Microsecond execution, transatlantic order routing, global algorithmic trading – derivatives is not an industry that stands still. But in some ways, all these developments have moved people further apart, closing trading pits and isolating them in front of flashing screens in far-flung corners, from Korea to Essex. Now the social media phenomenon is offering to reconnect people, and futures and options specialists are loving it. Tom Osborn reports.
FOW’s 2009 Awards for Innovation highlighted two parallel trends. Most obvious was the derivatives industry’s relentless drive for speed, for higher volume orders executed at ever lower latencies.
But the second, led by CME Group’s award for its pioneering use of social media, was perhaps more intriguing. A profession that relies on up to the minute information and microsecond advantages for its livelihood is developing an appetite for sharing news and information online.
The two strands are anything but contradictory....