Realpoint, a subsidiary of Morningstar, is discussing a new ratings model in response to Nationally Registered Statistical Rating Organizations (NRSROs) provisions in the recently passed Dodd-Frank Act.
Ravi Mattu, head of the soon-to-be-launched equity research division for Citadel Securities, has left the firm.
Knight Capital Group has begun an expansion of its options business by growing smart order routing and market making.
Alpha Trading Systems, an alternative trading system in Canada, plans to enter the dark pool market in a bid to siphon market share from the Toronto Stock Exchange.
The Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is planning to target gaps in regulation around the use of algorithmic and high frequency trading strategies in the futures markets.
Gerson Lehrman Group, Primary Global Research and Guidepoint Global are among firms exploring partnerships with data providers in an effort to differentiate themselves from a growing group of firms entering the market.
Nasdaq OMX Group plans to start charging member firms for supplemental market participant identifiers (MPIDs).
Former Instinet and Mismi vets Tom Gerber and Eric Voss have teamed up with Accordia Group to develop AlgoCross, a new dark crossing network that will connect to other traders' execution algorithms and send them requests for contras in single stocks throughout the day.
Socially responsible investing (SRI) research is getting a second wind in the U.K. as firms rebuild their platforms.
A group of options exchanges is pushing the Securities and Exchange Commission to allow them to expand the $1 strike program, which allows them to list options series at $1 intervals up to $50.
Citigroup, Jefferies and Capstone Investments are among the handful of firms that have been trying to recruit the six recently laid-off Jesup & Lamont analysts, according to former J&L officials and recruiters.
Deutsche Börse is expanding its Xetra International Market trading platform to include more than 1,000 pan-European securities by the end of the year, up from about 300.
Firms on both sides of the street are concerned that a proposal from the Securities and Exchange Commission that would require firms trading high volumes of securities to be identified in regulatory reports would duplicate reporting done for other programs.
Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs are eyeing dark pool launches in Canada.
Traders are backing a Securities and Exchange Commission suggestion that it would consider price banding-- known as a limit up/limit down process-- over single-stock circuit breakers because it would be less disruptive to the flow of trading. Single-stock circuit breakers, conceived of last month following the May 6 "flash crash" and implemented in pilot mode for Standard & Poor's 500 Index stocks June 14, halt trading for five minutes in individual securities that experience a 10% change in price in a five-minute period.
James Overdahl has spent the past two decades holding key roles in regulatory policy making, most recently spending 2002-2007 as chief economist at the Commodity Futures and Trading Commission, and the following three years in a similar position at the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition to his new role as v.p. of NERA Economic Consulting, the long-time regulatory vet has taken a role advisor to the new Principal Trader Group wing of the Futures Industry Association.
A decision by U.S. lawmakers Friday morning to send the latest version of the long-awaited financial regulatory reform bill to a conference committee and ultimately a vote by the Senate and House of Representatives is getting cautiously optimistic reviews from market participants.
The Securities and Exchange Commission is working with the equities exchanges to come up with more meaningful market-maker obligations.
ITG and Ancerno are rolling out transaction cost analysis services that map portfolio managers' trading styles with interactive depictions of performance metrics in various market conditions.
Penson Worldwide has plans for a broad expansion of its managed futures execution service, launched last week.
Citigroup's block trading desk has launched TotalTouch, a trade execution system combining electronic trading capabilities with high-touch trade facilitation.
Large traditional asset managers, including mutual funds and some hedge funds, are meeting with legislators and lobbyists to discuss ways to clamp down on the high rate of cancel-and-replace orders originating from high frequency trading firms.
Buy-side firms and service providers are pointing to collateral processing as one of the hurdles for buysiders that plan to trade over-the-counter derivatives after new regulations are put in place.
Several traders were unpleasantly surprised by tiered circuit breakers Nasdaq OMX Group has proposed for all its listed stocks, charging that the program will only cause more complexity and fragmentation.
Pricing estimates from the Chicago Board Options Exchange for its pending initial public offering have some remaining seat owners anxious.
Exchanges in emerging markets, led by India and Latin America, are ramping up their technology to be FIX Protocol-certified in order to more quickly enable brokers based in foreign markets to trade there.
Citigroup is making an electronic trading technology push with the rollout of Citi Trade Viewer (CTV), a desktop trading application that enables traders to see every detail of an order in real time using visual analysis.
BNY ConvergEx, Citigroup, Knight Capital Group, ITG and UBS are in the process of identifying which algorithms will be affected by new circuit breaker rules on individual Standard & Poor's 500 Index stocks.
