Listen to financial services experts talk about the latest technologies and strategies. Podcasts cover a wide range of topics including latency, trading, risk, analytics, strategy and more. Recordings are from Intel fasterFS events and some other events.
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This is the place to find benchmarks, white papers and information that will help you learn more about Intel and technology in financial services.
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Issue 4: Winter 2007/08
The Race for a Faster 2008 Welcome to the Winter edition of Intelligence in Finance. In this issue we are looking at some of the latest developments to affect the marketplace – from where we are post-MiFID and post-credit crunch to where technology is playing a part in hot areas such as risk analytics and the financial supply chain. |
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Issue 3: Fall 2007
Building the Faster, Cooler Data Center Welcome to the Fall edition of Intelligence in Finance. In this issue we focus on the data center itself, looking at infrastructure design, deployment and the green debate surrounding this topic. |
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Issue 2: Summer 2007
Embracing a fasterFUTURE In the last issue, we looked into trading and the low latency arms race. This time we are focusing on data and the manageability of system infrastructures, highlighting how the latest technologies are bringing major advantages to the management of server and desktop real estate. |
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Issue 1: Spring 2007
Introducing Intel in Financial Services Welcome to Intelligence in Finance, Intel’s new quarterly financial services newsletter. For this first issue we’re taking a look at the world of trading, where the only constant over the last few years has been change. |
TRADING: The low latency arms race – driving focus on speed, ROI and energy efficiency
Trading in the financial markets continues to be at the leading edge in terms of building new business practices and implementing the latest technology in the quest for competitive edge and commercial survival.
Speed, cost reduction and management of risk are key objectives for the front office. As a result it has long become the venue to put the latest technologies to the test in order to manage risk while gaining massive returns – with only milliseconds separating winners and losers.
The latest innovations in quad-core and multi-core processing technology mean that lightning speed is actually there for the taking. Financial institutions are now building or looking to build optimum infrastructures to support this step-change in performance and take advantage of the computing power that is now available, while still reducing power requirements and total cost of ownership.
Meanwhile, the drastic reduction in the cost of technology which today’s commodity, open technologies have driven in recent years has lowered the barriers to entry for new players in the trading life cycle – from the statistical arbitrage technology-enabled hedge funds to new liquidity pools, execution venues and routing services.
New business paradigms surrounding latency, arbitraging and electronic connectivity are underpinned by technology. Intel is committed to working closely with the financial services industry to apply its expertise to enabling innovation across the sector. As active supporters of FIX and other relevant market de facto standards, we will see the reach and awareness of Intel’s influence in the trading topology increase.
Intel technologies, supported by our partner community, are widely established across both the buy-side, sell-side and increasingly in the markets’ central venues where high-end, non-stop environments have traditionally been prevalent. From the trader desktop to the central servers and routers, Intel technology is demonstrating leadership in terms of performance and power efficiency.
Whether it is market, credit, operational or systemic risk, technology obviously plays a huge part in the successful management and measurement of risk. More and more, financial institutions need to be able to process huge amounts of data in short amounts of time in order to maintain competitive edge.
In the computation of market risk, the speed and performance of the latest multi-core processors are vital to both protecting the balance sheet and opening up market opportunities. As the market becomes ever more capable of handling true enterprise risk on a global scale, the latest processors are proving essential for handling the resulting massive datasets of credit risk.
The operational risk agenda of Basel II means that financial institutions are looking for the utmost reliability, scalability and performance from their technology infrastructure. Similarly, as the financial markets become increasingly electronic and the velocity and value of messages carried over the wire continues, technology assumes a place in the systemic risk of the entire market infrastructure.
Well inside a generation, Intel and its community of partners have spearheaded the evolution of technology from massively engineered mainframe and fault tolerance to agile and flexible low cost commodity components which now run at the heart of the market, propagating innovation and change. The latest Intel technologies offer mainframe-class processing that is now driving the largest risk data fabrics emerging in the market, while also providing the reliability, scalability and performance that management of operational and systemic risk demands.
Trade finance has long been a core service for banks, leveraging their trusted position between globally dispersed buyers and sellers. Documentary credits, bills for collection, bills of exchange and a range of finance and lending schemes have persisted over the centuries.
The last 20 years have seen that status quo fundamentally shift. Electronic documents entered the scene in the 1980s with Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), while air transport means goods are arriving at the destination before documentation can be processed and funds exchanged for settlement.
