Is Matrix in trouble?

Morgan Stanley’s unveiling of its Matrix offering was one of the most high-profile SDP launches of last year. More than two years in the making, with a price tag way into eight figures (and close to nine by some accounts), this was an epic attempt by MS to heave itself up the e-commerce rankings.

And, true to the MS DNA, it was built practically from scratch in-house using low-level components. Hence the price tag and timescale.

So after the initial hullaballoo, the current situation is puzzling. The man behind the Matrix project, Hishaam Mufti-Bey, has left MS to join UBS. And the much-viewed and very Flash-y Matrix microsite has suddenly vanished, replaced by a bland “coming soon” message.

Furthermore, rumours from the market suggest that Matrix may have run into some latency and performance problems when they started using it for real-life trading.

Should Morgan Stanley have taken the blue pill?