Trading Tech Talk

Hot Topics in Tech: Top Tech Trends and Developments of 2015

• Blockchain revolutionizing the back office
• HFT is evil again
• HFT not as profitable as originally thought
• Exchanges spending money on tech startups
• Regulators are changing the technology landscape
• The auction tech impact
• Favorite/Craziest Stories of 2015
• Russian hackers stealing press releases from wire services
• The August flash crash
• Russia threatening to use HFT to crash the markets
• NYSE outage
• The leap second
• Twitter trading algos/bots

Things We Do NOT Want to Talk About in 2016

• Spoofing
• HFT is evil
• Dark pool tech
• More possible options exchanges

Hot Topics in Tech: A quick rundown of the Options Alliance Event & Financial Startup Showcase from Dec 10, 2015. CFTC cracks down on HFT - New rules open to public comment. New study: Robotic trading is killing Wall Street jobs. Blockchain for banks still at the "gluten" stage.

The Inbox: Listener questions and comments

• Question from JVSchultz - FinTech was all the rage in 2015. What are you top upcoming trends for 2016 in Trading Tech?
• Question from Ntander - You have commented many times on the inability of the current regulators to keep up with the exploding technology in the financial markets. Do you think there is support for a dedicated technology regulator separate from the SEC and CFTC? This body would solely focus on the technology aspects of the markets and leave the regular market regulation to their counterparts. Thoughts?
• Comment from Karrigan - Ever thought of special episodes that focus on different segments of the market. Maybe an Ags Tech episode, a Metals Tech episode, etc.

Hot Topics in Tech: ICE agrees to acquire BGC Trayport for $650 million. NYSE goes from fan to critic of IEX, criticizing "unfair" plan. Derivatives exchanges see use for blockchain technology. High-speed firms add new perspective to treasury advisory group - KCG Holdings Inc. and Virtu Financial Inc.

The Inbox: Listener questions and comments

• Comment from Aman117 - Ever thought about hosting a cyber security roundtable on the show with exchange, broker and trading firm CTOs? Talk about who is hacking them and what they’re doing to stop it? Could be interesting.
• Question from Amanda F - Looks like budgets for #tradingtech are dwindling with much of that money going toward comp and reg. Any bright spots on the horizon that the tech spend may be increasing or is regulation going to continue to rule the day.
• Question from JVZ16 - What do you think it will take to get stock and options exchanges to adopt the speed bump that you advocated on the last episode? A catastrophic error or failure of an HFT firm that causes massive losses and negative publicity?
• Question from Big Rig - Love the program. You and henry breaking stuff down every month makes my long hauls a little shorter. So thanks for that. I have heard you guys discuss the problem of the lack of new market makers in the biz. Can technology not replace some of that? We have already got robo-advisors. Do you foresee the day of the robo-market makers anytime soon?
• Question from Cookie -What is the best online platform for stock options and futures options?

Hot Topics in Tech: U.S. trader found guilty in landmark "spoofing" case. U.S. regulator signals bid to curb high-speed trading. Exchanges face pressure to disclose high-speed trader perks. CME experiments with real-time margin payments, unveiled a deal with Dwolla. CBOE expands EMS connectivity between traders and workstations. Orc Group merges with CameronTec to jointly foster trading solutions.

The Inbox: Listener questions and comments

• Question from Angelo Myers - Loved the deep dive into FPGAs last episode. I am a hardware wonk. What other hardware developments do you feel have been crucial to the trading landscape? Options or just general financial?
• Question from JimWow -Hello team! Can you please explain what a complex order book is and how it works?
• Question from Bill Williams - Lots of talk about putting a speed bump into the market to stop or slow down HFT jerks. Thoughts? Will it work or will the Cybermen just figure out a way around it?

Hot Topics in Tech: Russian hackers of Dow Jones said to have sought trading tips. High speed trading becomes US election issue. Regulators bring "spoofing" charges against a Chicago firm. UK start-up claims blockchain breakthrough in payment processing. Nasdaq eyes dark-pool surveillance market."Flash Boys" heroes ask for stock exchange status.

The Inbox: Listener questions and comments

• Question from TCity - What is the status of the regulatory proposal to register Algo developers? Do you feel this has a good chance of being passed?
• Question from Tom M., Boca Raton, FL - Can you guys please discuss the net neutrality debate on your program and its possible ramifications in the trading world? Thank you for your excellent program even if much of it goes over my head.
• Question from A. Butler - Hello mark and team. I would like to submit a discussion topic for the trading tech talk program. Can you please discuss the benefits and drawbacks of AWS when it comes to financial services? It seems like AWS has become the backbone of many other industries but does not seem to get much mention in the trading space. Is this simply due to the somewhat slow adoption of cloud infrastructure in the financial markets?

