Chris Isaacson, Best Ex, Julia and More: November Features

Challenge Accepted: Chris Isaacson, Bats Global Markets
The November cover feature sees Dan DeFrancesco talking to Bats Global Markets' global CIO Chris Isaacson about the challenges involved in growing the equities exchange to one of the largest venue operators in the world and what lies ahead following the impending takeover by CBOE Stock Exchange. It's a huge task Isaacson is faced with, but judging by his appetite for a challenge, it's one he is well up for.

Evolution of the OEMS
The EMS and OMS are vital tools in any trader's portfolio, but the increasing prevalence of a combined, integrated system is starting to take hold, particularly on the buy side. Aggelos Andreou examines the progress that OEMS has made in the capital markets' technology arena, what challenges still lie ahead in terms of integration, and why some traders still insist on separate systems.

Mifid II: Best Execution May See Heads Roll
Mifid II is back on everyone's agenda and the clock is ticking. I have heard a lot of different opinions on the changes to the best execution regime that now includes exchange operators and buy-side firms under the new regulations and decided to find out exactly what the fuss was all about. Turns out, its data. It's always data.

Treasuries Platforms: Where Speed Is Not Their Forte
The US Treasury market has experienced its fair share of electronification over the past few years, but problems around access to price and the dominance of high-frequency trading (HFT) are still causing consternation. Emilia David finds that much of the concern around HFT is misleading and that the off-the-run market has the most potential for startup platforms.

Speeding Out of India
Wei-Shen Wong finds that HFT is also an area of concern for Indian regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), which is considering implementing new measures to address areas it sees as problematic; the problem is that they haven't been very clear what the problem actually is. Some in the space believe more regulation would hamper liquidity, while others think HFT has peaked and that any new rules would be a waste of time.

The Infancy of Julia (published next week)
Waters' US editor Anthony Malakian takes an in-depth look at the growing popularity of the Julia programming language, an open-source, speedy alternative to its more established competitors such as Matlab and Python. Julia is already gaining traction among the capital markets as a solution to the "two language" problem. The year 2017 will see the launch of Version 1.0 of the language and, presumably, a much wider take-up among the industry.