R2-D2 – the ultimate digital assistant
It’s always great to attend Franklin Templeton’s unique innovation summit which took place for the third time this week. It brings together all sorts of new FinTech players, established firms, thought leaders and, crucially, outsiders to provide valuable insight into the direction of our industry (the fact it’s in Fort Lauderdale at this time of year doesn’t... Read More
Apple shows the way for trading systems
Interesting to read that Apple is reportedly deciding when, not if, to cancel music downloads from iTunes. The idea, of course, is to move everyone over to its Apple Music streaming service. This got me thinking about the whole “access to” versus “ownership of” debate and how it applies to our industry. As a committed audiophile, the Apple story filled me with horror... Read More
The Future of Best Execution
I was chatting with a few work colleagues last Friday about best execution and derivatives. They confidently asserted that without real fungibility (i.e. the ability to trade the same instrument on different venues), price comparison is not possible and so any notion of best-ex was pretty meaningless. By coincidence, I was later looking at the wording in the best-ex policy of... Read More
All I want for Xmas is exchange consolidation/competition (delete as appropriate)
Despite all the announcements, press briefings and other hullabaloo it looks like the BATS/Chi-X deal is the only one that’s actually going to get done this year. SGX/ASX and LSE/TMX are just two of the higher profile casualties in the global game of exchange Monopoly. Add to this the conversations and negotiations that never reached the public domain and you have a dazzling array... Read More
Best execution: fact or fiction?
In this episode of FragVision we take a look at how continuing fragmentation of the world’s capital markets is affecting the buy-side. Using the Fidessa Tradalyzer, we examine the challenges that buy-side participants face in post-trade best execution analysis, and look at some of the issues around the potential introduction of a European consolidated tape. Click here for the... Read More
Is it time for smart clearing?
When MiFID first emerged into the mainstream, many of us focussed on developing smart routing systems that could navigate the new fragmented liquidity landscape. Over time, these smart routers have become increasingly sophisticated and now take into account both lit and dark venues and assess them against a dazzling array of metrics. Left behind in the gold rush was the seemingly... Read More
Happy holidays!
The Xmas elves at Fidessa Labs will be busy wrapping presents for a while so they won’t be updating the daily figures again until the new year. Thanks to everyone for supporting the site since our launch, it’s really encouraging to see so many of you making good use of it. Next year promises to be an interesting one in the world of fragmentation and, as soon as their elfin... Read More
