On this edition of the podcast, new co-host, James Rundle, joins Anthony Malakian to discuss Thursday’s UK general election and the effect it could have on the fintech sector in London and Europe. After that, Anthony chats with Sell-Side Technology deputy editor John Brazier to discuss the integration of Barclays’ Point IP into Bloomberg’s Port portfolio analytics platform.

The UK General Election

(0:00-3:10) First, Anthony introduces James—who has taken over as Waters’ news editor and deputy editor of Buy-Side Technology—and gives a reminder that voting on the Waters Rankings closes Friday, EOD.

(3:30) Speaking of votes, James gives a primer on why the election was called.

(5:30) A quick examination as to why the polls show the race getting closer.

(8:00) Point: Why Brexit could potentially hurt the burgeoning fintech sector in London.

(11:00) Counterpoint: Why Brexit might not hinder the London fintech scene in the long term.

(12:30) What effect might the Brexit negotiations have on talent acquisition?

(17:45) How the isolationist movements sweeping through Europe and the US will hurt the movement of talent.

(22:40) A prediction on the UK general election.

The Bloomberg Point-Port Integration

(24:00) Anthony calls John, who is based out of London, to talk about why fixed-income traders are concerned about Bloomberg’s acquisition and integration of the Point platform’s intellectual property.

(27:45) How Mifid II might play into a firm’s decision to stay with Bloomberg or switch to another option.

(29:40) With the consolidation that the industry is seeing in the portfolio analytics space, is there reason to believe that this consolidation could be better for fixed-income traders in the long run, or create unwanted challenges.

(32:05) Finally, John gives some thoughts on what the election and Brexit could mean for London’s fintech sector.

http://www.waterstechnology.com/trading-technologies-and-strategies/3373991/bloombergs-acquisition-of-barclays-point-any-port-in-a-storm

http://www.waterstechnology.com/awards-rankings/3368226/waters-rankings-2017-voting-closes-friday

http://www.waterstechnology.com/industry-issues-initiatives/3374001/brexit-offers-london-banks-opportunities-for-a-new-start-with-cloud-api

This week on the podcast, Anthony is joined by Waters reporter Emilia David to discuss her feature that looked at technology adoption in the municipal bond market. And since the summer has finally arrived, Anthony and Emilia look at the summer movies they’re most interested in seeing.

Here are the timestamps, in case you want to jump around:

(0:00-2:05) The intro offers a reminder to vote in this year’s Waters Rankings, and also we announce our newest addition to the Waters team, who will be joining next week.

(2:15) Before they look at the technology platforms permeating the market, they first give a primer for the municipal bond market.

(3:50) The two greatest challenges facing the muni space: rising interest rates and the potential for more debt being issued to help launch infrastructure projects across the US.

(7:30) From a technology perspective, what advancements are helping to drive automated adoption?

(9:30) The muni space is still very voice driven—as muni traders tend to be set in their ways—but they are missing out on finding bonds that they normally wouldn’t have looked at had they used an electronic platform.

(11:50) To that point, the generational difference in the space is still a limiting factor.

(15:10) Like we’re seeing with corporate bonds, is there room for artificial intelligence and machine learning in the sector? Or still too soon?

(17:10) Some believe that the market is in for a lot of turmoil over the next few years. Will that lead people to rely more heavily on automated practices or will these platforms prove ineffective, thus setting the tech push back?

(18:15) Anthony and Emilia close things out by looking at the summer movies they’re most interested in.

Earlier this week, Waters’ sibling publication, Inside Data Management, hosted its annual North American Financial Information Summit (NAFIS). During the event, Stephen Morse, former head of global financial data partnerships at Twitter, spoke to the audience about how traders are mining data created through social media—and, specifically, through Twitter—to find a trading edge. After Anthony gives some information on how to vote in this year’s Waters Rankings, Stephen’s presentation will be played in full. See below for timestamps:

(0:00-2:30) Info on the Waters Rankings

(2:35) The start of Stephen’s presentation

(4:00) A look at the trends driving alternative data adoption and the types of data that’s increasingly being used

(6:40) A look specifically at social media data

(7:15) Then a look at Trump’s tweets moving markets

(8:30) Information that matters specifically for capital markets usage

(10:45) Some examples of crowd-sourced estimates data

(12:10) Some usage examples of sentiment analysis and volatility analysis

(16:35) Examples of consumer conversation for product/brand movements

(19:25) Examples of breaking news and event detection using Twitter

(25:35) Quick Q&A

Earlier this week it was announced that Liquidnet had acquired OTAS Technologies, a vendor that had made its name in the analytics and artificial intelligence fields. To discuss what the deal means for users, as well as some of the broader trends in the market, Adam Sussman, head of market structure for Liquidnet, joins Anthony on the podcast.

(0:00-2:40) Some information about the Waters Rankings and next week’s North American Financial Information Summit.

(2:40) Adam joins via phone.

