Waters
Max Bowie: Lights, Camera, Data!
With movies about corporate espionage and greedy tycoons—from the high-flying The Wolf of Wall Street to the grimy Boiler Room—always popular, the average person’s understanding of market data and trading technologies comes from the big screen, not the…
March 2014: Breaking the Habit
Microsoft Excel as an operational tool is as flawed as it is ubiquitous on Wall Street—even the regulators are guilty of over-reliance on spreadsheets—but Victor says cutting back on its use in favor of automated processes can mean serious long-term…
Take Away Spreadsheets? From My Cold, Dead Hands
Microsoft Excel spreadsheets will continue to be widely used at asset management firms for the foreseeable future. But new regulations, technological advancements, and risk management concerns are leading buy-side firms to examine ways to lessen their…
All Eyes on Outsourcing
After UBS announced last month that it would outsource most of its fixed-income trading platform to Murex and Ion Trading, Marina Daras looks at how financial services firms intend to manage their IT costs by reassessing their outsourcing options.
Real-Time Risk: Keeping It Real
Pitches for real-time risk solutions focus more on the sell side than the buy side. Jake Thomases set out to determine how much hedge funds and asset managers care about calculating risk in the blink of an eye. Some do, but it’s largely dependent on…
Europe Takes First Steps Toward Electronic Derivatives Trading
With provisional agreement on the Mifid II text by European political authorities, electronic execution of derivatives is set to spread over the Atlantic Ocean in the near future. In terms of equivalence, interoperability, and mutual recognition, how…
February 2014: In Praise of the Corporate Plodder
I’m not sure whether there’s a formal name for them – a quick Google search suggests that my hunch is spot-on – but I regularly use a collective term to describe the drones of the business, the worker bees, the foot soldiers: corporate plodders.
Kotch's Confidence: CTO Mary Kotch Balances Family with AIG's Rebuild
AIG CTO Mary Kotch sits down with Anthony Malakian to discuss her ascent up the technology ladder to her current position, and how she manages to find a work–life balance while helping the insurance giant to restore its brand post-2008. Photos by Amy…
James Rundle: There and Back Again
In January, European political authorities provisionally agreed on a package of reforms to securities markets that will have deep consequences for financial services firms. As the technical work can now get underway, James looks at the challenges ahead…
Anthony Malakian: Learning Lessons
Anthony’s dad taught him a lesson from his own career: Sometimes great ideas come from unexpected places. It’s good, therefore, to always listen and be open to new ideas.
Nicholas Hamilton: Surprise, Surprise
The nominations for the board of directors of the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation include some surprises and clues about the form the Central Operating Unit might take, writes Nicholas Hamilton.
Max Bowie: This Valentine’s Day, Why Not … Break Up?
Any recipe for success involves a combination of ingredients. But sometimes recipes taste better when a few toxic ingredients are removed. And with everyone looking to be disruptive in 2014, Max notes that you don’t make a disruption omelet without…
Asset Management Shift Inspires IT Transformation Among Middle Eastern Banks
While markets along the Persian Gulf have conspicuously built up financial infrastructure in recent years to attract foreign firms and capital, local banks elsewhere in the Middle East are bolstering their technological capacity to do precisely the…
Fund Managers Gear Up for AIFMD Costs, Compliance
With only six months to go until the July 22 deadline for fund managers to comply with the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive, Marina Daras looks at how the industry is gearing up in the homestretch.
Derivatives Trading Firms Weigh Audio Recording Approaches
Thanks to the latest Dodd–Frank provision in which derivatives transactions will be more closely monitored, many US traders will now have their conversations recorded. Jake Thomases investigates how that recording will be done and what will happen to the…
BofA's Bessant Embraces BYOD, Eyes Big Data's Interest vs. Impact
At a time when few institutions can countenance a wholesale technology reform program, Bank of America is storming ahead on the mobile front, in addition to undertaking a total infrastructural transformation and the goal of developing single platforms…
A data-centric approach to portfolio management
A fast, flexible and reliable investment decision-making process must be based on access to accurate and consistent information throughout an organization. The right portfolio management solution will underpin the creation of an enterprise-wide approach…
Bohemian Rhapsody: CIO Michal Sanak Leads Prague's RSJ with Smart Speed
RSJ, tucked on the left bank of the Vltava River in the Czech capital of Prague, has quietly become one of the world’s most active proprietary trading firms, despite its boutique size. As CIO and shareholder Michal Sanak tells Tim Bourgaize Murray, the…
Max Bowie: Cost, Regs, Volumes, Analytics to Drive Data Innovation in 2014
With economic woes hampering innovation in recent years, Max says the winds of change blowing from different directions may create a perfect storm of pressures that force the industry to consider new options in 2014.
Anthony Malakian: When the Love is Gone
In a world of new technologies—where evolution happens at breakneck speeds—Anthony says that buy-side firms need to employ new strategies when managing their third-party relationships. Perhaps they can learn a lesson or two from their sell-side brethren?
James Rundle: Imperfect Solutions
Most Western exchanges have implemented safety measures to mitigate share-price swings, but others are beginning to experience the algorithmic troubles that brought trading firms to their knees in recent years. Kill switches and circuit breakers don’t…
Michael Shashoua: The Way of the World
With respect to the spread of US and Euro-centric data management systems, as well as regulation to other regions, Michael points out that the difficulties in translating new standards and laws could highlight cultural differences that service providers…
License to Kill: The Complexity of Circuit Breakers
As regulators collaborate to review different concepts to protect the integrity of the US financial markets and reduce potential technology failures, Marina Daras looks at the technical challenges of implementing circuit breakers for brokers and…
Japan Eyes Further Transformation after Exchange Merger
The Japanese capital markets have undergone a series of changes over the past few years, first in response to the natural disasters that affected Asia’s regional hub, and later with the merger of the Osaka Securities Exchange and the Tokyo Stock Exchange…