Blog, Advanced Trading

Will LSE and Lehman’s Dark Pool Weather Latest Sale Rumors?

July 01, 2008 @ 05:52 PM | By Ivy Schmerken

The London Stock Exchange Group plc's plans to form a Pan European dark liquidity pool with Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. as its joint venture partner could be overshadowed by the potential sale of the firm.

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Topics: dark pools
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Bear Stearns Hedge Fund Manager Ralph Cioffi Arrested

June 19, 2008 @ 01:06 PM | By Kerry Massaro

Well the other shoe has finally dropped. Two Bear Stearns hedge fund executives, one that was quoted often in Advanced Trading, have been arrested. Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin were arrested today and charged with securities fraud. The two hedge funds they managed: high Grade Structured Credit Strategies Fund,and the High Grade Structured Credit Strategies Enhanced Leverage Fund collapsed in August and were the earliest signs that the greater credit crisis was about to make itself known.

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Topics: credit derivatives
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NYSE Says Good Bye to Specialists; Hello DMMs

June 19, 2008 @ 12:37 PM | By Ivy Schmerken

Change is brewing again at the New York Stock Exchange. Last Friday, the exchange proposed rules that would eliminate the traditional function of a specialist and replace them with designated market makers or DMMs. Is this a good move? How will it impact the Hybrid Market?

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Topics: Ivy Schmerken
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CBOE and 3-D Markets Bring the GWAP to Options

June 02, 2008 @ 06:36 PM | By Ivy Schmerken

The idea of creating a dark pool in options has not been easy because options trades are not permitted to occur off-exchange. But a recent deal between the Chicago Board Options Exchange and 3-D Markets, a block-crossing network, suggests that exchanges and liquidity pools can cooperate on crossing institutional orders based on benchmark prices.

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Topics: Ivy Schmerken
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A New Era of Change at the NYSE

May 30, 2008 @ 10:15 AM | By Cristina McEachern

Larry Leibowitz, executive vice president, head of U.S. markets and global technology at NYSE Euronext Group, was a refreshing keynote at this year’s TowerGroup Financial Services Business & Technology Conference in Boston.

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Topics: Exchanges
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Is Open Source Threatening the Status Quo?

May 20, 2008 @ 02:01 PM | By Ivy Schmerken

A new software upstart Marketcetera contends that its open source platform for building automated trading systems is an alternative to the likes of EMS providers Portware and Flextrade. Marketcetera's CEO Graham Miller (who previously worked at hedge funds where he developed automated trading systems) regards these platforms as proprietary and calls them restrictive and inflexible as well as expensive.

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Topics: Ivy Schmerken
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Five Keys to Running a Successful Global ATS

May 20, 2008 @ 11:45 AM | By Cristina McEachern

Recently I sat down with Instinet’s Co-CEOs Fumiki Kondo and Anthony Abenante to get an update on their first year on the job and what Instinet has coming down the pipeline.

But I was also interested in finding out their vision for the global ATS or MTF market. With the success of Instinet subsidiary Chi-X Europe and the expansion into other global markets—Chi-X Canada and Chi-X ATS Australia already announced—we wanted to know their thoughts on what it takes to successfully build and run a global trading platform.

The consensus puts the European market about seven years behind the U.S. space so ATS are beginning to gather steam and attract trading flow in post-MiFID Europe. For the first quarter of 2008 Chi-X Europe reported over 6.6 million trades and saw peak market volume climb to over 13 percent of total trading in FTSE 100 stocks on March 13, 2008.

As other ATS prepare to launch in Europe and beyond, Kondo and Abenante share their five keys to running a successful global ATS.

