Waters Wavelength

This week Bill Murphy, chief technology officer of Blackstone Group, joins to discuss his firm’s migration to the public cloud and what he views as being best practices for going to the cloud. This is Bill's fourth time on the show. Here are the links to his previous conversations. https://www.waterstechnology.com/industry-issues-initiatives/3473326/waters-wavelength-podcast-episode-105-blackstones-bill-murphy-part-3 https://www.waterstechnology.com/trading-tools/3056376/waters-wavelength-podcast-episode-60-bill-murphy-blackstone-cto https://www.waterstechnology.com/trading-tools/2461751/waters-wavelength-podcast-episode-22-blackstone-cto-bill-murphy 1:45 Where is Blackstone in its cloud migration journey? 4:30 Where is the industry as a whole when it comes to cloud adoption? 6:30 How can you “do the cloud wrong”? 8:00 As these platforms become more mission critical for everyone, how concerned are you about outages? 12:00 Beyond price, what other factors come into play when choosing between Amazon, Google

Anthony and James discuss the trends that they think will dominate the headlines in 2019: https://www.waterstechnology.com/data-management/4045791/the-best-longform-stories-of-2019 Artificial Intelligence (2:00) Blockchain (3:00) Back to AI (4:00) Cloud (6:00) Regulation (9:00) Alternative Data (14:00) Quantum Computing (16:45) M&A (17:30) Market Data Fees (22:00) WatersTechnology (24:00) The Best Longform Outside of WatersTechnology (28:00) Trashed: Inside the Deadly World of Private Garbage Collection, Kiera Feldman (ProPublica) https://www.propublica.org/article/trashed-inside-the-deadly-world-of-private-garbage-collection Blood Will Tell, Pamela Colloff (ProPublica) https://features.propublica.org/blood-spatter/mickey-bryan-murder-blood-spatter-forensic-evidence/ “I Killed Them All”, Jessica Garrison (Buzzfeed) https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jessicagarrison/martinez-hitman-cartel-black-hand-mano-negra-contract-killer Inside Palmer Luckey’s Bid to Build a Border Wall, Steven Levy (Wired) ht

With James away in London, Wei-Shen Wong, Asia editor for WatersTechnology, calls in from Hong Kong to give her perspective on trends unfolding in the Asia-Pacific region. They talk about blockchain (3:15), cryptocurrencies and—separately—tokenization (14:15), various forms of artificial intelligence and automation efforts (20:00), the proliferation of cloud usage in the region (25:30), and the feud that unfolded between India and Singapore earlier this year and what’s ahead for the two nations (28:00). They wrap things up by admitting to their favorite Netflix shows that bring them shame (35:30) and Wei-Shen talks about some of the stories she’s working on for 2019 (48:30). https://www.waterstechnology.com/operations/4014326/tokenization-the-flip-side-of-the-coin https://www.waterstechnology.com/exchanges-trading-venues/3969216/custody-seen-as-cryptos-next-major-battleground https://www.waterstechnology.com/data-management/4007716/deep-learning-the-evolution-is-here https://www.waterstechnology.com/excha

This week, Anthony and James talk about some of the themes and discussions at our flagship Waters USA conference, which was held in New York City on December 3. Then, James sits down with Raymond Zenkich, president and chief operating officer of crypto insurer BlockRe, to talk about some of the challenges of offering insurance products in such a new and risky market. 2:00 James and Anthony revisit some of the themes from this week’s conference, including where fintech companies get it wrong while trying to attract bank funding. 4:00 One of the highlights was Cathy Bessant, global chief operations and technology officer at Bank of America, being interviewed on-stage by editor-in-chief Victor Anderson. 7:00 A new way of looking at artificial intelligence, beyond the hype cycle, was evident at the conference. [For a very deep dive into how firms are using deep learning in the capital markets, click here.] 9:30 While people are coming around to using one (or more) of the big cloud providers, there are still

After a brief break, Anthony and James are back. This week they look ahead to Waters USA, the December issue of Waters, and Brexit. 1:00 Waters USA will be held on Monday, Dec. 3, at the Convene on W 46th Street in Manhattan. Anthony first looks at some of the highlights—cloud, artificial intelligence, alternative data, regulation, blockchain—for the all-day conference. If you are an end-user, this event is free to attend; vendors will have to pay a fee, but there will be tons of senior executives from end-user firms both in attendance and speaking. Click here to register: http://events.waterstechnology.com/watersusa/book-now Click here to see the agenda: http://events.waterstechnology.com/watersusa/agenda 8:30 James and Anthony give their thoughts on what they hope to hear from speakers at the event and why this is an important tech conference for even non-techies to attend. 17:00 James gives a look at the December issue of Waters magazine. 23:00 Finally, James gives his thoughts on recent developmen

This week, Anthony and James look at three news stories. First, a group of central securities depositories are exploring how their roles are translatable to crypto-asset infrastructure. Next, the Depository Trust and Clearing Corp. is moving to the next phase in its project to “re-platform” its credit derivatives processing utility using blockchain technology. And finally, IHS Markit officially unveils TradeServ to the world. And outside of the news, they look at how both banks and bank robbers are using artificial intelligence to defend and attack.

