As a specialist in transforming and routing real-time data, Gissing Software inevitably approaches MiFID from this aspect. And it appears to us that MiFID transparency is, in effect, contributions; but contributions with a difference.

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The era of software-based market data systems running on generic server and desktop hardware is now well through its second decade. The lifeblood of any large trading floor flows through the veins of its digital data distribution system. When the flow stops, all hell breaks loose. Our firm, TS-Associates, is in the business of preventing that from happening.

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Whenever you talk to those who sell products and services in the financial sector,
their current strategy can often be summed up as ‘waiting for the good times to come back … one day’. The golden days of booming markets, global expansion and Greenspan’s famous ‘irrational exuberance’. All the things that were going to go on forever in an exponential paradise.

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Managing a technology platform for institutional investors requires real-time responsiveness and the foresight of an oracle to keep pace with increasing flows of incoming and outgoing data streams. To ensure you get ROI from your people and processes, it is necessary to evaluate them from a holistic perspective. This requires examining your post-trade processes to identify redundant or unnecessarily complicated steps that can be consolidated or eliminated.

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Pressure to cut costs by 30% or more is forcing financial institutions to change the way they operate internal workflow processes across the entire trade cycle. Swift and Financial Information Exchange (FIX) messaging, combined with new software architectures and middleware, offer the means to effect these changes and yield the required cost reductions, while at the same time delivering a radically better service.

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Like Robbie Williams, and maybe even Justin Timberlake, Web Services are evolving from their early incarnations where no one took them seriously, toward a more mature offering that’s ready to headline in the world of e-business. With core standards now set, the hype has moved on to address higher levels of functionality, such as choreography, orchestration, management and security, that underpin business processes and transactions.

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John A. McConville, CFA, principal of The McConville Group, on the first-half results,
management’s near-term guidance on revenues and prospects for the share price.

Relief, surely, was the prime sentiment among shareholders in Reuters, when it reported its first-half results last month. The numbers came in at or around expectations, a positive in and of itself, suggesting management finally has a handle on where the company is headed at least in the short term.

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Reading the recent spate of global market share statistics for the market data business, one could be forgiven for asking ‘So what? Market share is always a lagging indicator of what has been happening in the market over the previous year or two, and anecdotal reporting has already provided a fairly informed view of trends and movements between the market data providers.

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Reading the recent spate of global market share statistics for the market data business, one could be forgiven for asking ‘So what? Market share is always a lagging indicator of what has been happening in the market over the previous year or two, and anecdotal reporting has already provided a fairly informed view of trends and movements between the market data providers.

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Market pressures have sent securities industry players scrambling for savings and efficiencies, yet few dare to take on the massive task of wringing order from the costly and redundant world of financial data systems. Those who take the challenge may be surprised to find what tools exist for turning overlapping information into efficient standardized data.

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Making predictions regarding the economy and related financial matters is a risky business. Alan Greenspan has basically given up making them and the safest bet in the realm of prognostication is to stick with the tried and tested “It’s still just as bad out there.”

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With market data second only to salaries as an expense, the ongoing market situation is forcing financial institutions to take a closer look at managing their financial information costs. But market data costs aren’t easy to measure; many cost components are hidden within other cost categories. What’s more, many firms lack the internal political will to take a firm hand to market data – and the suppliers themselves are loath to help find ways to reduce expenditures.

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Everyone seems to be going wild about Google these days. So much better than Yahoo!, they say, although I remain unconvinced by the benefits (after all, Yahoo! does use Google’s search technology) so I’ve not yet made the change.

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There’s an old adage that says that the easiest way to make money out of a new technology is to write about it or run a conference on it. I did both. For the past couple of months, this column has been looking at one of the hottest of new technologies around – namelyWeb Services. For the conference I ran, check out www.wallstreet-tng.com.

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Assuming you read my column last month, you’ll have already decided that going the Web Services route is a no brainer, on a par with liquidating your Reuters stock before it tanks even more, or attending the next Brits on the Street bash on October 30. But it’s not that simple – for while Web Services offer the promise of true standards-based distributed computing, there’s still plenty to do before that promise is truly realized.

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Space is big. OK, not so big that we’re not all going to be wiped out by a massive asteroid hitting the Earth in 2019 (don’t believe the soothing propaganda, we’re all toast in waiting), but big all the same. So searching for life in the cosmos needs all the technology it can get, including the most powerful computers available. Which is why SETI – the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence – adopted GRID Computing to give its efforts a boost.

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Josh Levine loves Linux. E-Trade’s top IT guy reckons that the geek-inspired operating system will save him millions of dollars per year, compared to the Sun Microsystems SPARC and Solaris environment it’s replacing at the online brokerage. Not only is Linux basically free, he points out the software licenses for other software components, such as BEA Systems’ Tuxedo middleware, are much cheaper for Linux.

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