Instinet Co-CEOs Anthony Abenante (left) and Fumiki Kondo (right)
Photo by Stephen Aviano

#1 Add Value
Attracting order flow by adding value is also key, according to Abenante. “At the end of the day we’re bringing together people who hopefully will find an opportunity to trade stocks,” he says. “This is a market structure business, the way you add value is making markets more efficient. Whether that’s being faster, or smarter or cheaper—all of those are important. “

He adds that making Chi-X Europe's back end technology cheaper, relying on partner Fortis was a good way to add value for the end user ultimately. “Fortis provides our back end solution, which is about 70 percent cheaper than the incumbent solution. That should generate more volume as costs come down and markets become more efficient it should bring in more trading. At the end of the day more stock you trade within the spread, the spread tightens and that’s good for markets,” notes Abenante.

#2 Provide a Consistent Experience
The success of an ATS is in large part due to the technology and therefore speed and cost, but Abenante also points to the customer experience as an important factor. “Providing a consistent experience for clients from an API standpoint globally—how they interface to the exchange should be consistent and the same types or order controls should be there,” he says. “It’s also important to minimize the burden on people to interface with you and make it as easy as possible for them to come in.”

#3 Know the Market
Anyone who has tried to enter a new market is all too familiar with the advantage having a local presence affords. “We’ve been on the ground in Europe since the 80s and in Asia since the 90s. We have relationships with the regulators and know what they’re looking for and we know the process,” says Abenante.

He also says that bringing in outside investors often helps further this local knowledge and helps enter new foreign markets. “It’s not just brining in trading flow and capital, it’s the intellectual capital, the knowledge of the regulators and how these markets exist,” explains Abenante. “That gives more of the color and helps us figure out how to navigate in these markets. It’s tough walking in to a country and saying ‘we want to be an alternative to the national exchange,’ you really have to tread lightly.”

#4 Make it Transparent
Obviously transparency is something all clients are looking for in their trading destinations and something ATS should keep in mind. “We definitely bring a general philosophy of openness. If you’re trying to sell a more efficient market, to not be transparent is a bit hypocritical,” says Abenante.
Kondo adds, “It’s important that everyone can come and play openly.”

#5 Emphasize Uniqueness
Kondo says that Instinet’s agency model is one way the firm differentiates its ATS offerings. “We don’t have any proprietary flow for example in our ATS’, its all natural flow,” he explains. “That’s one key of ours to differentiate the ATS – the agency model.”

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Topics: Exchanges
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Equity Markets Play the Rebate Game to Win Market Share

May 06, 2008 @ 02:35 PM | By Ivy Schmerken

It's getting hard to keep up with the changes in fee structures emanating from U.S. stock exchanges and ECNs. Equity market players are changing their transaction prices left and right, offering higher rebates to liquidity providers or lower take-fees to those firms that remove liquidity.

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Topics: Ivy Schmerken
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Derivatives Exchanges On a Tear

May 05, 2008 @ 12:26 PM | By Cristina McEachern

As equities exchanges face growing fragmentation and competition from alternative trading venues, the derivatives exchanges are seeing trading volumes jump as electronic trading permeates into these markets.

For the first quarter of 2008, many of the derivatives exchanges reported significant profit growth and volume increases as volatility hit the markets and risk management continues to be at the forefront.

The Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) reported net profit of $92.3 million with its futures exchanges seeing an increase of 39% in profit over the previous year. The ISE futures exchanges saw 62.5 million in contracts traded in the first quarter.

NYMEX also credited exponential growth in electronic trading for driving its profits for the quarter. NYMEX saw net profits reach $72.1 million, almost 30 percent more than the same period last year thanks for average daily volumes reaching 1.9 million contracts.

On the options front, big jumps were also evident as volatility continued to plague the markets. The International Securities Exchange (ISE) saw its average daily volume for options hit 4 million contracts for the month of April, almost 50 percent growth over the same period last year.
At the CBOE Futures Exchange, volume reached over 100,000 contracts traded for the month of April, up almost 150% over the same time last year.

The CME Group saw options volumes increase 16 percent to 1.8 million contracts per day as electronic options trading grew 23 percent, reaching an average of 275,000 contracts per day.