This week, Anthony and James first take a look at the fight brewing between the exchanges and the trading firms over market data fees, with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) serving as the referee (2:00). Then they caution listeners about believing everything you read when it comes to crypto journalism (11:00). They wrap things up by talking about their favorite underrated movies of all-time (22:00). https://www.waterstechnology.com/exchanges-trading-venues/exchange-data/3949191/the-exchange-data-fee-debate-trick-or-treat https://www.politico.com/story/2018/11/01/sec-cryptocurrency-910135 https://www.waterstechnology.com/awards-rankings/3954271/buy-side-technology-awards-2018-all-the-winners

Rick Lane, CEO of Trading Technologies, joins the podcast to discuss the challenges of completely shifting from a monolith, hard-install platform to a software-as-a-solution (SaaS) delivery basis. He also talks about Chicago’s burgeoning institutional crypto scene. But before that, Anthony and James hit on stories coming out of Sibos, as well as the alternative data space. In the News 1:45 A quick look at this year’s Sibos event, which was held in Sydney. You can find our Sibos coverage here: https://www.waterstechnology.com/topics/sibos 4:30 A quick look at the alternative data marketplace after WatersTechnology published a 6,000-word examination of the space. This article will be free to read until Oct. 30: https://www.waterstechnology.com/market-data-data-analytics/3938811/the-new-oil-rush-an-examination-of-the-alternative-data-market   Rick Lane 8:00 Rick Lane joins the podcast.  9:30 First he explains the thinking behind the move from X_Trader to the TT platform, which is delivered via a software-as-

This week, Scott Mullins, worldwide financial services business development lead at Amazon Web Services (AWS), joins the podcast to discuss how capital markets firms are embracing public clouds, how they will look to differentiate themselves as costs come down while capacity increases, and how clouds can help in the evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) tools. But before that, Anthony and James look at how Orbital Insight will deploy a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) model and how Trading Technologies will launch an order management system (OMS) in 2019. In the News 2:30 As Orbital Insight expands the number of retailers it tracks and adds geolocation data to its offering, it will eventually deploy a PaaS model for do-it-yourself geospatial analytics. https://www.waterstechnology.com/connectivity-networks/data-delivery-technologies/3922846/orbital-insight-expands-telemetry-footprint-considers-new-delivery-service 7:30 Trading Technologies has announced the 2019 launch of an OMS designed for sell-side

This week, Anthony and James look at key themes that arose at several conferences from around the globe over the last two weeks: Brexit and how it will impact Mifid II, disillusionment with blockchain, and data quality challenges. 2:00 Shocking, there are major data challenges relating to Mifid II, according to the chairman of the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) Robert Ophéle. Get this: there’s a lot of regulatory arbitrage, the data quality being reported “leaves much to be desired” and they may need to enact “a number of legislative fixes.” https://www.waterstechnology.com/reference-data-data-management/data-governance/3908211/financial-watchdog-mifid-ii-data-quality-difficult 10:30 Another shocker, some exchanges are not quite finding value stemming from their blockchain proofs-of-concept. Fortunately, we have Nouriel Roubini to speak some truth to power. https://www.waterstechnology.com/trading-floor-technologies/3908021/exchanges-still-seeking-blockchain-uses https://www.banking.senate.gov/i

This week, Octavio Marenzi, co-founder and CEO of Opimas, joins the podcast to look at how capital markets firms are incorporating web-scrapping tools in their investment processes, and examines some of the key challenges they face. But before that, with the Blackstone-led consortium’s acquisition of Thomson Reuters’ Financial & Risk business closed, Anthony and James talk about what might be ahead for the newly renamed Refinitiv. 2:30-11 A look at Refinitiv. 11:30 In a recent report, Marenzi and his colleague Anna Griem looked at the web data extraction market. He explains why they thought this would be an interesting sector to examine. 13:00 What information are hedge funds, asset managers and others trying to find, and what types of tools are they using? 16:00 One major trend in the space is a move away from building internally and toward spending with third-party companies. 18:00 What are the common causes of these projects going awry? 24:00 Looking at the internet as the ultimate dataset and

This week, Eric Bernstein, president of Broadridge’s asset management solutions business, joins the podcast to discuss some of the challenges that buy-side firms in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region are facing, as they try an incorporate emerging technologies amid a fragmented regulatory environment. Before that, Anthony and James talk about two companies that are changing course. 1:00 IHS Markit has decided to take MarkitSERV, its post-trade processing business, off the market. Anthony and James look at potential reasons for the decision. 10:15 Algomi is shifting its focus toward its Alfa platform. It’s been a series of ups-and-downs for the vendor, and Anthony and James examine what this next move can move 19:30 Eric joins the podcast. As buy-side shops try to incorporate new technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain, what have been some of the main challenges? 21:00 How have data needs changed? 22:30 Eric breaks down the fragmented regulatory environment in APAC. 28:30 H