While the position of financial services in the supply chain is most likely guaranteed, the traditional banking role is fundamentally challenged. Financial innovation has to meet trade innovation – and today the jury is out as to whether this is happening fast enough.
Technology, however, has an important role to play in the new landscape. The reduced cost of technology means it can be applied to areas previously not thought economically viable to do so.
New, de facto standards for data and networks plus the ubiquity of the internet, familiarity with mobile techniques and an understanding of security risk means that the supply chain model is entering a period of fundamental change. Tracking technologies such as RFID and global scale databases of information can be applied to physical goods but when applied to visibility of operational risk in lending, traditional credit considerations in the finance of trade can be turned on their head.
Intel is actively participating in this arena, encouraging collaboration across the supply chain through industry meetings and involvement with RosettaNET and leading through technology innovation. As mobile becomes the next frontier, Intel is investing in use cases to demonstrate where mobile technology can go – extending the compute envelop beyond ERP and using handheld devices to push the advantages of automation earlier into the supply chain, resulting in cost reduction and financial cash flow benefits.
The retail financial services sector has been getting to grips with multi-channel delivery in earnest over the last 8-10 years and we are now seeing banks use more and more innovative ways to adapt and appeal to the retail market.
Branches are leaving the high street and coming back as multi-purpose, financial, retail and advisory centres, with the added attraction of supporting restaurant and store facilities. Call centres are adjusting their style and have interactive and consolidated views of the customer across multiple products and locations. The Internet and mobile channels continually build their footprint as the interface becomes more sophisticated and consumer habits have converted borrowing and lending activities from the luxury advisory service product of a few years ago to market-stall status.
Be it market share or wallet share, banks are recognising that competitive advantage is achieved via a variety of channels to an ever more sophisticated client base. It is about choosing the right channels for the right audience at the right time and providing integration, consistency and maximum service level across all.
However, old habits die hard and old procedures and business processes can be locked in. It is technology that can, and is, driving change and innovation virtually overnight. The winners in the multi-channel world will be those that embrace technology and the integration, performance and reach it provides to the customer. Intel is working closely with partners and financial institutions to make sure that the customer and staff experience is optimised across all channels using the latest performance-enhancing technology, from enterprise level right through to desktop and mobile device.
Intel’s Financial Services division holds special events four times each year. Below are details for upcoming events in 2008.
fasterMARKETDATA
April 28, 2008 | Location: London
fasterMESSAGING
June 2008 | Location: London
fasterRISK & ANALYTICS
September 2008 | Location: London
fasterAUTOMATION
November 2008 | Location: London
Overview | About | Agenda | Speakers | Who Should Attend | Location | Registration
Mon 28th April 2008, 6:00pm | BAFTA Theatre, 195 Piccadilly, London W1
Registration begins at 18:00 on Monday 28th April.
The venue is modern, light and airy, with some of the best facilities in London. As well as holding the event, BAFTA will also be hosting the Chief Wine Officer reception in the evening.
Please see www.bafta.org for location maps and details.
Overview | About | Agenda | Speakers | Who Should Attend | Location | Registration
Mon 28th April 2008, 6:00pm | BAFTA Theatre, 195 Piccadilly, London W1
If you are interested in gaining competitive edge in market data from high performance technology, or deploying new front office infrastructures that take advantage of Intel’s step change in performance and speed - then this event, with a rich panel and audience of experience and expertise, is a must for you.
The content is directed towards:
Overview | About | Agenda | Speakers | Who Should Attend | Location | Registration
Mon 28th April 2008, 6:00pm | BAFTA Theatre, 195 Piccadilly, London W1
InfoLECT and Performance Channels are the London Stock Exchange’s marquee services in market data on the London market. Driven my MiFID and increasing competition in the exchange landscape the London Stock Exchange is a leader in innovation and performance levels. – and essential ingredient for the exchange to attract and create growth in order volume. Mark will discuss this activity and look to the future for anticipated levels of performance of technology and market service.
STAC is leading the market in the publication of performance statistics around market data processing. Recent initiative in late 2007 included the establishment of the Benchmark Council to define standard tests against which technologies and services can be compared. Peter will discuss progress by the Council towards an agreed standard industry test – “STAC-M”, and the role of major technology suppliers in the solution mix, including the collaborative models of Intel and the Low latency Lab.