NYSE Arca Options saw daily volumes grow 36% in April. While derivatives trading at NYSE Euronext's Liffe saw a 34% increase in contracts traded so far this year compared to the same period last year. During April, more than 97 million futures and options contracts were traded, up 33 percent over the previous year.

At Advanced Trading we’re covering electronic trading in the derivatives markets more and more and this month we are seeking out providers of Futures Algorithms for our next Directory. If you offer algorithms for futures please be sure to fill out the online form at:

http://advancedtrading.com/directories/futures-algorithms/entry/

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Topics: Exchanges
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A Rare Look Inside Morgan Stanley Investment Management

April 16, 2008 @ 03:23 PM | By Cristina McEachern

It’s very rare that a big buy side firm wants to talk about their trading technology projects, let alone grant full access to an entire team of people working on a large-scale trading renovation.

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Topics: trading floors
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Time to End Wall Street IT's Boom and Bust Cycle?

April 14, 2008 @ 12:59 PM | By Ivy Schmerken

With investment banks reporting layoffs and tightening their belts in light of the economic downturn, one of the major themes emerging in IT circles is sustainable cost reduction. “The industry does carry a lot of cost,” says Bob Gach, global managing director capital markets at Accenture in New York. “The industry hasn’t had the courage or need to attack these costs,” says Gach.

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Topics: Ivy Schmerken
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Treasury's Plan for Regulatory Overhaul Annoints the Fed As Wall Street's Supercop

April 08, 2008 @ 01:49 PM | By Ivy Schmerken

As Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s plan to overhaul financial market regulation makes its way through Washington, the question is how could this impact broker dealers, asset managers and hedge funds. Would there be less regulation for the sake of global competitiveness as some opponents contend? And which entity would oversee the opaque world of OTC derivatives?

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Topics: Ivy Schmerken
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Clash of the Cultures

March 24, 2008 @ 10:19 AM | By Cristina McEachern

The announcement that JP Morgan would be bailing out Bear Stearns with a deal to purchase the company at $2 per share sent shockwaves across Wall Street last week.

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Topics: News
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Are Exchanges Converging with Dark Pools?

March 20, 2008 @ 02:16 PM | By Ivy Schmerken

The lines between exchanges and dark liquidity pools are blurring. Last week NYSE Euronext announced that clients of NYSE Arca’s electronic trading system would have access to non-displayed liquidity pools through participating broker-dealers and alternative trading systems.

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Topics: Ivy Schmerken
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Remembering Barings

March 11, 2008 @ 08:28 PM | By Kerry Massaro

I clearly remember reading about Nick Leeson and the fall of Barings Bank in 1995. I was just a few years out of college in a foot-in-the-door position that wasn't all that exciting. To counter my boredom, I started reading my boss' Wall Street Journal before he got in. The news was interesting, but not thrilling - until I got to the Leeson scandal.

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Topics: Kerry Massaro
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Santayana New Sales Head at Credit Suisse AES

February 13, 2008 @ 11:04 AM | By Cristina McEachern

As the newly appointed Head of Advanced Execution Services (AES) Global Sales at Credit Suisse, Manny Santayana is already working hard to foster the group’s global, multi-asset focus.

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Topics: Algorithms
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NYSE MatchPoint Offers Free Internalization to Sell-Side DMA Providers

February 12, 2008 @ 05:35 PM | By Ivy Schmerken

NYSE MatchPoint is talking to several of the largest broker dealer members of the exchange about connecting their direct market access (DMA) trading systems up to the new portfolio-based crossing system.

