Fragmentation, technology, and data creating massive FX innovation
I just wanted to share some key points from the big FX conference in Miami last week. Hundreds of participants from the FX market reinforced that, in a rapidly changing technology and market structure world, controlling uncertainty is a fundamental challenge of our time. It was also great being in Miami, speaking and moderating—and being a shark for the TradeTech FX shark tank!
Trade analytics and next-generation trade technology were on the minds of the predominately real money and hedge fund participants, and their broker and technology partners.
A major theme was creating the optimum technology infrastructure that allows flexibility while balancing traditional voice and chat workflows with electronic trading to drive best execution, operational excellence, and regulatory mandates.
From the C-Suite panel on FX tech: LMAX Exchange, Wellington Management, and Celent discussed driving innovation in global FX to a packed house (despite the lure of a blazing Miami sun!). Key themes were remapping working flow to contend with liquidity fragmentation; highly disparate data sources and venues; and, the toolkit the buy side needs to contend with this change.
I then chaired the enhancing your pre and post trade workflow stream. It was great to see Nasdaq discussing TCO around partnership models to overcome legacy technology. Great conversations on TCA as well.
I then moderated: Taking a modern approach to workflow efficiency- How can you ensure your OMS/EMS system is meeting the highest standards to support your trading and portfolio management needs? Vanguard, Eaton Vance Management, OMS/EMS provider Portware (FactSet), and Celent had a lively discussion around really building the ideal trading infrastructure for multi-asset and FX trading; PM and trader workflow efficiency; and creating the optimal technology infrastructure for a given firm’s workflow to ensure flexibility — automating the easy trades and providing the necessary time to the hard trades. For more details.
FX FinTech Shark Tank, and wow the innovation was amazing. I look forward to discussing the competing contestants in more detail, but briefly:
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Contestants: Exante Data — Alt data FX flows. Securrency — Compliance-aware tokens to create next-generation distribution of a variety of asset classes. Calypso AI — AI-machine learning codification and compliance. Koine Finance — Remapping FX settlement for crypto and FX. |
(Winner in close race!)My next few reports will elaborate on many of these technology themes including trading analytics and OMS/EMS. Please send me your comments or ideas. Registered users can see one of the data points that TT and Celent collected around Multi Asset OMS usage.