Pantor, well known from a pedigree in exchange systems and market data will discuss leading engineering initiatives, hardware and software solutions in the market data domain. Pantor under direction from FIX Protocol Limited research and developed the F.A.S.T specification – Rolf will give first hand comment of these central technology directions in the market. Rolf Andersson, CEO of Pantor Engineering, is one of the architects of the FAST (FIX Adapted for STreaming) Protocol and co-chair of the FPL Market Data Optimization Working Group. Rolf has more than 25 years of experience creating successful development teams and designing / building transaction, information dissemination & database systems for the financial industry.
Reuters, FIXNetix, Quant House, Celoxica
Overview | About | Agenda | Speakers | Who Should Attend | Location | Registration
Mon 28th April 2008, 6:00pm | BAFTA Theatre, 195 Piccadilly, London W1
The Intel fasterMARKETDATA event will provide a forum for senior management of buy and sell-side firms, exchanges and service providers to meet, hear and discuss the latest industry developments in state-of-the-art market data technology and infrastructure - using an intimate and efficient panel discussion format to access the markets’ leading thinking.
| 10:00 | fasterMARKETDATA - Registration | |
| 18:20 | Industry Keynote ONE Leading in Performance & Innovation London Stock Exchange, Mark Reece, Senior Architect |
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| 18:40 | Industry Keynote TWO Market Data Performance, Technology Standards & Testing Securities Technology Analysis Centre (STAC), Peter Lankford, Director |
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| 19:00 | Roundtable discussions | |
| 19:10 | Technology Spotlight ONE FixFAST, engineering initiatives, hardware & software solutions in market data. Pantor Engineering, Rolf Andersson, CEO |
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| 19:30 | Panel Discussion Navigating the solution maze: Reuters, FIXNetix, Quant House, Fujitsu-Siemens, Celoxica |
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| 20:00 | Chief Wine Officer™ Vintage Champagne, Fine Wine, Networking & Competition Theme North Mediterranean vs. South Mediterranean |
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| 21:30 | Close | |
Overview | About | Agenda | Speakers | Who Should Attend | Location | Registration
Mon 28th April 2008, 6:00pm | BAFTA Theatre, 195 Piccadilly, London W1
Attendees will discover how investment firms are re-engineering their market data application infrastructure - as well as significantly reducing their server and environmental footprint.
The event will cover how to make your market operation the fastest and most flexible it can be in today’s market - including:
Overview | About | Agenda | Speakers | Who Should Attend | Location | Registration
Mon 28th April 2008, 6:00pm | BAFTA Theatre, 195 Piccadilly, London W1
In the front office, be it buy or sell side velocity and low latency delivery from the venue sources is critical - and ability to receive and manage data is now the key competitive issue. Middle and back office analytics and comprehensive reporting across massive data sets is the challenge.
Where challenges exist in financial services technology solutions abound, and this space is already crowded with various approaches encompassing proximity, networks, distribution systems, feed handlers and proprietary and mainstream processor platforms from Intel.
FasterMARKETDATA will achieve a coverage of the subject, from top to bottom and look at today’s approaches and tomorrow’s options.
The event will evoke round-table discussion and audience interaction around the key considerations affecting optimised market data strategies. To round off the event, maximise networking and peer discussion, a special Chief Wine Officer™ Reception (www.chiefwineofficer.com) will be held to complete the evening.
Fujitsu Siemens Computers — Front office solutions are multi facetted — from hardware through operating systems to application and mainstream data centre considerations. Fujitsu Siemens Computers assembles the range of skills necessary to assess the respective contributions, priorities and issues associated with managing the mix towards lowest possible latency across the infrastructure.
Celoxica delivers market data to your trading applications… faster. Where competitors talk of latency in milliseconds, we talk about under 2 microseconds. Where other solutions drop messages when the market spikes, we deliver constant low latency and guaranteed high message throughput.
Endace is a world leader in network traffic monitoring technology. Endace provides network monitoring, latency measurement and application solutions to capture, inspect and report on every single data packet regardless of network type or speed.
CJC are a specialist firm dedicated to optimising investment in market data infrastructures, boosting performance at same time as reducing administrative tasks and costs. CJC are positioned in fasterMARKETDATA as the element that can advise on upgrade paths from legacy to new environments, client site or hosted, and the roadmap to increasing overall capability in the market data area.