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Topics: dark pools
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Citi Brings Together ATD and Citi Liquidity with Launch of Citi Match

February 06, 2008 @ 03:22 PM | By Kerry Massaro

Citi has quietly launched Citi Match, an anonymous crossing network that brings together the order flow of Automated Trading Desk and Citi. Tim Reilly, Managing Director and Head of Electronic Sales, says, "This is a game changer. One of the biggest challenges for any of the bulge bracket firms is to create a single point of access to their consolidated liquidity. There is a short list of firms that can offer one stop shopping for their non displayed liquidity." He explains that although most of the broker-dealers have matching networks, they don’t have the critical mass that he expects Citi Match to have, nor do they pull together all liquidity types. "We have the three legs of the stool, which is unique," noting that Citi Match pulls together institutional, broker-dealer and retail order flow. He says, "This is very different from simply pulling flow together from an algo, cash and program trading desk and calling it a crossing engine."

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Topics: dark pools
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LongView Integrates With NYFIX

February 06, 2008 @ 01:54 PM | By Cristina McEachern

Linedata announced its LongView trade order management system (OMS) will now offer integrated access to NYFIX Millennium dark pool and NEXAS, NYFIX’s algorithm suite.

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Topics: EMS/OMS
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BIDS Trading Integrates with Fidessa LatentZero

February 05, 2008 @ 02:01 PM | By Ivy Schmerken

BIDS Trading, an alternative trading system (ATS) focusing on U.S. equity block trading, has now connected to the Fidessa Latent Zero’s buy-side order execution management system (OEMS), called Minerva. Both companies announced the systems connectivity today, reflecting the need to provide institutions with access to new trading venues that are proliferating in the U.S. equity trading space.

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Topics: dark pools
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ISE Teams with Eurex to Develop New Options Trading System, Replacing OMX by 2011

January 30, 2008 @ 01:45 PM | By Ivy Schmerken

The International Securities Exchange (ISE) and Eurex, the derivatives marketplace owned by Deutsche Borse, will jointly develop a new options trading system for the ISE that will replace the OMX Click trading system currently in operation. This step is the first initiative following the completion of the $2.8 billion merger of ISE and Eurex on Dec. 19, 2007.

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Topics: Exchanges
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Fidessa LatentZero and Pipeline Partner on Leak-Proof Integration

January 29, 2008 @ 10:53 PM | By Ivy Schmerken

Fidessa LatentZero’s partnership with Pipeline Trading Systems LLC will give buy-side traders the ability to match up large block trading opportunities in Pipeline ATS with orders on their blotter without risking information leakage.

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Topics: EMS/OMS
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Aite Group's Bailey Heads to Knight Capital Group

January 29, 2008 @ 04:42 PM | By Ivy Schmerken

Brad Bailey, senior analyst at Aite Group, is moving to Knight Capital Group as a director in the business corporate development area. Bailey will focus on strategic initiatives to grow the sell-side firm’s business.

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Topics: people
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Turquoise Taps Apama and Detica to Build Market Surveillance System

January 28, 2008 @ 05:48 PM | By Ivy Schmerken

Turquoise, the high-profile multilateral trading system (MTF) in Europe founded by nine investment banks to compete with the London Stock Exchange and other traditional exchanges, has hired Progress Software and Detica to develop a real-time market surveillance system.

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Topics: ECNs
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Updating Record Volumes

January 24, 2008 @ 06:30 PM | By Ivy Schmerken

With volatility back in the stock market, institutional investors are routing orders with a vengeance and boosting the volumes at some of the newer equity trading venues.
Here’s an update on the volume records that occurred this week.

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Rogue Trader Rocks SocGen

January 24, 2008 @ 10:59 AM | By Cristina McEachern

Societe Generale announced today that a rogue trader had undertaken “exceptional fraud” resulting in losses of $7.14 billion.

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Topics: News
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ITG Releases Triton in Asia Pac

January 24, 2008 @ 10:38 AM | By Cristina McEachern

Investment Technology Group (ITG) has launched its Triton execution management system (EMS) for the Asia Pacific region. Buy side traders will have access to more then 30,000 equities across the Asia Pacific markets.

