Some of the most important technological changes on equity-trading desks are only a few years old.
New systems and procedures, meanwhile, constantly enhance the productivity and performance of every trader.
Paperless trading, electronic order routing and a computer protocol dubbed the Financial Information Exchange, or FIX, are good examples.
Innovation is absolutely breathtaking, and the speed at which machines become obsolete is more stunning than ever before.
Wall Street is a hotbed of technology spending. The spending is of gargantuan proportions. And it shows no sign of slowing down.
Not convinced? Just consider the Securities Industry Association's Technology Management Conference and Exhibit at the New York Hilton, June 23 to June 25.
Visitors will discover vendors presenting products and services in areas such as wireless communications, workstation furniture, training, information storage and disaster recovery.
The conference is not short on variety, or of attendees with checkbooks stuffed into bulging briefcases.
As Pim Goodbody, the SIA's vice president of management services, wryly observed to Traders Magazine, "This is the place where industry pros can come to get answers to their most pressing technology questions."
Of hundreds of products exhibited, traders and trading-floor managers will be eagerly eyeing the next generation of trading systems, which promise to streamline operations and boost productivity.
OMR Systems Corp., based in Princeton, N.J., is showcasing the Trading Assistant, its front-to-back trade-processing engine that supports multiple trades from a single-entry screen.
The engine's processing capability includes trade validation, advice and payment processing and accounting usages.
The technology is compatible with the Financial Trading Network, which links individual trading-assistant systems on a trading floor or in seperate locations via messaging technology.
Midas-Kapiti International will highlight its Windows NT-based Front Office DBA trading system. The London-based company says its product is designed to eliminate the expense and confusion of running different applications for a series of specific tasks.
Consisting of independent but integrated components, Front Office DBA delivers real-time and historical market data and news, performs sophisticated pricing and market-risk calculations and automates deal capturing and position keeping all on a single workstation.
Front Office DBA offers traders access to real-time spreadsheets, graphic technical-analysis capabilities, free seating and support for occasional users. Other features include straight-through processing to the backoffice, market-risk management and the ability to expand support into various financial markets.
Trintech Systems, based in Stamford, CT. is showcasing a wide range of trading technologies. FloorLook is the company's electronic quote-routing system, connecting traders to the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
Trintech's FloorReport supports the management of orders and executions between traders and exchange-floor operations, while its FIXTrader provides order management and routing for both buy-side and sell-side institutions.
Other Technologies
While trading systems take center stage, other technologies will certainly draw the attention of this year's crowd. Several companies are presenting new desktop display technologies.
Acton, Mass.-based Pixelvision is demonstrating its SmartGlas flat-panel display, which maximizes display space while minimizing eye strain.
Designed to replace bulky CRT monitors, SmartGlas resembles a thick sheet of glass and can be mounted on a desktop or wall.
The device allows traders to control more than 30 inches of high-resolution screen area from a keyboard or mouse. SmartGlas is designed to let traders view multiple applications simultaneously, and work collaboratively.
The display combines multiple-information tiles in an electronic mosaic, giving traders quick access to financial applications. The product also offers high brightness and wide-viewing angles, allowing traders to monitor applications and data whether they're standing or sitting from previously obstructed side angles.
Value Displays
Another SIA vendor will demonstrate how companies can derive more value from conventional displays. For the past 11 years, Colorgraphic Communications has been a leader in the design and manufacturing of multiple-display technologies for numerous vertical markets.
At the SIA show, the Atlanta-based company will introduce the Twin Tuna, a product that aims to combine innovations in multiple CRT screen-display technology with real-time video overlays. The plug-in PC card will allow traders to display their financial windows across two monitors. Users can also watch multiple television channels, cameras or satellite feeds in fully scalable windows.
The Twin Tuna occupies a single, full-sized PCI slot and ships with support for Windows 95 and NT 4.0. Software that provides full control of video and audio properties is included.
On the database side, Soliton Associates, based in Toronto, will exhibit TimeSquare, a database manager for financial-market data. TimeSquare integrates the acquisition, management, verification and dissemination of market data into a single product.
The software is SQL-based, making it accessible from any trading environment. Designed specifically for managing time series, TimeSquare aims to deliver fast, efficient updates.
As computing power grows almost exponentially, market-data storage and analytical tools are gaining in speed and sophistication. Inventure will use the SIA event to showcase its Ranger Enterprise Architecture, an innovative new solution for the distributed integration of data and analytics.
According to the New York-based firm, Ranger serves as an attractive alternative to data-warehouse technology, integrating disparate data and analytics, and delivering them globally to traders and other users over a corporate intranet. Users can view and manipulate all Ranger-linked data and analytics through familiar desktop applications, such as Excel, or through more specialized power-user tools developed by consultants and software specialists.
Ranger is optimized for the fast and accurate analysis of large, time-aware data sets, such as stock-price histories. The product solves problems faced by every company operating in the financial markets: seamless integration of multiple databases, irrespective of format or physical location, rapid data access, complete real-time and historic data integration, powerful analytics and sophisticated visualization tools. Ranger is available in both Windows NT and Sun computing environments.
Quotation services are also benefiting from advancing computer and communications technologies. CQG for Windows, for example, will present its real-time, graphically-enhanced quotation service at the SIA show.
The New York-based company's CQG for Windows is a decision-support system that's designed to meet the needs of a wide range of traders. CQG for Windows is a 32-bit application that operates under Windows 95 or Windows NT.
CQGNet provides the application through a user's internal network. Market databases available through CQG for Windows include 1,800 of the most actively traded U.S. equities.
All U.S. equities, their options and selected foreign equities will be available by year's end. CQG for Windows also provides more than 80 technical indicators, including Market Profile, Elliott Wave and Tom DeMark Indicators. CQG for Windows data may also be exported to Excel.
Integrating disparate and incompatible trading technologies into a single, cohesive system is a thematic pitch among vendors at this year's SIA conference.
In this area, Software Technologies Corp. of Monrovia, Calif. is marketing DataGate, a system that provides guaranteed message delivery, secure Internet access, mainframe connectivity and NT and UNIX support.
DataGate enables different information systems to exchange data in real time, regardless of the network, platform, operating system or application.
The product's point and click graphical-user interface allows companies to build a complete information infrastructure with intelligent routing and translation of data, creating a seamless enterprise architecture for disparate applications. DataGate also gives traders and other users access to virtually any system, thus preserving a company's investment in legacy hardware and software.
By linking different software and networking applications, and making all the translations, DataGate aims to provide complete integration across diverse platforms and geographies.
The New York Hilton is located at 1335 Avenue of the Americas, New York, N.Y. Telephone the SIA for more conference information at (212) 618-0577.
