Panel: Desktop Isn't Dead

During a panel discussion at the Futures Industry Association New York Expo, Martin Leamy of trading technology vendor Orc Software speculated that the user interfaces (UI) of trading systems are going to move away from desktops and into a few directions, including mobile. That prompted other panelists to jump to the defense of traditional UI, at least for now.

The desktop, says Patrick Kenny of Denver, Colo.-based data, charting and software vendor CQG, is still there for a reason. Monitors are necessary for tracking orders and profit-and-loss (P&L).

"Even for customers that have written their own algos, the trader still wants to see what's going on—they still want to interact with their algo," says Steffen Gemuenden, CEO of trading software and connectivity provider RTS Realtime Systems. "Traders might have a feeling about the market and change some parameters in the algo. Maybe they want to stop an algo in certain market conditions. It's not 100 percent automated that the machine just runs and makes money on its own." In an office setting, checking on an algorithm still means working through a desktop monitor.

Monitors have other raisons d'etre. For example, risk profiles need to be observed. Also, front-end applications often connect to multiple trading venues. "Even for firms that build their own black-box applications and host their own software, they almost always need something that acts as a failsafe," says Diane Saucier, vice president of global market development at trading platform vendor Trading Technologies. "If ours goes down, we want something else. We need to be able to access those orders. They may use it for secondary markets. Maybe they write directly to the primary markets but they trade more and more markets now. It doesn't really pay for them to develop all of their own tools. For all of those things, they need a tool sitting on their desktop where they can have a great visual of everything going on with their own positions."

A traditional front end’s viability is dependent on its ability to get orders to market as quickly as possible, says Dan Smalley, director of business development at trading platform and connectivity provider Fidessa. Not only should it allow for easy algorithmic trading, synthetic spread trading, and various order types, it should do so in "the most ergonomic way possible."

Looking to the future, Saucier says safer environments for developing and deploying trading strategies will take on new importance as the latency race takes a back seat. She also points to the continued growth of emerging markets as Europe and the US continue to stagnate.

RTS’ Gemuenden, meanwhile, singles out Asia as the area of most focus for his business, predicting that growth will continue there for the next five years. "In terms of connectivity, datacenters, co-location and lowest latency between A and B, if you look at Europe and the US, I think we have it all covered," he says. India and China, he says, are the new frontiers for vendors. Those who want to get market share need to get in now before the floodgates really open. Orc’s Leamy says he agrees, and points to Brazil as a market where Orc has recently opened an office.

Asia is one of CQG's big initiatives as well. Another is a return to its core business of data. Kenny says that in pushing its analytics and execution services, it sometimes left data behind. "We can't lose sight of that," he says. "It can't just be all about Bloomberg. There's a choice out there."