(3:30) Adam talks about how this deal will bring together Liquidnet’s Virtual High Touch trading platform with OTAS’s analytics platforms.

(4:35) How the pairing will improve decision-support capabilities for traders.

(5:35) How will it help buy-side firms to better monitor performance and algo usage?

(7:45) Why did Liquidnet go with OTAS over other analytics providers?

(9:05) For OTAS users, will they have full access to the tools they were previously using with the vendor? And what will integration look like?

(12:15) More generally, what does the buy side want when it comes to analytics platforms and alternative data today compared to previously?

(14:55) How is artificial intelligence and machine learning playing into what you can deliver to traders?

http://www.waterstechnology.com/awards-rankings/3368226/waters-rankings-2017-voting-now-open

http://www.waterstechnology.com/organization-management/alliances-mergers-acquisitions/3367956/update-liquidnet-acquires-otas-technologies

http://www.financialinformationsummit.com/na

This week on the podcast, Anthony is once again joined by Dan (last time…at least for a while!) to welcome this week’s guest: Neal Pawar, AQR’s chief technology officer. AQR, which manages $187.6 billion as of March 31, 2017, is in the midst of a major buildout, upgrading different parts of it infrastructure, front to back, as the firm looks to continue its growth. To answer these enhancements, the need for talent has become increasingly important. Here are topics Pawar hit on during his time on the podcast:

(1:45) Neal starts off looking at the fight for talent at colleges in the Northeast.

(3:45) A look at how fintechs are disrupting the finance space.

(6:20) What he looks for when hiring an engineer/programmer.

(9:35) Programming languages they’re most interested in (Python, Pandas, Scala).

(11:05) Ways to keep talented, experienced technologists.

(13:45) The impact and growth of open-source applications.

(14:55) The ethos of contributing back into open-source projects.

(17:25) The future of open-source and how to develop a legal/compliance framework.

(19:45) Why AQR has its engineers sitting side-by-side with the research department.

(26:35) Lessons learned as AQR has grown in size.

(28:00) To wrap things up, Neal, Dan and Anthony talk about soccer (Neal is a huge Liverpool supporter) and how they think the English Premier League will shape out (Anthony gives a stupid prediction about Manchester United).

This week, Marc Andrews—vice president of Watson Financial Services Solutions for IBM—sits down with Anthony and Dan to discuss how the company is using the famed Watson platform in the financial services space.

1:00 How to enter your company for this year’s Waters Rankings.

3:00 Marc talks about why IBM focused on regulatory compliance, first, for the financial sector.

4:45 The difference between artificial intelligence and augmented intelligence.

6:45 How IBM breaks down its regulatory services.

8:00 Mifid II uses cases for cognitive learning.

10:30 Is an industry utility for AML/KYC on the horizon?

13:30 Other potential benefits for cognitive learning in the trading lifecycle.

17:00 Cognitive technology’s ability to diagnose an issue based on different “symptoms”.

20:00 A preview of Watson’s AML/KYC solution, which will be rolled out later this year.

23:40 Will cognitive machines take over the regulatory process at banks?

This podcast is dedicated to co-host Dan DeFrancesco, who, starting Monday, will move over to Waters’ sibling publication, Risk, where he’ll write about the commodities sector. To start, Dan discusses his new remit and Anthony talks about how the podcast will progress going forward (0:40). Dan then touches on his three favorite stories, which we’ve put in front of the paywall for all to read, including his feature on the Consolidated Audit Trail (9:00), the struggle to find talent (12:30) and two cover stories (16:30) that particularly stand out for him.

While we will miss Dan, the Podcast will continue uninterrupted. Tune in next week to hear IBM’s Marc Andrews talk about how the company is using Watson to improve surveillance and compliance needs.

The guys open things up talking about how the Waters Rankings are now open for entry and describe the (very easy) process for getting listed (1:00). Next, they delve into how Hollywood portrays technologists and traders on TV and in film, whether these characters are accurate to real life, and what that means for talent acquisition (3:00). Finally, they talk about the films that they’re most excited to go and see (22:00).

The guys open things up discussing Anthony’s feature that looked at the public cloud sector and how the likes of AWS, GCP, IBM Cloud and Azure are trying to differentiate themselves in the capital markets space (1:00). They then discuss what the continued adoption of artificial intelligence means for jobs (18:28). The guys wrap things up talking about the United Airlines fiasco (26:15) and New York offering free tuition for its state schools (32:20).

Dan and Anthony chat about some of the hottest topics at this year’s North American Trading Architecture Summit. They open things up discussing the keynote address by Deutsche Bank’s Jim Adams, which examined financial firms’ use of open source and the need for collaboration (1:18). Dan and Anthony then talk about the C-level panel and its focus on cybersecurity (11:40). They also share some conversations they had at the conference with attendees about their thoughts on the future of artificial intelligence and machine learning (17:20). To wrap things up, the guys look at the recent flurry of stand-up acts on Netflix (24:45).