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Topics: EMS/OMS
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Turquoise Update

January 23, 2008 @ 11:06 AM | By Cristina McEachern

Despite recent delays to its planned launch, Project Turquoise, the multilateral Pan European trading facility established by a consortium of banks, is on its way to a 2008 launch with its CEO and CTO in place and two new partners.

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Topics: Exchanges
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Market Tumult Lifts Volume at Liquidnet and Pipeline

January 22, 2008 @ 07:07 PM | By Ivy Schmerken

Fears of a U.S. recession that sparked a global sell-off in European and Asian stocks over the past two days, led to a rocky day in U.S. stock trading and an aggressive rate cut by the Federal Reserve, But the jittery behavior of institutional investors and hedge funds could be good for alternative trading systems (ATSs) judging from the recent highs in dark pools. Two of the dark pools, Liquidnet and Pipeline, announced record high volumes last week.

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Topics: dark pools
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Progress Releases Smart Order Router Accelerator

January 22, 2008 @ 10:20 AM | By Cristina McEachern

Progress Software has released its Progress Apama Smart Order Router (SOR) Accelerator to help traders quickly and effectively create and deploy smart order routing strategies.

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Topics: Algorithms
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NYSE Euronext Buys Amex to Snare Options Jewel

January 18, 2008 @ 02:36 PM | By Ivy Schmerken

NYSE Euronext is on a shopping spree to consolidate the global exchange landscape and last night it agreed to acquire the American Stock Exchange for $260 million in its own common stock, to boost its options business and multi-asset class product range.

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Topics: Exchanges
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Aqua ATS Joins Tradeware Network to Access Block Liquidity

January 16, 2008 @ 12:45 PM | By Ivy Schmerken

Aqua, a new alternative trading system that is trying to solve the block liquidity problem for the buy side and mid-tier brokers, has joined Tradeware Global Corp.’s FIXLink, global connectivity network.

“Tradeware has a platform that is used by a lot of brokers,” says Kevin Foley, president and CEO of Aqua, a new electronic trading platform for block liquidity that is backed by Cantor Fitzgerald and eSpeed. Aqua did its first trades in December. “People aren’t going to trade unless it’s seamless and paperless. You’ve got to integrate where the source is and where the liquidity is,” says Foley.

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Topics: dark pools
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Is NYSE’s Purchase of Wombat a Response to Nasdaq-OMX?

January 15, 2008 @ 04:04 PM | By Ivy Schmerken

Yesterday’s agreement by NYSE Euronext to acquire Wombat Financial Software is another sign that the arms race between exchanges to buy up technology infrastructure companies is heating up. The NYSE deal to acquire Wombat for $200 million in cash falls on the heels of Nasdaq acquiring Stockholm’s OMX Group, a leading commercial supplier of exchange technology.

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Portware Connects to NYSE MatchPoint

January 15, 2008 @ 12:39 PM | By Cristina McEachern

In preparation for the January 22nd launch of NYSE MatchPoint, Portware announced it has integrated with the portfolio-based point-in-time electronic trading facility. Portware’s buy- and sell-side clients will have full access to the centralized matching environment.

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Topics: dark pools
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Goldman Launches Two New Options Algos

January 11, 2008 @ 01:19 PM | By Cristina McEachern

Goldman Sachs Electronic Trading has launched two new algorithms for U.S. Listed Options. The new Iceberg and Delta Adjusted algorithms are available to users on Goldman’s RediPlus platform as well as its FIX offering.

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Topics: derivatives
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Consortium Buys into Chi-X Europe

January 10, 2008 @ 12:52 PM | By Cristina McEachern

Instinet announced a consortium of 13 banks and trading firms have taken a minority equity stake in its Chi-X Europe multilateral trading facility (MTF).

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Topics: Exchanges
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Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan Invest in BATS Trading

January 08, 2008 @ 02:05 PM | By Ivy Schmerken

Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan have each invested in BATS Trading, operator of BATS ECN, acquiring a minority stake in the fast growing alternative market center in U.S. equity securities. Financial terms were not disclosed. This brings the number of sell-side investors in Kansas City-based BATS up to 10.