Reuters Enterprise Solutions. In an increasingly competitive and regulated trading environment every millisecond counts. Get your data at light speed with low latency services from Reuters Enterprise Solutions. Manage your costs, reduce compliance issues and aggregate fragmented liquidity through an end-to-end integrated chain of best of breed components. Reuters Data Feed Direct provides a managed direct feed service that provides low latency content and Reuters Market Data System lets you distribute data messages across your enterprise with the lowest latency. And as the leader in low latency solutions, Reuters Enterprise Solutions also offers new latency monitoring tools to allow you to measure and control latency on your networks and an upcoming proximity hosting service. See www.about.reuters.com/home.
BEA Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: BEAS) is a world leader in enterprise infrastructure software. Our solutions help financial services institutions meet their most pressing needs; to reduce IT complexity, leverage existing resources, improve straight through processing, and speed the delivery of new services. BEA is helping our customers develop the next generation of systems based on Service Orientated Architecture and Business Process Management. Solutions from BEA are driving the next generation of algorithmic trading systems, flexible payments infrastructures, event driven architectures, virtualization and low latency front office applications. The result is an organization that is emboldened by – not beholden to – technology. More >
Cinnober deliver core transactions technology to trading markets within the financial, energy and commodity sectors. Cinnober currently serve a number of leading marketplaces with mission critical systems including the American Stock Exchange, the Chicago Board of Options Exchange, Liffe within NYSE Euronext and Borsa Italiana. Cinnober’s products are highly customizable and based on TRADExpress — a scalable, high performance platform for low latency transactions processing. TRADExpress is 100% Java based, enabling Cinnober to supply solutions that are highly flexible and hardware, software and database independent. More >
CohesiveFT’s Elastic Server On-Demand is a fast way for businesses to create maintainable custom systems from their trading applications and open messaging standards like FIX, FAST, FpML, AMQP, Web Services. Private portal pages allow architects and developers to dynamically and rapidly build test and staging servers. Deployment-targeted “recipes” can be shared with customers and operations staff for deploying to virtual infrastructure in the data center. Patch management and component support plans are available by subscription. More >
Data Stream Analysis Limited is a consulting, software and technology services firm focused on the Financial Markets sector, providing Consulting Services, Software Development, Systems Integration and Data Management Toolkits. DSAL focuses on high-performance for real-time processing and low-latency delivery of large volumes of data, as typically required by Hedge Funds, Proprietary Trading Desks, Inter-Dealer Brokers, and other financial institutions. More >
Endace is the world leader in network monitoring, latency measurement and application acceleration solutions, recognised by an elite, worldwide client base of blue chip corporations, financial institutions, government agencies and telecommunications providers. Endace solutions enable customers operating some of the largest, fastest and most critical networks to capture, inspect, report and analyse 100% of the traffic carried on their networks. Endace customers are able to guarantee network security, integrity and performance for their users and applications, regardless of transmission speed, loading or interface type. More >
Facilita is the leading UK developer of IT performance and load testing tools and solutions. Facilita offers a portfolio of specialist capital markets testing services to help financial institutions deliver, for example, best execution. Facilita recognises that effective performance engineering is never about simply optimising the performance of single components, but focuses on optimising end-to-end solutions to help organisations deliver the latency figures required to ensure best of class. Facilita backs its portfolio of testing tools with comprehensive professional services, providing cost-effective, enterprise-class testing solutions. More >
First Derivatives plc is a recognised service provider in the capital markets technology sector. Since 1996 First Derivatives has provided development, outsourced support services and products across a range of asset classes, systems and technologies. Its customers include many top tier banks, hedge funds and large financial institutions. The company specialises in consultancy services to the investment banking community; outsourced systems development & support; real-time & algorithmic trading applications; Kx technology consultancy and training in finance, technology and third party software products. More >
HCL Technologies is one of India’s leading global IT Services companies, providing software-led IT solutions, remote infrastructure management services and BPO.
