Free
How the Hell Did We Get Here?
Exactly 12 months ago, I had a bit of a rude awakening as I moved from a features-driven monthly to a news-driven weekly when I took over the editorship of DWT . Since then, the market has suffered its own rude awakening as well.
Achtung, Baby!
Retired Formula 1 racing champ Michael Schumacher returned to a Ferrari for testing duties last week, and promptly put his younger rivals in the shade. However, Schumi is the exception to the rule: in the market data industry, older inevitably means…
No Time for Downtime (or Sub-Prime)
Having spent the last week complaining to anyone who would listen about missing luggage and a six-hour stopover in Heathrow Airport on my way back to the US, the glitch that disrupted trading and data distribution from the London Stock Exchange last week…
The Monster Mashup
After reading the latest industry journals and blogs, I am beginning to wonder if I am the only one who is really uncomfortable with the extent to which Web 2.0 technology has infiltrated the enterprise.
Exchange Consolidation: Act II
It is safe to say that global exchange consolidation has entered its second act, as tier-one bourses have begun acquiring secondary exchanges and trading venues.
Gentlemen, Start Your Engines
Now that the E.U.'s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (Mifid) launch date is upon us, the race into the 21st century financial markets appears as if it will begin with a cautious start rather than a frantic land rush. Most firms seem to be…
Asia Data: Prepping for Take-off, or Flying High?
By the time you read this, I—along with a few of my industry colleagues—will be making the long, long flight to Singapore for Inside Market Data’s Asia-Pacific Financial Information Summit, to gauge how much the market has evolved over the past 12 months.
STP Through the Front Door?
This spring, at an industry event, I learned of a new C-level title-the chief optimization officer. I didn't get to meet the person, but one of his colleagues told me that his role is to make sure that every trading system within the investment bank…
Mapping Market and Reference Data
Whenever I return from New York to London-for example, for our European Financial Information Summit-I realize there's a certain something that I miss about the old country. Maybe it's the rolling countryside, cream teas and postal strikes. Maybe it's…
Taking Control
Hands up-who's ever downloaded a song from an online file-sharing program without paying for it? Yet how many of you are scrupulous about data audits and appalled by data piracy? Ultimately, we're talking about the same action on a different scale. And…
Nasdaq's New Toy
Ever since the Nasdaq Stock Market announced the purchases it made at the Boston Stock Exchange's (BSE's) estate sale the last week, one thing that puzzles many in the industry is what Nasdaq will do with its new clearing license.
New York Sweeps Boston... Sort Of...
For the benefit of non-US readers, we're in the Post-season. The baseball season is over, and the winners now battle it out for the World Series-the Cubs, Indians, Diamondbacks, Angels, Rockies and Phillies, and of course arch-rivals the Yankees and Red…
Gaining Momentum
It's remarkable how quickly Swift has responded to the gauntlet thrown down by JPMorgan's Heidi Miller during her keynote speech in Atlanta in 2004. The industry cooperative's entire strategy for 2010 appears to be a response to questions posed during…
Report From Rhode Island
With its cruises, mansion tours and beachfront clambakes, you might be forgiven for thinking that the FISD's World Financial Information Conference in Newport, Rhode Island last week was just one big market data love-in. However, there was a range of…
Life, the Universe and STAC
Selecting which new technology to adopt is often more of an art than a science for most investment banks. The lack of objective benchmarks has left departments making choices based more on personal relationships with salespeople than on the technology…
Rhode Island Bound
Imagine a situation where key business and technical figures in the market data industry were isolated from their companies and staff, unable to reach their workplace to perform the mission-critical duties that keep the financial world turning. What…
Making Hay While the Sun Shines
Speaking with financial technologists lately, most aren't too concerned about the sub-prime mortgage meltdown. "As long as you're making the bank money, it will take care of you," has been a common refrain.
So Passes the Old Order
A part of history ended last week as the Boston Stock Exchange, the third oldest exchange in the U.S. behind the Philadelphia Stock Exchange (PHLX) and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), closed its doors for equities trading after being in business for…
106 Shopping Days 'Til Christmas
The arrival of the latest Hammacher Schlemmer catalogue in my mailbox last week reminds me that Christmas is barely three-and-a-half months away, and that there must be someone who wants an animatronic singing Elvis, a DVD projector in the shape of R2D2,…
Microsoft to Do Turrets?
When Microsoft clears its throat, other vendors get nervous. With its recent acquisition of persistent group-chat vendor Parlano last week, Microsoft has added another key component for its unified messaging offering, Office Communications Server 2007…
Messing With Physics
I'm a bit of a documentary junkie. My favorite documentary writer and paroducer isn't Ken or Ric Burns, but science historian James Burke. His two series, Connections and The Day That the Universe Changed , presented seemingly unrelated scientific…
Nothing Good Ever Happens in August
I had planned to write about New York City's preparedness for a major storm after a bout of thunderstorms and a tornado left commuters wet, angry and mostly stationary last week. However, that truly pales in comparison to the storm affecting the credit…
The Calm After the Storm?
The tornado that hit New York last week left not only a wake of felled trees, downed power lines and damaged homes, but also people stranded, late, confused, and struggling to reach their destination. What immediately became clear is that New York City's…
Playing in Harmony
Everyone in the industry can all but agree that the days of the single-asset-trading exchange has gone the way of the open-outcry trading pit both have become quaint curiosities in the Internet age.