CTO Interview: The guest today is Mike Dunne, CTO at Activ Financial Systems, Inc.

He discusses:

• An overview of your background in the derivatives markets
• What is Activ Financial Systems Inc.?
• Who is their typical end user?
• Scale, Market Data and FPGA
• Going live with Nasdaq Basic.

Hot Topics in Tech: Java at 20 - its 6th major version was released this year. Goggle + Symphony? - Goldman Sachs-backed Symphony raised $100 million in new funding on Monday from search giant Google and others.

The Inbox: Listener questions and comments

• Question from Averyflynn - Tech Team - How about a show about margin tech and margin risk tech? Seems like a hot segment of the industry.

CTO Interview: The guest today is Robert D'Arco, CEO, Rival Systems.

He discusses:

• An overview of your background in the derivatives markets.
• What is Rival Systems?
• Who is the target end-user?
• The Rival Risk Analytics Suite.

Hot Topics in Tech: What’s happening in the world of fin tech?

• Technology groups warned on stricter financial regulation - The chairman of HSBC has said that regulators in China and elsewhere are starting to consider more seriously whether technology companies that provide financial services should, like banks, be regulated more heavily.
• Blockchain initiative called R3 backed by 9 large investment banks - Nine of the largest investment banks, including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Credit Suisse, are planning to develop common standards for blockchain technology in an effort to broaden its use across financial services.
• Bloomberg and Twitter sign data licensing agreement - The long-term data agreement with Twitter will further enhance financially relevant information found on the social media platform for users of the Bloomberg Professional service.

The Inbox: Listener questions and comments

• Question from TomTom08 -Hello TT crew, love the show. Hope you grin back the Lightning Round soon. I would like you guys to comment on OpenFin (https://openfin.co/) and how it can extend the capability of HTML5 for FinTec providers.

Hot Topics in Tech:

• Investors Lose in Today's Markets, Says Former NYSE Head Grasso.
• NYSE Draws Users' Ire with Fee Increases, Patent Charge Proposal.
• Mini flash crash? Trading anomalies on manic Monday hit small investors.
• Algorithmic Trading: The Play-at-Home Version
• International HFT Backlash: China targets high-frequency traders in "spoofing" probe
• Symphony is just the latest attack on Bloomberg's fortress
• 3Red set for "spoofing" legal battle

The Inbox: Listener questions and comments

• Question from GG: Has there ever been talk of some sort of technology glitch or shutdown futures? In the wake of the NYSE problems it seems there would be a fertile market for such a product. Firms could hedge themselves against system risk. Please discuss.
• Question from Cybortrader: when the race to zero winds down to its inevitable conclusion what do you think will be the next big battle ground for HFTs? CPU/GPU cycles? Co-location proximity? Where will the war rage next? Thank you for your thoughts. I very much enjoyed the episode with Thomas Peterfy of interactive brokers.

Hot Topics in Tech: A Massive Selloff. Interesting data and tech insights from the recent pronounced selloff in the market. "Here's the advantage high-frequency trading firms have over everyone else," says Eric Hunsader, founder of Nanex LLC, the U.S. financial markets consultancy. BATS gets regulatory nod for second U.S. options exchange. BATS files client suspension rule to expedite action again HFT spoofers.

The Inbox: Listener questions and comments

• Question from Dariush - Question for trading tech talk radio program. Hello mark. I heard on one of your recent programs that there were system issues preventing OPRA and other platforms from adopting the VIX weekly futures and upcoming options. Do you have any insight into why these specific products would cause issues for technology vendors and platforms? Thank you for your time.

CTO Interview: Today we are joined by Michael Barry, CEO & Founder of EESAT.

He discusses:

• An overview of his background in the markets and how he started EESAT
• Who came up with the idea to put Burt Reynolds on the website?
• Listener question from Leonard Garcia - Can you explain what a complex order book is? Thanks and love the show.
• 35-40% of daily contract volume in non-index is spread- 70% on ISE!
• How does EESAT reconcile the varying functionality of the different order books at the different exchanges?
• Who is the ideal end user of EESAT products?
• How do we solve the problem of spread execution across complex order books?
• Where can listeners go if they want to learn more about EESAT?

Hot Topics in Tech: Ukrainian cyber-criminals hacked newswires to steal company data and raked in millions of dollars.