Latest opinions that Ivy Schmerken has shared on Finextra

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Ivy Schmerken

Editorial Director

FlexTrade Systems

Member since

20 Jul 2015

Location

Great Neck

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Ivy's opinions

Wrestling with OMS and EMS Decisions

Many asset managers are wrestling with the decision on whether to keep the order management system (OMS) and execution management system (EMS) as two separate best-of-breed systems, or switch to a single unified platform known as the OEMS. Buy-side firms have been demanding tighter integration between their order management and execution management...

19 December 2017 /regulation Capital Markets Technology

Is Market Structure Tied Up in Knots?

With a new head of trading and markets at the SEC, there is optimism that some of the complex market structure issues – such as make-taker incentives and sky-high market data costs — will be looked at in 2018. As these issues wait to be settled, buy-side traders are also grappling with the EU’s MiFID II rules on unbundling research payments from...

01 December 2017 /regulation MiFID

MiFID II: Down to the Wire on Commodity Position Limits

As MiFID II’s Jan. 3 go-live date draws closer, investment firms are rushing to implement systems that monitor position limits on commodity derivatives, though the majority of the limits are still unknown. Commodity derivatives participants are waiting for precise position limit rules under MiFID II on more than 100 contracts ranging from agricultu...

01 November 2017 /regulation

Augmented Reality Becomes a Reality for Trading

As consumer technologies rapidly evolve, some are speculating that augmented reality could be the next big thing to transform the trader’s work space. Financial services firms are already looking at bringing augmented reality into the trading room to help traders to interact with complex data sets and to collaborate with clients remotely. While vir...

26 September 2017 /ai

The Buy Side Delves into Mobile Data

As hedge funds and quantitative asset managers hunt for unique sources of alpha, Wall Street’s attention is turning to analysis of location data generated by mobile phones. Location data from mobile phones is now at the forefront of the push to combine data science techniques with machine learning techniques to produce actionable information on com...

31 August 2017

MiFID II Transparency Puts Stress on Data Architecture

With only four months to go until the MiFID II’s Jan. 3, 2018 implementation date, buy-side firms are facing huge changes in disclosure and transparency requirements, which could upend their data management architectures. Participants on a webinar hosted by A-Team focused on MiFID II: Data for Transparency, said that firms are wrestling with the ch...

09 August 2017 /regulation MiFID

Fixed Income Trading Protocols: Going with the Flow

Last week, SEC Chairman Jay Clayton said he asked the staff to develop a plan for creating a Fixed Income Market Structure Committee to advise the SEC on regulatory issues in the fixed-income markets. Clayton said the fixed income committee would be modeled after the Equity Market Structure Committee (EMSAC), and would be comprised of a diverse gr...

27 July 2017 /regulation

Riding the Wave: Speed, Algos and Consolidation

A wave of consolidation has hit high-speed trading firms and brokers in the past few months, and many are blaming low volatility and weak trading volumes in the face of rising compliance and market data costs. Starting with electronic market-maker Virtu’s acquisition of rival KCG in April, Two Sigma Securities buying options market-marker Timber Hi...

12 July 2017 /regulation

Ethical FX via the Global Code

Foreign exchange participants are getting a crash course in ethical behavior. With the release of the FX Global Code for the wholesale foreign exchange market last month, the FX industry is counting on a single set of guidelines to prevent bad behavior in currency trading. Launched by the Bank International Settlements on May 25 in London, the fina...

14 June 2017 /regulation

Options Market Structure: Fragmented Reality

Some experts are debating whether the complexity of the listed U.S. options market structure is hurting liquidity providers and driving some market makers out of the business. Options market makers are navigating a fragmented liquidity landscape, rising technology costs, and an arms race around high speed trading. Some electronic market makers, lik...

16 May 2017 /regulation

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