Buy-Side Technology - 2007-09-01
Articles in this issue
Thinning the herd
War isn't pretty and neither, so it seems, is running a leveraged investment strategy with significant credit exposures in the face of a precipitous mortgage market downturn. The list of hedge fund casualties continues to climb in the wake of the US sub…
Bandwidth's silver bullet
The expectations of regulators and investors of best execution are forcing broker/dealers on both sides of the Atlantic to evaluate their connectivity and supporting infrastructure. John Panzica argues that ethernet technology has the potential to…
Time with the traders – Joel Clark and photographer Robert Aberman spend the morning with the trading team at AXA Investment Management in London.
For the small group of traders at AXA Investment Managers in London the expectation to perform is intense, but as Joel Clark discovers, the quiet times can be just as demanding as the pressure that goes with the territory. Photos by Robert Aberman
New UK client and recruits for growing Advent Software
Raymond James Investment Services (RJIS), a UK-based private client investment management firm, has installed two Advent Software platforms to enhance its operational efficiency. Advent Portfolio Exchange will support portfolio management and client…
It's been spotty, infrequent, inconsistent and potentially biased
TowerGroup's Matt Nelson is dismissive of current pricing methods across the buy side for hard-to-price debt instruments, which, he explains, are typically managed internally by organisations either using Excel models or broker-supplied quotes and not…
Martin Currie live on Fidessa LatentZero Trading Network
Martin Currie, the Scotland- based investment manager with £14.1 billion under management, has become the first buy-side organisation to go live on Fidessa LatentZero's Trading Network (LTN), which provides FIX connectivity to trading counterparties over…
Placemark takes Pyxis for mobile sales, data functions
Placemark Investments, a Dallas and Boston-based overlay manager with $7 billion from managed account sponsors, has implemented Pyxis Mobile's mWholesaler wireless application to align its sales and data management operations. Placemark, which pro-vides…
Spotlight on George Handjinicolaou
Stewart Eisenhart speaks with George Handjinicoloau, ISDA’s recently appointed deputy chief executive, about his short-term plans for the organisation, and the reasons for the creation of this new role and his appointment.
Are we there yet?
Are we there yet? Simon Morris and Ash Saluja, partners at CMS Cameron McKenna, look at Mifid and its various permutations for buy-side organisations from a legal perspective.
Deutsche's technology head honcho
Victor Anderson initially met Peter Kelso, DWS Investments' managing director, at this year's SunGard Europa conference in Italy. Later, in a phone interview, Kelso talks about the changes his organisation is currently going through, his technology…
Thomson Financial: Topical to a 't'
One of the most hotly contested spaces on the buy side at present is that covering the pricing of complex OTC derivatives – most notably credit derivatives – and the valuation of portfolios and structured products comprising such instruments. It…
Business standards time
Imagine that tomorrow there were no traffic laws. No speed limits, no need to signal for your turns, no right of way and no reason to stop you from drinking and driving. For our readers in New York, let's abolish the 'conceal and carry' laws for handguns…
Huber Portfolio rolls out Thomson Quantitative Analytics
Huber Portfolio AG, an Oberusel , Germany-based quantitative res-earch company, has installed Thomson Quantitative Analytics (TQA) to support its back-testing strategies.
Fulcrum goes live with SD-Revaluation for pricing
Fulcrum, a Bermuda-based hedge fund administrator with operations in Canada and London, has cont-racted SuperDerivatives to supply independent OTC options and credit derivatives pricing through the ven-dor's SD-Revaluation service.
Marked to mayhem. Stewart Eisenhart takes a fresh look at the perennially challenging issues of pricing and valuations on the buy side, arguing that these functions have become all the more crucial to fund managers in the wake of the US sub-prime mortgage
Hitting bottom is never pleasant. Credit market participants – buy side and otherwise – are finding that out as the US sub-prime mortgage sector continues its wholly predictable but no less dramatic collapse. Volatility has skyrocketed, liquidity is…
Sticking point – Feature. Joel Clark looks at the state of play regarding the post-trade processing of credit derivatives on the buy side, and concludes that, although significant recent efforts have been made by vendors and consortiums in this space, tru
Even though straight-through processing (STP) has been a reality for equities and fixed-income trading for some time, automating the back-office processing of credit derivatives remains as elusive as ever. Joel Clark reports on the success of recent back…
Fund administrators move to the middle office
The continued move by hedge funds into the OTC derivatives market has placed significant pressure on their back offices in terms of processing, scalability, and general automation. This has led to a number of funds outsourcing their fund administration,…
Plimsoll takes Aegis EMS for enhanced forex trading
Plimsoll Capital, a New Jersey -based hedge fund manager trading in foreign exchange and structured product instruments, has implemented Aegis Software's AthenaTrader execution management system for its newly developed forex trading program, Armada.
Editor’s letter: Get ready to lose some friends
That's what Matthew Crabbe, managing director of Incisive Media's financial risk management and trading technology division, advised me when we recently discussed BST 's plans to launch its inaugural Buy-Side Technology Awards in November this year. To…
