Through wind, through snow, through volcanic ash...

Despite Iceland's attempts to derail Western Europe's economy yet again, this year's TradeTech event was surprisingly well attended. Word is about 75% of the delegates made it to the show-with some speakers managing to arrive via the magic of satellite video streaming.

So, with volcanic ash and travel disruptions being no more than a conversation starter in East London last week, most of the talk centred about the Mifid and CESR reviews (not that surprising)

I was wandering around the show (with my giant camera) doing video interviews and pulling out the Blackberry whenever I felt the urge to Tweet an equity trading pearl of wisdom.

(as always, Finextra tries to use the #finxlive hashtag to create a live Finextra Twitter channel for Tweets-whether they be from a show, webcast or Twitterview)

I thought I would give a bit of context on some of my more interesting TradeTech Tweets:

First panel: Understanding the true effects of regulation on your trading strategy

@LizLim FSA chair of CESR task force 'no need for a major rethink of Mifid'

Martine Doyon, Markets Division and chair of the CESR review at the FSA raced through the 55 pages of the CESR review in "five minutes". Which is basically summed up as the above Tweet. Again, we see the FSA is in tune with the rest of the marketplace.

@LizLum 'Consolidated tape is not the way forward I'm not convinced it actually works in the US' Wood

This was a quote from Steve Wood, MD of the Global Buy-Side Trading Consultants. Does this mean that the consolidate tape is not a magic button that will solve all of Europe's post-trade transparency woes?

Now, we moved into a satellite link up (due to volcanic ash) with Michael Levas, founder and chief investment officer at Olympian Capital Management.

@LizLum Levas -'Dark pools are really just the old $2 brokers on the NYSE'

Now, interestingly enough, I have heard Levas say this before. But he makes a point that I think is more true than people think. Dark pools aren't exactly new, but the name 'dark pools' makes it easier to write snarky headlines.

Panel discussion: Improving your trading performance through real-time latency management: What are you measuring & How do you use it?

@LizLum Nyse Tech-there needs to be set of standards to define latency to allow for comparison without 'using it' - 'the race has to stop'

This got a lot of response when I posted this on Twitter. It does seem like many people quite like the 'low latency race' and aren't that eager to see it stop.

MODERN1ST: @LizLum got it. The WANT the latency race to stop but can't stop it themselves and don't know who will (or if such an entity even wants to!)

I am just waiting for the day when the charity, fancy dress people start in on the 'race' and the whole thing just loses credibility.

The following three Tweets are highlights from the talk, Next generation exchange co-location and the new European Liquidity Centre, from Ian Jack, business development director, European Connectivity, Nyse Technologies

@LizLum 53% of US equities will be driven by computer algos in 2010' Nyse Tech

@LizLum Liffe market moving to new Nyse datacentre this Oct - the new home of European equities - Basildon.

@LizLumWe would have built a new datacentre whether we consolidated co-location or not. Nyse Tech

We were also treated to a profile of Basildon during this presentation. I feel like a more rounded human being now.

The next day of the conference saw, what I think was the best panel discussion of the conference. Assessing the impact of broker & MTF dark pools on price formation & liquidity discovery.

Again a defense of high frequency traders and dark pools from Natan Tiefenbrun, commercial director of Baikal London Stock Exchange.

@LizLum Baikal/LSE - 'the growth of HFT is a measure of Mifid's sucess...arguing whther HFT is bad is like argue against gravity

@LizLum 'I will give £100 to anyone that can argue that dark pools harm liquidity' LSE

And for those who just think the LSE has a quota for outages, this a glimpse of the future from John Ross, global head of execution services at Getco, which is currently registering with the FSA to become a European MTF.

@LizLum We need to evolve to a market structure where an LSE outage doesn't matter. Getco (Jack Vensel of Citi comments on this in a Finextra video here)

I need to include my Tweets from the Debating the current & future role of agency brokers in the European market flow - How will agency brokers change the markets?, because I need to champion the underdog.

ICAP, was due to appear on this panel, but dropped out when they decided to ditch their agency broker business. Both Tweets are from Andrew Sharpe, partner, Redburn Partners.

@LizLum Agnecy brokers have more market knowledge than banks dealing in the dark pools - Redburn

@LizLum There will always be a place for un-conflicted players. The banks are finding this out to their peril. Redburn

At last, but not least. I will leave my TradeTech Tweet highlights with this word of wisdom from Niki Beatti of the Market Structure Practice during the panel Adapting your trading strategy to address the most recent changes in the market: a debate of the latest opportunities & challenges.

@LizLum People are not as concerned as you think about HFT-they know they have choices - Beatti

Exactly.