Buy-side traders may have one reason to breathe a little easier amid the pandemic-induced downturn and related market volatility. State-of-the-art, integrated, electronic transaction platforms are not likely to replace humans on the trading desks any time soon, according to researchers at market research firm Greenwich Associates. “The average number of traders on buy-side trading desks… Read More >>
Buy Side Spends $700M on ‘Risk Tech’ in 2017
Buy-side firms have jump started their investments in risk and analytics platforms, spending $700 million on “risk tech” during 2017 and marking a major move away from internally developed systems, according to a new survey done by Greenwich Associates, a market research firm. In fact, buy-side “expenditures nearly doubled to 10 percent of total buy-side… Read More >>
Buy-Side IT Spending Up as Traders’ Compensation Shrinks
Are buy-side firms starting to shift more funding toward IT and data for trading and securities operations and away from compensation for front-line traders? The most recent answer appears to be in the affirmative, according to a new report from market research firm Greenwich Associates, which chronicles how “technology spending is crowding out trader pay… Read More >>
Regulatory Shifts, MiFID II & IT Leaps to Rattle Markets in 2018
Regulatory change and the importance of data and analytics impacting trading venues, investors, dealers, and those that support them will continue to be main themes this year, according to a new report by Greenwich Associates, “Top Market Structure Trends to Watch in 2018 — The Year of Digital is Upon Us.” Greenwich Associates provides market… Read More >>
Global Markets to Brace for E.U. Regs in 2017
(FTF News is sampling the flurry of securities industry predictions that are hitting as 2017 becomes reality and 2016 starts to fade. This review of predictions will be presented in three parts this week. This is the first installment (click here for second installment and here for third installment) and it focuses on what may… Read More >>
‘Trump’-ing Dodd-Frank Would Be a Huge Effort
(Editor’s note: President-Elect Donald J. Trump and his new administration will be juggling many new policy issues, including changes to the financial services reform efforts that began under the Obama administration. In this first part of a two-part series, FTF News has asked industry analysts what market structure changes they think may come from the… Read More >>
Barclays to Transfer Legacy Derivatives to JPMorgan
Barclays Bank (Barclays) has signed an agreement with JPMorgan to divest its legacy derivatives portfolio as part of its non-core rundown strategy — a possible sign that other banks may start to move assets around in order to adjust to the increasingly burdensome regulatory demands for capital requirements. Barclays officials say that “acting through Barclays… Read More >>
Ops Gets on the Blockchain Revolution Bus
Bitcoin, a so-called crypto-currency, may fade before anyone really understands what it was or how it could actually have prevailed in financial services. However, out of Bitcoin’s ashes has risen the humbly named Blockchain technology. The distributed ledger technology that has been propping up Bitcoin has come to the attention of major industry players. This… Read More >>
CFTC Targets the Op Risk of High-Speed Trading
The CFTC last week unanimously proposed new rules to cut risks related to high-speed trading via the algorithms used by designated contract markets (DCMs). Some analysts say the rules will give the regulator more tools to deal with this key aspect of derivatives trading. However, others caution that the regulator should not put forth rules… Read More >>
Investors Still Like Sell-Side Salespeople
An interesting report on how investors still rely on sell-side advice and interactions even while swap trading is moving quickly to electronic platforms slipped past me, but it’s worthy of belated notice. The report (issued late last month) from Greenwich Associates, “Interest-Rate Derivatives Sales: Not What It Used To Be, But No Less Important,”… Read More >>
