What Lies Ahead…?
As I pore through my emails trying to catch up for the new year, I am still reminded of the whirlwind that was 2016. Certainly it was a year of many amazing, shocking, happy and sad events. In my world I am reminded by the Brexit vote, the U.S. election, the DOW approaching 20K, cyber threats, a Cubs World Series win and many, many passings of individuals who left too soon.
So starting in 2017, my thoughts are a precarious balance of optimism and uncertainty. I think it is fair to say with the major events of Brexit and the outcome of the U.S. election, “volatility” will be the buzz word. The impact will clearly be on the financial markets, but the implications will reverberate across geopolitics to mainstreet. Closer to the derivatives world, compliance and regulation will be a major focus. With the recent and expected changes to the CFTC (and continued other U.S. government changes), RegAT and MiFID will be jockeying for the mindshare and workshare of vendors and execution firms alike.
But there will be the never-ending charge of change in technology. I expect further adoption of SaaS in fintech, but also see Blockchain, AI, VR and self-automated machinery to have an influence on macro trends and start to impact everyday life (we saw a glimpse in 2016).
With change comes uncertainties but also opportunities, especially for those who can best adapt and build the best from it.
At Trading Technologies, this is what we do—always building for what’s next. Looking back to our work in 2016 also reminds me of just how busy the year was. In the last several months, we brought enhancements to the TT® platform.
- We unveiled a powerful toolset for options trading, starting with the Vol Curve Manager, which allows you to use a fitted vol curve provided by TT or your own vol curve. The vol curve of your choosing is used to calculate theoretical values and Greeks, which are displayed in various widgets, including an industry-standard Options Chain. More recently, we added the Options Trade Monitor, the Options Electronic Eye, the RFQ Viewer and strategy creation. And we now support options trading on ICE and EEX in addition to CME and NFX.
- For spread traders, we launched TT Prime, which allows users to get their own dedicated, custom-built deployment of Autospreader® for maximum performance. We also launched the new Hedge Manager, which provides the ability to view and manage all unfilled hedge orders in a single widget.
- Chart trading, which allows users to place orders directly from a chart quickly and accurately using an interface modeled after MD Trader®. You can then view your working orders and fills on the chart.
- Users can now leverage our FIX services for both executions and drop copy. The most recent enhancements allow users to leverage Autospreader and Aggregator in addition to TT Order Types, ADL® algos and bank algos.
In 2017, stay tuned to our Trade Talk blog for more on new features and offerings, including automation tools for options, desktop trading, Trader Analytics, additional market coverage and much more. I suspect 2017 will reveal a few more surprises and will be as dynamic as the last. At Trading Technologies, we’ll keep busy innovating and look forward to the challenge.