About a-team Marketing Services
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry

A-Team Insight Blogs

Technology Catches Up To Regulators’ Monitoring Demands

Subscribe to our newsletter

Conducting a simple real-time statistical analysis of financial market activity does not necessarily require “sophisticated AI or machine learning,” says Guy Warren, CEO of ITRS, an application performance management and big data analytics provider.

The purpose of conducting such an analysis is to determine when a circuit breaker kicks in to catch and stop algorithmic trading activity that has exceeded volatility limits, whether that halt of trading was warranted, or what caused it. ITRS real-time monitoring and analytics tools let it act directly on a client’s behalf, triggering a “kill switch” or “pause,” so people can manually investigate relevant trading and market data, Warren explains.

Regulators are trying to get greater control and specificity around the use of such sudden stops of market activity, adds Warren.

“Regulators are right to push for firms to have the ability to catch fluctuations and pause activity,” he says. “They increased the number of liquidity venues subject to a requirement to catch fluctuations — in response to a very large OTC presence which they thought might be manipulated.”

The regulatory push is driving more interest in implementing circuit breakers, but regulators’ wishes appear to now be better timed. Technological capabilities now make it possible to monitor ticks for 1 million instruments coming from different asset classes and regions, in a manner that was impossible four years ago. As a result, the position of some regulators that firms ought to be able to monitor all the instruments they are dealing with is now feasible when it wasn’t before, Warren explains.

Better technology makes it possible for computers to check market news that is triggering extreme price changes and evaluation if those fluctuations are genuine, he observes. “Telling if what’s happening is right can be done cost-effectively,” says Warren. “That’s not only on liquidity venues, because they have a matching engine or it’s not too hard to build one in, but on trading venues, it is possible. Most regulation will come in on trading venues, because that’s the safest place to try to catch [an unjust fluctuation]. The trading venues are trying to stop participants from putting bad trades or rogue data into the marketplace.”

Subscribe to our newsletter

Related content

WEBINAR

Upcoming Webinar: Are Your Legacy Voice Recordings a Compliance Time Bomb?

2 July 2025 10:00am ET | 3:00pm London | 4:00pm CET Duration: 50 Minutes Recent enforcement actions underscore the importance of maintaining accurate, secure and up-to-date voice and electronic communication. For some organisations, legacy voice recording systems are not at or beyond end-of-life, posing significant compliance, operational and financial risks. These outdated systems often fail...

BLOG

Unlocking Competitive Edge: Outsourcing and Managed Services in Trading Technology

Faced with intensifying cost pressures, regulatory shifts, evolving market dynamics and rapid technological change, capital markets firms are seeing the roles of outsourcing and managed services becoming increasingly strategic. But how do they decide what to outsource and what to retain in-house? How can they preserve agility and oversight while handing over key infrastructure? And...

EVENT

Data Management Summit New York City

Now in its 15th year the Data Management Summit NYC brings together the North American data management community to explore how data strategy is evolving to drive business outcomes and speed to market in changing times.

GUIDE

AI in Capital Markets: Practical Insight for a Transforming Industry – Free Handbook

AI is no longer on the horizon – it’s embedded in the infrastructure of modern capital markets. But separating real impact from inflated promises requires a grounded, practical understanding. The AI in Capital Markets Handbook 2025 provides exactly that. Designed for data-driven professionals across the trade life-cycle, compliance, infrastructure, and strategy, this handbook goes beyond...