Opinion
Is alt data betting on prediction markets?
The Waters Wrap: Prediction markets are riddled with legal uncertainties, but they also might be one of the richest new data sources seen in years, writes Nyela.
Solving the last line of latency
Repurposed copper cables and hollow-core fiber can optimize latency even for firms who feel they’ve hit a ceiling, writes Vahan Sardaryan in this guest column.
MCP is dead, long live MCP
The Waters Wrap: Reb dives into the trenches of the online developer community to see whether its reputation as the great enabler of the AI age is justified.
Waters Wavelength Podcast Ep. 352: Agentic workflows, AI bootcamps, regulation, and faves from Seoul
This week, Tony and Shen chat about some recent stories.
Is a 2027 T+1 move too soon for Hong Kong?
The Waters Wrap: Wei-Shen examines HKEx’s discussion paper on moving to T+1 in Q4 2027. A move so soon has its benefits but still requires careful consideration, she says.
APAC’s hidden opportunity is in the hands of wealth managers
Asia-Pacific’s financial firms have lofty growth ambitions that will come with high cost and complexity. To succeed, they’ll need a quality portfolio toolkit and a connected technology architecture, writes BlackRock’s James Verner.
DeFi and TradFi firms are borrowing each other’s benefits
The Waters Wrap: As blockchain tech gains a small foothold in market data, Nyela says the thing separating blockchain’s previous craze and its second wind is choice.
Hitting the Great Wall: Details scarce on China’s Xinchuang initiative
In a quest to learn more about China’s Xinchuang initiative, Wei-Shen finds trying to get information feels like running into a wall over and over again.
Spoiler alert: managing market data is a bad case for AI
The IMD Wrap: A recent conversation between Max and one of his sources highlights the uses of different mechanisms to manage one of their most expensive assets.
A new market data hope or an expanding Empire
Market data is now part of systemic infrastructure rather than just a commercial product. Tim Versteeg questions if market data is becoming too powerful to fail.
Waters Wavelength Ep. 351: MarketAxess’s Lee and Alexandre
This week, Spencer Lee and Julien Alexandre from MarketAxess join the podcast to discuss AI in fixed income trading.
What firms get wrong when changing investment operations technology
Without operating redesign, governance, and clear accountability, modernization can amplify risk instead of reducing it, writes Patrick Conroy.
The race to ‘financialize’ GPU compute set to ratchet up
The Waters Wrap: Anthony looks at two companies aiming to bring efficiency and transparency to the GPU compute market.
Waters Wavelength Ep. 350: AI but make it about data basics
This week, Tony and Shen discuss how it’s all about getting back to basics, aka the data.
The rise of AI politics
Whether they like it or not, firms are operating in the era of AI politics. David Hardoon says those who ignore that and treat AI as just another technology risk losing ground to others.
Re-engineering reconciliations: User-initiated AI cuts recs from days to minutes
Reconciliations have long been tied to batch scheduling. Prasanna Anandan explains how one bank broke down bottlenecks by embedding an AI-driven, user-initiated interface.
Taking tokenization from pilot to playbook
IMD Wrap: Firms eager to use tokens should find specific use cases that bring immediate value, rather than try everything at once, Wei-Shen writes.
Waters Wavelength Ep. 349: The other Amsterdam and more Cusip drama
This week, Reb joins Shen to give an update on the latest legal fight involving Cusip Global Services.
24X National Exchange faces uphill battle in exemption fight
The Waters Wrap: 24X wants exemption from the requirement that the SIP be operational during overnight hours for its overnight session to proceed. Nyela explains why that’s asking a lot.
T+1 in Asia-Pacific: Preparing post-trade operations for what’s ahead
There are benefits of Asia-Pacific markets moving to T+1, but there are unique complexities to tackle, says DTCC’s Val Wotton.
AI is coming for complexity … and trading depends on it
While AI may be able to recreate interfaces, the value is in messaging networks, low-latency data, and unique information flows.