BATS ECN has grabbed the attention of the industry with its high-speed trading platform that appeals to high frequency and algorithmic traders and with its aggressive rates for adding and removing liquidity, which have turned up the heat on the NYSE and Nasdaq.

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Topics: ECNs
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NYSE MatchPoint Set for Launch

January 07, 2008 @ 11:24 AM | By Cristina McEachern

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has approved the rules for NYSE Euronext’s MatchPoint crossing network. MatchPoint is expected to officially begin trading on January 22, 2008.

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Topics: Exchanges
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RealTick Links to On Point’s Options Smart Routing

January 07, 2008 @ 10:18 AM | By Cristina McEachern

On Point Execution’s Sting smart order router for options is now an execution destination available on Townsend Analytics’ RealTick Execution Management System (EMS).

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Topics: derivatives
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Fortis Launches 24-Hour Futures Desk

January 04, 2008 @ 12:17 PM | By Cristina McEachern

Fortis Clearing Americas will launch its 24-hour futures execution desk on January 14th to service commodity trading advisor (CTA) and hedge fund clients. Gerard Colagrossi and Eli Tullis Jr. have been appointed senior vice presidents and will lead the new Chicago-based desk.

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Topics: derivatives
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Empire Financial to Donate Day's Profits to Cancer Center

December 12, 2007 @ 09:15 PM | By Kerry Massaro

We might all think that one day we’ll make a difference. One day after this or that, we will put aside our personal needs and do something that will be a step---big or small--toward making the world a better place. Most of us never do it, but Gerry Mastrianni, head of trading at Empire Financial Group, a Longwood, Florida-based firm is an exception.

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Topics: trading floors
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Clarifying TSX's Electronic Market Share and Alpha Trading Systems

December 12, 2007 @ 05:35 PM | By Ivy Schmerken

In yesterday's story about the TSX Group merging with Montreal Exchagne (MX), I said TSX had 90 percent market share in equities and suggested that Alpha Group was building a block trading system. Jackie Chung, president of Competitive Metrics, sent me an email this afternoon clarifying the TSX market share figures and explaining the strategy behind Alpha Group (now known as Alpha Trading Systems).

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Topics: Exchanges
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How Will the TSX/ Montreal Merger Affect Spreads?

December 12, 2007 @ 11:08 AM | By Kerry Massaro

CFA and an Advanced Trading reader, Bud Haslett of Miller Tabak & Co., emailed me the following commentary. I'd like to ask our readers the question he asked me: Do you think the
merger will result in narrower spreads and increased option volume for the combined organization?

Below is Bud's commentary:

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Topics: Exchanges
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TSX Group to Merge with Montreal Exchange to Create Multi-Asset Trading Venue

December 10, 2007 @ 10:41 PM | By Ivy Schmerken

The TSX Group has agreed to merge with the Montreal Exchange Inc. (MX) in a C$1.3 billion deal that will create an integrated, multi-asset class execution venue for equities and derivatives in Canada.

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Topics: Exchanges
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Goldman Sachs Launches Global Signature Program to Clarify Relationships with Tech Vendors

December 10, 2007 @ 04:34 PM | By Ivy Schmerken

Goldman Sachs launched a new program last week to clarify its relationships with external vendors, brokers and service providers so as to enhance their clients trade workflow throughout the execution and clearing process.

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Topics: EMS/OMS
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TradingScreen and Axes Partner for Global Execution

December 03, 2007 @ 04:00 PM | By Cristina McEachern

TradingScreen and Axes, a global institutional agency broker, have entered into a partnership to connect TradingScreen clients to Axes’ GEMS (Global Execution Management System).

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Topics: EMS/OMS
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Morgan Stanley, Trading Technologies Ink Deal

November 28, 2007 @ 02:39 PM | By Cristina McEachern

Under a new strategic agreement, Morgan Stanley’s Client Listed Derivatives group will make Trading Technologies X_Trader platform available to its customers as well as its internal trading desks on a global basis.