Traders and other market participants are looking at the best way to tighten policies around the use of stub quotes--placeholder quotes far out of the NBBO range--ahead of an official proposal from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
A set of newly proposed circuit breaker rules would have halted trading on May 6 in 29 securities if they had been applied, according to an analysis conducted this week by Jordan & Jordan Associates.
Jefferies is beginning an emerging markets push with the rollout of its new algorithms in Greece and South Africa.
Citigroup plans to expand its collateral management capabilities by enhancing its securities financing services and expanding to manage collateral for over-the-counter derivatives transactions.
Dan Keegan, former head of institutional sales for Citigroup’s electronic trading group, has been appointed co-head of global electronic trading, replacing Steve Swanson.
The TMX Group, is looking into dark liquidity to boost its market share in the equities and is also considering using its clearing operation and potential regulatory reform to leverage a greater presence in the over-the-counter derivatives market.
Equities exchanges plan to bolster market-wide circuit breakers by proposing a two-pronged approach.
Independent research providers fear new commission disclosure requirements for investment managers working for pension plans will deter the managers from using their research.
A group of European exchanges and multi-lateral trading facilities are calling for regulators to push for and enforce increased transparency around fees charged for executions in the equities markets.
The U.K's Financial Services Authority will be able to request information from unregulated firms outside the U.K due to a little-noticed section of the country's Financial Services Act 2010.
TD Ameritrade, whose orders make up about 10% of total daily Options Clearing Corporation volume, is moving to routing its orders directly to exchanges.
Morgan Stanley is launching a research platform focused on socially responsible investing, hiring analysts Kristina Obrtacova from Goldman Sachs and Nick Anderson, formerly of Lehman Brothers.
SWIFT is nearing the final stages of a nearly two-year project intended to help the firms more easily and accurately identify the legal entities involved in individual transactions.
Citadel Execution Services is adding complex options pricing structure logic into its smart order router as options exchanges introduce more complex pricing schedules, according to Martin Mannion, chief operating officer.
Citigroup plans to introduce a new set of algorithms to U.S. clients that want to trade in Mexico, Brazil and Canada.
Market participants have pointed to pricing increments as a key issue among the many that the Securities and Exchange Commission raised in its equity markets concept release, published in January.
UBS is ramping up its quantitative trading, market microstructure analysis and electronic trading departments.
Caps on access fees for options exchanges should largely erode the difference in cost for trading on maker-taker and traditional exchanges, as well as open the singularly listed options index market to more retail flow, options players said.
Nasdaq OMX Group has expanded its listing standards for Global Select Markets, its most exclusive listing platform for Nasdaq Stock Market, adding a new tier that pushes the standards above those of the New York Stock Exchange.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has slowed the pace of its routine examinations of investment advisers due to new initiatives to strengthen its process, according to WSL sister publication Compliance Reporter.
The Investorside Research Association has formed a working group to develop a set of guidelines for securities issuers that aim to prevent retaliation against independent research analysts making calls on the companies.
Brokerage firms are reviewing their technology and determining what systems they may need to update in order to handle new rules for short sales.
Nasdaq OMX Group has introduced a new fee structure for trades reported to the FINRA/Nasdaq trade reporting facility that levies costs on a greater number of reports but lowers overall expenses.
Trading executives estimate that the costs to develop new technology for complying with impending sponsored access rules proposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission will be at least 10 times higher than estimates.
A taskforce of CESAME2, a European Commission-backed group, has recommended that Europe move to a T+2 settlement cycle in advance of the implementation of the pending Target2-Securities (T2S) settlement system.
Chi-X Europe is looking at eventually charging a nominal fee for data such as depth of market or transaction size.
Nomura Securities, UBS, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and Thomas Weisel are among brokerage firms planning to adopt the latest version of FIX Protocol Limited's Algorithmic Trading Definition Language (FIXatdl).
Investment Technology Group, Lightspeed and Lime Brokerage are focusing on pre-trade risk controls on their sponsored access platforms in light of proposed Securities and Exchange Commission mandates.
Investment Technology Group plans to offer its POSIT Marketplace platform in Australia within the next 30 days, according to Clare Rowsell, head of client relationship management for Asia.
NYSE Liffe Clearing is in the process of overhauling its 20-year-old futures clearing system in order to make it more efficient and increase the level of built-in automation.
As pundits prophesized the doom of independent research following the expiration of the Global Research Settlement last year, Argus Research, one of the largest and best-ranked indies, kicked into high gear to find new ways of bringing in revenue.