The Magazine for Securities Industry Professionals

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Four of the six charges against former NYSE chairman Richard Grasso have been overturned regarding his $187.5 million compensation package. The final outcome?

Grasso will settle the case
NY State will not pursue the case
Grasso lost his reputation, regardless
Not Spitzer's worst decision but up there

Previous Polls

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Tech Notes

Can New Smart Router End Pinging?

James Ramage
Smart Trade, a French vendor of order management technology, has introduced a smart order router that eliminates pinging. Called LiquidityOrchestrator, the router takes incoming orders, combines them with market information, instructions and predefined rules, and generates an infinite number of trading commands.

4th Story Builds Technology That Builds Algos

James Ramage
Sellside firms looking to buy the technology to build their own algorithm infrastructure have a new best friend. Software vendor 4th Story designed its 4S.Blue Ridge algorithmic trading server to let brokerages build their own infrastructure to offer their customers algos.

Fidessa's Algos Go Short-Term

James Ramage
Order management system vendor Fidessa has augmented its collection of BlueBox algorithms with a handful of short-term trading strategies. In designing its newest algos, the trading software vendor talked to traders and gauged their needs. In one case, they noticed how traders were sometimes performing repetitive manual actions that could be done automatically, said Matthew Rowley, Fidessa's vice president and global product manager for BlueBox.

AlgoServer Expands Buyside's Horizon

James Ramage
Buyside traders seeking more power and control over their algorithm generation and trading strategies have a new helper. Spooz Inc. introduced a new tool, AlgoServer, to accompany its middleware platform for developing and launching algo trading systems, called SpoozToolz. AlgoServer, an application that resides on a server, lets buyside traders create algos on the fly, according to Darryl Dennis, Spooz's chief marketing officer.

UL Reach Cuts the Wait for Algos

James Ramage
ESP Technologies wants the buyside to get new algorithms faster. Often, the buyside has to wait months for brokers to properly integrate their latest algos onto desktop applications. But ESP's latest software platform, UL Reach, should speed up the process significantly.

Direct Edge Debuts New Features

James Ramage
Direct Edge ECN has rolled out several new product enhancements aiming to improve trading on its markets. Traders sending hidden orders to Direct Edge's two platforms, EDGA and EDGX, can now opt for a minimum execution quantity. Hidden orders are typically sent by algos that don't want to show their hand, and that want to interact with the liquidity with minimal market impact. The minimum quantity feature allows that to occur, said Bryan Harkins, head of sales and strategy at Direct Edge.

Big Board Boots BBSS

Peter Chapman
The New York Stock Exchange is replacing key components of its infrastructure used by floor brokers. First to go is the order management system known as the Broker Booth Support System (BBSS).

Credit Suisse's New Data Center

Michael Scotti
Credit Suisse will begin using a new data center in Weehawken, N.J. in the second quarter that will give its algorithmic trading group, AES, the ability to handle 2.5 million quote changes per second. That's roughly five times its current ability, according to Dan Mathisson, global head of AES.

CBOE Automates Buy Writes

James Ramage
It's now faster and cheaper to buy a stock and write a call option on it. At least, that's what the Chicago Board Options Exchange said. Its stock market unit, CBOE Stock Exchange, has begun automating buy-writes.

Apama Works Strategies to Accelerate Order Routing

James Ramage
With so many trading venues, traders should be able to design strategies for smart order routing. This is the thinking behind infrastructure technology providers Progress Apama's new SOR Accelerator.

Quadriserv's New Securities Lending Portal

Gregory Bresiger
Finding the best rates for longs and shorts will be easier with a new securities lending price-discovery service.

Sellside to Bulk Up Stressed Trading Infrastructure

James Ramage
The sellside wants to bolster its overtaxed trading architecture. And they're going to spend a lot to do it over the coming years, according to a recent Aite Group report.

NYSE to Apply Wombat's Data Speed

James Ramage
Last month, the New York Stock Exchange purchased market data specialists Wombat Financial Software for $200 million in cash consideration. The move lets the Big Board enhance its trading and connectivity infrastructure, as well as catch up to its competitors' market data delivery capabilities.

BIDS Targets Buyside for '08

James Ramage
BIDS Trading says 2008 will be all about the buyside. The electronic crossing venture created for block trading will concentrate its efforts this year on securing more connections to third-party order and execution management system providers.

Leading While Dancing in the Dark

James Ramage
Light or dark, it's still all about control. And agency broker BNY ConvergEx says it's now possible for buyside traders to maintain control of an order sent simultaneously to dark pools and the displayed markets.