I realise that might be a contrarian view. Speaking to many at last week’s show - The Sifma Technology Management conference & Exhibit is its full name - the main topic of conversation was how small it was, how empty it was. One veteran reckoned it reminded him of when it was hosted at the Americana Hotel in the ’70s, before my time. But I still didn’t have time to get to see all the exhibitors that I wanted to, I reckoned the foot traffic was decent, and the overall quality - both exhibitors and delegates - was good. No complaints here, other than the resulting exhaustion from attending all three days.

READ THE REST

Issue 7 of A-Team Group’s contributed thought leadership quarterly Low Latency - Are You Performing? is now available for download.

Low latency technologies continue to be deployed by the financial markets - driven by the need to adopt them simply to stay in the trading game, and hopefully win at it. But low latency covers a wide range of components - from networks, to server hardware, to operating systems and middleware, to middleware, and to applications. In the low latency equation, there are many moving parts.

And low latency has moved beyond the task of delivering market data to algo trading engines, and coping with surging market volumes. It is now a requirement for every link in the trade execution and processing chain, even beginning to have relevance to risk management operations. In short, low latency is the new normal.

With that in mind, check out the round table inside to get the views of several different players in the marketplace - each brings a different perspective, whether it be high performance messaging, low latency analytics, market data delivery, global order routing or infrastructure issues.

Also inside you can read extended commentary from Citihub and SunGard, each bringing their own unique take on the opportunities and challenges of operating in today’s low latency trading environment. This is very much real-life wisdom from technologies on the cutting edge.

We hope you find this issue of Low Latency - Are You Performing? interesting. Remember that you can keep up with all low latency developments at www.low-latency.com. And for broader coverage of IT in the financial markets, check out www.a-teamgroup.com.

Contributors:

  Low Latency Are You Performing-7 (1.0 MiB)

Download new 12-page white paper from the NYSE Technologies and A-Team Group

An exponential expansion of market data volumes in recent years has been caused by the confluence of a number of technology and business drivers – from the emergence of electronic communication networks (ECNs) to the advent of smart order routing systems and algorithmic trading engines. Coupled with the increasingly divergent data sets needed to support complex decision systems, there is now a requirement for high performance data management infrastructures throughout the enterprise supporting high frequency automated trading as well as traditional market data processing functions like securities master file updates, risk analysis, and back-office trade support.

The time is ripe for change in the mechanisms financial institutions use to deal with data, long regarded as the lifeblood of the trading environment, but increasingly seen as an asset that needs to be collected and managed properly – and efficiently – if it is to deliver on its promised benefits. Find out how by downloading your free copy now.

Sponsored by:

DOWNLOAD THE WHITE PAPER

Download this special report for FREE now! Click the link below.

Over the past couple of years, Complex Event Processing has emerged as a hot technology for the financial markets, and its flexibility has been leveraged in applications as diverse as market data cleansing, to algorithmic trading, to compliance monitoring, to risk management. CEP is a solution to many problems, which is one reason why the emerging marketplace is growing, with many vendor options to choose from.

But CEP is not a solution in itself, and so technologists need to concern themselves with how to integrate it within a complete application architecture, how it can best be leveraged, and how to streamline development and deployment. And with multiple vendor choices, choosing the right CEP approach for the job is an important, and early, activity for firms looking to adopt it.

Expect CEP offerings to become more complete in terms of functionality - especially in the event modelling area - and to also exploit technologies that will boost their performance. And expect CEP to become further embedded across the entire trade processing and operations chain. The scenario of CEP becoming an infrastructure component - just like a database or messaging platform is now - is a near certainty. But as for when that will happen is open to debate. The entry into the market by IT heavy hitters like IBM and Oracle - and Microsoft is on its way - will likely drive the infrastructure-level adoption of CEP.

Also expect the CEP marketplace to evolve commercially, as offerings from different vendors become more full function. We’ll see different business models, including cloud delivery, partnerships, acquisitions and mergers. And open source will play a bigger role. As will CEP itself, touching all aspects of the trading enterprise.

Contributors:

  Special Report: Complex Event Processing (861.5 KiB)

Download new 12-page white paper from the London Stock Exchange and A-Team Group

The adoption of algorithmic trading by the mainstream has created a requirement for high-quality historical data for development, testing and maintenance of trading strategies.

Until recently the exclusive remit of Tier 1 investment banks, algorithmic trading is becoming democratized as smaller brokerages and boutiques implement increasingly affordable high-performance trading platforms. This gives them the opportunity to differentiate their offerings to buy-side clients.

