Nippon Dispatches: Day Three

Today, we have our second annual Tokyo Financial Information Summit, and my main reason for being in Japan. Hosted by sibling publications Inside Market Data and Inside Reference Data, the panels and presentations revolved around the demands put on the corporate infrastructure by high-frequency trading (HFT) and vendor management.

Most of the long-only buy-side representatives claim they are not worried about the impact HFT will have on the local Japanese market. However, they want to be prepared if and when the playing field changes.

One panelist pointed out that traders on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) have always tried to be the fastest, and that HFT is just the latest version of that long-standing pursuit.

For the vendor management portion of the discussion, the theme was clear: to succeed in the Japanese markets, vendors need to go “all in.” Coming into the market with a “one size fits all” global offering that does not address the nuances of the Tokyo market is the surest way not to have your calls returned.

Now that firms are much tighter with their IT purse strings, vendors should take the advice to heart.