Technology

Sep 30, 2010

Mobile Money: the Samee and Dave Show

Another great evening at the FSClub last week with the Samee and Dave show. OK, it’s not a double-act although I’m trying hard to make them into one, with Samee the straight guy and Dave the fungi obviously. Samee Zafar and David Birch are both great speakers about payments and, in particular, mobile payments. As…

Sep 27, 2010

Why does the card securities council not care about card security?

I mentioned that I spent last Friday morning with card fraud and security experts. The conversation began with a wide view of what’s happening, and a focus upon PCI DSS Standard 2.0, which is yet to be published. The Payment Card Industry (PCI) Securities Standards Council (SSC) have developed new versions of the PCI Data…

Sep 22, 2010

The end of privacy

I continue to be stunned by how Facebook and other social media allow me to see things in other people’s lives that should not be seen. For example, all of my friend’s friends photographs. This is a feature of Facebook I particularly dislike, and I’m not sure people are even aware of it, although the…

Sep 20, 2010

Who owns the #sibos hashtag?

For those who Facebook, Twitter and Flickr, having an out-and-out public spat online is not a good idea. OK, the odd outburst from a cricketer or swimmer may be a faux pas, but a professional social media advocate? Surely we should avoid such bickering. Well, not me. I guess it’s my nature, but when Liz…

Sep 17, 2010

What would a Microsoft – Apple merger look like?

As I waited to speak at a conference this week, someone said that I seem to have a lot of gadgets. It’s true, I’m a gadget freak, but they all serve a function. Recently, I’ve been assimilated into the Apple fold through the ease of use, great user experience and simplicity of the iPhone and…

Sep 15, 2010

Dark Pools are 1.36% of all EU trading

After the earlier discussions of flash crashes and HFT, on to dark pools. It was interesting that a colleague made the statement this week that all orders could be seen on US exchanges before they are filled as that may be true for some markets, but dark pools exist to ensure that orders cannot be…

Sep 14, 2010

So what was the cause of the ‘flash crash’

I got into a bit of trouble yesterday, as various colleagues told me that the discussion on the flash crash was inaccurate and full of errors. A key issue was the discussion of flash orders being part of the problem as, apart from a rare exception such as Direct Edge, flash orders no longer exist…

Sep 10, 2010

If you can’t afford the tech, get out of the market

More on the Deutsche Börse open day and this time it’s the impact of algo news. Most of you will know about algo trading. If you don’t, it’s just a fancy way of saying automated trading and if you checkout the stats, 80% of trading in London is automated today compared to just 40% four…

Sep 8, 2010

Circuit breakers on the Deutsche Börse

I keynoted at the Deutsche Bourse’s annual IT Open Day yesterday, for the second year running. It’s an interesting event, full of discussions about speeds and feeds, connectivity and interoperability, risk and alpha. Funnily enough, some of the big news of the day is that the markets haven’t moved that far. For example, last year…

Sep 6, 2010

It’s not just Sumo Wrestlers with Fat Fingers

The BBC recently reported that Sumo Wrestlers were to be given iPads as it makes them easier to use: “Fat-fingered sumo wrestlers, unable to tap the keys on a standard mobile phone, are being given iPads to help improve communication.” Maybe they should do the same with traders as, at the end of August, the…