Key to success here is the quality of data. Nowhere is the adage ‘bad data in, bad data out’ more true than in the area of algorithmic and quantitative trading, where the use of highly granular tick and order book data is crucial to producing trading strategies that perform.

Furthermore, increased regulatory scrutiny means firms need to recreate market conditions current during their trading activities, so as to demonstrate due process in meeting their best execution obligations. This all points to the need for a considered approach to sourcing and managing historical data in support of high-performance trading activities.

Sponsored by:

DOWNLOAD THE WHITE PAPER

A-Team IQ talks to SunGard’s Harold Finders and Yassine Brahim about the takeover of GL Trade; what the Oracle-Sun tie up means for the fintech industry; Why Brazil is becoming the offshore location of choice for the European financial sector; following Lehman’s collapse, why knowing your counterparty is essential for risk management; market data platforms for the real world; can Twitter deliver results for fintech companies, and more…

Download your free issue by clicking on the link below (requires login or registration).

  A-TeamIQ_Issue08 Q2_2009 (2.9 MiB)
 

Download this special report for FREE now! Click the link below.

They may be complex and burdened with a bad reputation at the moment, but derivatives are here to stay. Although Bank for International Settlements figures indicate that derivatives trading is down for the first time in 10 years, the asset class has been strongly defended by the banking and brokerage community over the last few months.

The industry is, however, on course for a significant overhaul of the regulatory regime governing the OTC derivatives market, both in Europe and the US. This, of course, means that the post-trade processing of these instruments is set for big changes. Credit default swaps (CDSs) are the first of the credit derivatives to be ushered onto clearing counterparties in a bid to reduce counterparty risk, but they will likely not be the last.

Moreover, the market is also awaiting the introduction of an alternative standard to the current five character Options Price Reporting Authority (Opra) codes next year. Earlier this year, the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) was named as the operator of the new options symbology system, which has been estimated to cost the industry around US$250 million to introduce.

All of these changes are likely to have a significant impact on the data management systems for these complex instruments, requiring the introduction of new processes and procedures. A challenge indeed for the vendor community.

Contributors:

  Reference Data Review Special Report - Impact of Derivatives on Reference Data Management (1.0 MiB)

Download this special report for FREE now! Click the link below.

Whether they accept it or not, sell-side institutions are finding themselves in the unfamiliar role of information technology vendor. The adoption of algorithmic trading models by buy-side firms of all shapes and sizes is shifting trading strategies, and the technology infrastructure to supply and support them, from the realm of nice-to-have appendage to must-have service offering.

With more sell sides than ever offering both standard benchmarks and their own takes on old favourites, competition between algorithmic trading strategies is heating up. And it’s not all about alpha. The buy side doesn’t like surprises. What many fund managers are seeking from their sell-side suppliers is certainty of execution, low market impact and some degree of accuracy on hitting stated targets.

As a result, brokers and their technology suppliers are all working furiously to help differentiate algorithmic offerings, launching custom and so-called ‘adaptive’ algorithms, and taking great lengths to prove that their models perform as stated on the tin.

In essence, the world of algorithmic trading is entering a new phase as models’ acceptance by the wider marketplace is increasing pressure on firms to perform and, to some extent, productize their offerings. Expect more innovation, more customization and more choice.

Contributors:

Download the special report now by clicking the link below — no registration required.

  Algorithmic Trading - Attracting The Buy Side (1.6 MiB)

Eight years on from the original Giovannini report, and three years after the publication of the Giovannini Protocol, how far has the industry progressed with implementing the solution to eliminate Barrier 1? Who has taken the initiative, and who is lagging behind? Is elimination of Barrier 1 still a priority for the industry in light of the unprecedented circumstances heralded by the global financial crisis? Can the March 2011 deadline be met, and is the demise of Barrier 1 in sight?

This paper, authored by SWIFT, examines the progress that has been made to date in eliminating Barrier 1, and argues that the drivers for adoption of the Giovannini Protocol are stronger than ever. It argues that other industry initiatives such as Target2Securities (T2S) and the Code of Conduct actually make progress on Barrier 1 even more important, and should not be used as distractions. It also proposes next steps the industry should take in order to ensure the adoption of this readily available solution to the long-understood problem of inefficient communications, which cause low levels of interoperability between players involved in clearing and settlement in the EU.

DOWNLOAD THE WHITE PAPER