HCL leverages its extensive global infrastructure spanning 17 countries to focus on Transformational Outsourcing, working with clients in areas that impact and re-define the core of their business. In addition HCL is developing IP modules which will accelerate FI’s and ISV ability to provide innovative and time critical solutions. It has strong background in deep technology with strong structural partnerships with large technology vendors. More >
iMatix Corporation makes OpenAMQ, a free high-performance implementation of the AMQP messaging protocol standard. OpenAMQ implements transient brokered messaging, and is fast and stable. A typical deployment, for JPMorganChase, carries 100m messages per day in production use. iMatix provides support and deployment services for clients using OpenAMQ. More >
Kalahari is a global provider of real-time price discovery and analytic solutions to financial and energy institutions. For over 16 years, Kalahari has been delivering desktop analytics to trading rooms around the world. The company uses the common infrastructure of its market-leading kACE solution to build bespoke desktop applications to support traders in different market sectors. In addition, kACE provides an open environment that enables clients to continue to meet changing market requirements. More >
Progress® Apama® is the market’s leading algorithmic trading platform. With Apama, both sell-side and buy-side firms empower trading desks with tools to create, test and deploy unique algorithmic strategies. Apama’s intuitive graphical development environment, visual dashboards, sophisticated event processing language and highly scalable event processing architecture will deliver unique, differentiated strategies in days or mere hours, rather than the weeks or months that typify other offerings. More >
Rapid Addition provide specialist messaging software to the Financial Services Industry. Our products include high-performance, low-latency, FIX Engines, Data mapping & transformation tools, Order routing software, Workflow solutions, the Rapid Addition Web-Dealer™ platform, and consultancy services to the Financial Services marketplace.
We operate a continual programme of research & development to ensure that our products provide the highest possible performance with the lowest possible latency, and exceed the demands of today’s industry. More >
Red Hat - With open source solutions becoming more popular among financial services firms, Intel and Red Hat are tuning the latest Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Operating System and middleware applications for Intel’s multi-core platforms. Industry benchmarking by Principled Technologies already shows significant performance achievements. Of special note is the SPECjbb benchmark of the RHEL 5/Intel platform, with three times the performance of the competition. The performance, power efficiencies, and reliability of the Red Hat/Intel platform is by design, not by default. Customers and ISVsare encouraged to join Red Hat’s Solutions Acceleration Program to trial these systems in the Low Latency Lab or dedicated Red Hat Centers. More >
Quant House’s mission statement is to provide end-to-end program trading solutions to help financial institutions to trade ahead. Quant House products and services offering is composed of Ultra Low Latency Market Data technologies; trading strategies development framework, back testing and execution solutions and proximity hosting, storage and fibre optic network services Quant House has the benefit and support of a very experienced group led by one of the world’s largest global brokerage organisations, FIMAT International Banque, the brokerage arm of the Société Générale Group. More >
Tradocs is a global trading system that allows businesses of all sizes to trade electronically by exchanging documents speedily and securely over the internet. Registration is free and documents are sent on a “pay as you go” basis. A wide range of commercial documents are supported within the system, and connectors are provided allowing information to pass seamlessly to Banks, Logistics Providers, Inspection Houses etc, who are party to the transaction. More >
Xenomorph delivers real-time analytics and data management solutions to the financial markets. Our TimeScape data management technology leverages our clients’ proprietary expertise, and in so doing enables faster time to market for new financial products, new risk techniques and new trading ideas. Trading, research, risk, product control, IT and back-office staff use Xenomorph’s TimeScape data management platform at investment banks, hedge funds and asset management institutions across the world’s main financial centres. More >
Z/Yen’s Best Execution Compliance Workstation (BECA) helps buy-side and sell-side financial services firms manage the ‘best execution’ requirements of MiFID. The workstation provides three things (1) identification of anomalous trades that need investigation; (2) visualisation of trading data and outliers; and (3) tracking and management of trade compliance verification. BECA is founded on research with five major brokers along with the London Stock Exchange. BECA allows financial firms to provide evidence of consistent trade monitoring, while simultaneously ensuring compliance costs are controlled. More >
Welcome to IntelfasterFS.com, the financial services community website that gives you insight into the latest performance enhancing technologies, partnerships, news and events and how they are combining to drive innovation in this marketplace.
On IntelfasterFS.com, we have identified five major drivers of technology and operational change in the financial services marketplace – trading, risk, multi-channel, core banking, and supply chain – and aim to provide here the information and contacts that will help facilitate and connect IT decision-making in this sector.
We hope you find this site informative - here’s to a fasterFUTURE!
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