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Topics: derivatives
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Retail Traders Apply Algorithms to FX

November 27, 2007 @ 05:03 PM | By Ivy Schmerken

As online brokers make foreign exchange trading more accessible to retail traders, algorithmic trading is spreading beyond institutions to the savvy individual. “We’re seeing retail traders now come in building their own models and who are involved in high-frequency trading,” says Thomas Plaut, CEO of FX Solutions, an Internet-based foreign exchange broker in Saddle River, New Jersey, that provides a global trading system specializing in the top 20 high volume currency pairs.

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Topics: FX
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LongView and BIDS Announce Connectivity

November 27, 2007 @ 02:14 PM | By Cristina McEachern

Linedata Services announced connectivity between its LongView Trade Order Management System (OMS) and the BIDS altnerative trading system (ATS) for anonymous block trading.

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Topics: dark pools
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ATSs Favor Independent Tech Supplier

November 26, 2007 @ 03:00 PM | By Ivy Schmerken

New alternative marketplaces that are gearing up to compete with traditional exchanges are staying clear of the exchange-aligned technology solution providers. In late October, Turquoise, the consortium led by seven investments banks to build an alternative trading system to the London Stock Exchange and other traditional European exchanges, chose Stockholm-based Cinnober Financial Technology AB to build its matching engine.

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Topics: Ivy Schmerken
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Exchange Consolidation Raises Issues for Staying on Rival's Technology Platform

November 26, 2007 @ 11:28 AM | By Ivy Schmerken

Everyone’s talking about the wave of global exchange consolidation, but what about the exchanges that end up running on a competitor’s technology platform? It’s interesting to consider whether exchanges that run on a trading platform that gets acquired will try to ditch the technology once it’s owned by another exchange competitor.

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Topics: Ivy Schmerken
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SIFMA Fixed Income Conference Highlights Risk Management

November 19, 2007 @ 05:04 PM | By Ivy Schmerken

Given the credit market turmoil causing top firms to report multi-billion dollar losses, it’s not surprising that risk management was a major theme at the SIFMA Fixed Income Technology and e-Trading Conference last Thursday in New York. “Risk is much more important and front and center in our minds,” said Dexter Senft, managing director at Lehman Brothers, in his introductory remarks to the conference.

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Topics: Ivy Schmerken
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Electronic Trading in Asia: the Pitfalls and Opportunities

November 19, 2007 @ 01:53 PM | By Cristina McEachern

The opportunities and challenges of electronic trading in Asia was the focus of a roundtable discussion sponsored by NeoNet Securities today in New York.

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Topics: Algorithms
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Knight to Acquire Agency Brokerage EdgeTrade for FAN

November 19, 2007 @ 01:19 PM | By Kerry Massaro

FAN, the Find And Nail algorithm, created by agency brokerage EdgeTrade, has found a fan in Knight Capital Group.

EdgeTrade’s development of FAN, which simultaneously sprays aggregated dark pools and public markets and continuously moves an order in line with shifting liquidity, has led to a lucrative courtship by Knight, a full service broker-dealer, which announced its intentions to acquire EdgeTrade this morning for $59.5 million.

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Topics: Algorithms
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Expert Analysis of Thain’s Move to Merrill

November 14, 2007 @ 03:49 PM | By Ivy Schmerken

John Thain is reportedly leaving the top position at NYSE Euronext to assume the CEO mantle at brokerage house Merrill Lynch & Co., which is reeling from its write-downs in the sub-prime mortgage mess.

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Altis Partners (Jersey, U.K.)
Zbigniew Hermaszewski
Director

There is this concentration among investment professionals of moving faster and faster, and in shorter-term time frames. And my suspicion is that it's somewhat misguided, in that you'll do well going faster and faster if you're faster than everyone else ... More >>

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