Research

Trading Technology is the worlds leading consultancy on technology used by central markets. From our initial research in 2004 into systems used by Stock Exchanges, Clearing Houses and CSDs, we continue to keep up to date information on all of the changes in this industry.

Trading Technology conducts regular research for the industry. Utilising its independence from either technology vendor or stock exchange, it is able to conduct research from within the industry using specialised contacts.

Trading Technology has researched and published some highly significant papers throughout the years which have made a profound impact on financial services as a whole. While Trading Technology is focused on the technology aspects of financial services and central markets, it is simultaneously an expert on the business aspects of the business, as these examples testify:

In 2000, Trading Technology were asked to provide commentary on the likely outcome of the merger between Deutsche Borse Group and the London Stock Exchange. Aside from the technology impact, Trading Technology also highlighted the lack of clarity over the larger structural issues between two exchanges becoming one. Membership rules, national accountancy practises and tax were questions not resolved in the newly emerged entity. These issues were eventually the caused the collapse  of the merger and paved the way for a hostile takeover by OM of Sweden

In 2002, there was a move to reduce the settlement cycle in the United States from T+3 to T+1. Trading Technology researched the likely impact of this reduction and discovered unresolved issues with the ability of settlement to take place when orders were placed by buy-side clients of US stock in different timezones, also the inability of foreign investors to be able to settle given that all foreign exchange transactions settled at T+2. These were the eventual reasons why the SIA put on hold T+1 and eventually abandoned it in 2002.

In 2003 there were vast initiatives to increase "STP" (Straight Through Processing), with a vast array of conferences, consultancy and publications for fianncial services to facilitate this. Using key contacts in the clearing and settlement world, Trading Technology researched lower level causes of manual intervention in the settlement process, and discovered the real reason for latency in the settlement process. However, no amount of technology or consultancy would fix it without fundamental changes in the way in which allocations and confirmations were performed between the buy and sell sides of the industry. The entire "industry" of STP withered and died after the publication of this article.

In 2008, Trading Technology researched and published a survey of best practises amongst exchanges who had consolidated their cash and derivatives markets. This was published as a paper through the World Federation of Exchanges and proposed an optimum model for the deployment of technology for such organisations.

Trading Technology also receives commissions from vendors in the industry wishing to test their marketing and product development strategies. With its unique collection of reference data, Trading Technology is able to provide incisive commentary on all of these issues, and in the past has been instrumental in providing successful corporate direction to vendors and consumers of technology alike.

Please contact our research department for any specific queries you have on our research, or if you require a specific topic to be researched.