gauging sentiment on cloud: All respondents say they already have, or are in the process of implementing, cloud-based infrastructure somewhere within their trading ecosystem.

Desktop trading applications are an area of investment for just under half the respondents, 45 percent; slightly less than a third of respondents, 29 percent, indicate they are investing in their traders' mobile capabilities; and almost half say applications integrating market data will be important for the year to come.

Meanwhile, in a sign that marginal gains from electronic trading strategies could be slipping, a greater number of respondents, 16 percent each, suggest their top priorities for investment are the back office and network infrastructure, compared to high-frequency trading at 12 percent, and algorithmic trading at 11 percent.

The survey participants include a significant number of C-levels, and 87 percent overall who have direct decision-making authority or influence over tech spend.