Opinion
The first overnight trading puzzle pieces fall into place
The Waters Wrap: The NSCC moved to 24x5 clearing hours last week. What comes next is worth paying attention to, Nyela writes.
Waters Wavelength Podcast Ep. 355: Faculty’s David Bholat
This week, David Bholat joins the podcast to talk about AI deployment.
Reimagining fraud intelligence across trading systems
Researchers at IBM and Wipro say that trading firms need to transition from static fraud monitoring to adaptive behavioral intelligence embedded directly within the trading lifecycle.
The CAT’s health crisis continues
The Waters Wrap: As the comment period for changes to the Consolidated Audit Trail ends, where does the path lead to now?
Tale of two halves: Agentic AI and the coming capital markets reckoning
Firms that have built robust rails will be better placed to scale agents safely and improve productivity. Those that don’t will learn a hard lesson, says Andrew Morgan.
Where a US antitrust case and a data law meet
The Waters Wrap: Regulators’ choice not to endorse a securities identifier under a new law keeps business as usual for firms required to pay Cusip license fees—but Reb isn’t ruling out a shake-up just yet.
Why generic AI approaches really struggle with investment data
For investment management firms experimenting with LLMs, the results often fall short of expectations. Bharath Reddy of Finbourne says firms should examine the architecture that sits between the model and the data.
Waters Wavelength Ep. 354: Vibing on vibe coding
This week, Tony and Shen chat about vibe coding.
M&As, MCPs and why clean data is essential
The Waters Wrap: Financial firms are racing to adopt AI—but the payoff depends on having the right foundations, particularly clean, normalized data, writes Wei‑Shen.
How governance-first architecture stabilizes complex systems
Chetan Patil argues that many transformation projects fail not because of the technology but because of weak data governance. Adopting a governance-first discipline early (and building speed, resiliency, and credibility over time) is best.
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.
From the CIO seat: What it takes to build a super-connector bank
Markets are now more interconnected than ever, exacerbating some challenges. To help, there are three things firms should focus on, writes Gareth Hughes of Standard Chartered.
Waters Wavelength Podcast Ep. 353: ExeQution Analytics’s Cat Turley
This week, Cat Turley joins the podcast to discuss the gap between investment data and trading alpha.
The enshittification of AI
The Waters Wrap: AI may look good to its developers, but there are a few problems lurking below the surface that might cause problems. Max Bowie explains.
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.