MiFID II: A Little Too Much Transparency?
Has transparency gone too far under planned revisions to the reporting requirements of the 2007 Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID)? Market participants say that it will expose sensitive market activity, while creating a massive operational headache. While traders assume they will just have to deal with this pain they are in limbo until the...
MiFID II: Putting the Clock Back
The type of trader you are will determine how you set your watch. That is the upshot of ‘RTS 25: Draft regulatory technical standards on clock synchronization’ published by the European Securities and Markets Commission in late September under the revision of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II). “MiFID II moved away from...
Five Markets and Technology Predictions for 2016
By Jock Percy, CEO at Perseus Overall, 2015 was a fascinating year for the financial markets and, by extension, for financial technology solutions providers. At a macroeconomic level, the slowdown of growth in China squeezed commodity dependent markets, including commodity powerhouses such as Brazil, Australia and South Africa. Meanwhile, the Greek debt crisis unleashed a...
Creating Back Office 2.0 – Reinventing Trade Processing on the Block Chain
By Pete Harris, Principal, Lighthouse Partners Financial markets firms seem to be forever complaining about an increasingly competitive marketplace that is driving down revenues and increased compliance and operational procedures that are pushing up costs. No surprise then that many are looking at a technology called block chain in order to simplify their post-trade infrastructures...
What’s More Important: Latency or Determinism?
While speed was everything, latency determinism – ensuring consistent latency throughout your systems for every trade – is increasingly a critical metric for traders executing multi-venue strategies. A recent shift in exchange policy may make a focus on latency determinism even more important. “The fastest in the pack is a Lance Armstrong-type character using every...
Metamako Adds Third-Party Apps to Ultra-Low Latency Switching Platform
Metamako, a provider of deterministic ultra-low latency devices, has set up a partner programme to encourage third parties to develop applications for its MetaApp and MetaMux switching platforms, which include ultra low-latency switching, an onboard field programmable gate array (FPGA) and a server, and are typically used to trade directly with exchanges. Dave Snowdon, founder...
Talking Intelligent Trading with Andrew Delaney: A Symphony of Paper Tigers
Some of us were encouraged – relieved, even – to read on various non-value-added news ‘services’ (PR wires?) about the success of the Symphony trader messaging collaboration in securing financial support from Google Alphabet, the new incubator-type funding organisation supported by You Know Who. We were pleased because Google’s support clearly indicated to us that...
Corvil Webinar Discusses the Problems of Packet Loss and Some Potential Solutions
By Zoe Schiff Packet loss caused by network congestion or packet corruption can make trading strategies irrelevant and cause unwanted costs, but these problems can be resolved by using tools that provide visibility of packet loss and its effects. A recent webinar presented by James Wiley, director of technical product marketing at network data analytics...
Orc Teams Up with Galaxy Futures to Offer Access to Chinese Markets
Orc has teamed up with Galaxy Futures Co. to allow its customers to trade on Chinese markets using Galaxy’s exchange memberships. This is Orc’s first joint offering with a local broker in China and builds out its Asia-Pacific strategy of developing close cooperation with regional brokers. The cooperation between Orc and Galaxy integrates Galaxy’s gateways...
ICE Agrees Sale of NYSE Technologies’ NYFIX and Metabit to Ullink
Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) has reached agreement to sell NYSE Technologies’ NYFIX and Metabit businesses to Ullink, just days after it confirmed agreements to sell Wombat and SuperFeed to SR Labs, and its 25% stake in Fixnetix back to the company. ICE says these sales complete its previously stated intention to divest certain non-exchange related assets...