This week, Anthony and James first look at Nasdaq’s $190 million bid for Cinnober Financial Technologies (1:00-9:30) and then they examine what Wall Street has learned in the 10 years since the collapse of Lehman Brothers (9:30-22:30). Contrary to some, they think that the industry has learned many lessons since September 2008. They wrap things up by taking a peek at New York University (NYU) offering a major in cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology and why that’s a sign of a larger problem (22:30-33:00). https://www.waterstechnology.com/organization-management/alliances-mergers-acquisitions/3863826/nadsdaq-makes-190-million-bid-for-cinnober

Gerard Francis, global head of enterprise data for Bloomberg, joins Anthony Malakian on the podcast to discuss data fragmentation issues in the capital markets. Bloomberg announced this week the launch of Enterprise Access Point, an online open data and linked data platform that provides normalized reference, pricing, regulatory and historical datasets for Bloomberg Data License clients. Toward the end, they get into the product itself a bit more, but the point of this podcast is to look at the underlying trends that led to the launch of Enterprise Access Point and, specifically, the challenges firms are facing when it comes to data fragmentation. 1:15 Gerard joins the podcast and gives a quick primer on Bloomberg’s Enterprise Data business. 2:15 Why is data fragmentation becoming more of an issue in today’s environment? 6:00 The cost of data. 7:30 The difference between dirty data and quality data. 10:00 Examples of challenges that arise when data fragmentation becomes an issue. 12:00 The rise of th

This week Anthony and James dig into IHS Markit's new cloud-based TradeServ platform, which will eventually replace MarkitSERV's DSMatch platform, and host MarkitWire, Markit Trade Manager, among others. Since the rollout is also connected to the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp.'s (DTCC) new Trade Information Warehouse (TIW), which will be built using blockchain technology and is expected to be rolled out in 2019, they then take a look at blockchain projects in the industry, including some thoughts from Nasdaq. (2:00-13:30) Finally, they close the show with a rant about the stupidity of the past week in politics. (14:00-end) IHS Markit Overhaul: https://www.waterstechnology.com/connectivity-networks/3845446/ihs-markit-overhauls-derivatives-nerve-center-with-tradeserv-launch DTCC Blockchain: https://www.waterstechnology.com/infrastructure-technologies/3845566/dtcc-blockchain-platform-scheduled-for-early-2019-launch Nasdaq Profile: https://www.waterstechnology.com/people/3845756/nasdaqs-twin-pillars-brad-p

The September issue of Waters will mark our 25th anniversary as a publication. For it, Anthony and James spoke with over three-dozen senior executives in technology to hear their thoughts as to which technologies and enhancements will transform the capital markets over the next quarter century. For the podcast, they provide some takeaways from those discussions. Check out the September issue of Waters for a full look back at advancements in the space over the previous 25 years and look ahead at what's still to come.

This week, Josephine Gallagher, European reporter for Waters, calls in from London to talk with Anthony about the exchange-traded funds (ETF) marketplace. After speaking with experts from Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Vanguard, State Street Global Advisors and more for her August feature, she explains how technology is playing a greater role in this space, how alternative data and robo advisors are changing the sector, and whether or not Bitcoin ETFs will become a reality in the near future (hint: probably not.) And, being that Josephine is from the Republic of Ireland, she explains Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) sports like Gaelic football and hurling to a bewildered Anthony.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaelic_Athletic_Association https://www.waterstechnology.com/industry-issues-initiatives/3779766/etfs-priming-the-5-trillion-pump https://www.waterstechnology.com/industry-issues-initiatives/3755246/bitcoin-advocates-seek-to-navigate-etf-maze https://www.waterstechnology.com/trading-technologies-a

Kathryn Guarini, vice president of IBM Industry Research, and Bob Sutor, vice president of IBM Q strategy and ecosystem for IBM Research, talk with Anthony about advancements that have been made in the quantum space and explore what might be ahead. 2:45 Bob starts off by explaining where we are today with quantum development, how we got here and what some of the next benchmarks might be. 6:00 With over 94,000 individuals having used IBM Q’s environment, Kathryn examines why people in the financial services industry are starting to get interested in the topic. 8:00 Bob provides what he believes is a realistic timeline for a commercial quantum computer. 11:15 Then Bob explains how providers in the quantum computing space are both working together and competing against one another, at the same time. 13:00 Kathryn points to Monte Carlo simulations and intraday analytics as being areas that could potentially be improved by a quantum computer. 15:45 While some have posited that quantum computing could po

Greg Skibiski, co-founder and CEO of Thasos Group, a startup that provides geospatial data to the hedge fund industry, joins the podcast to discuss the alternative data sector and provides insights into some of the challenges, trends and use cases for this information. Beginning-1:45 Greg Skibiski joins the podcast and gives a quick recap of what Thasos has rolled out. 1:45-3:40 What are the biggest trends driving this explosion we’re seeing in the alternative data space? 3:40-5:30 How has hardware in the alt data space improved to allow for the increased use of this data? 5:30-8:15 When you look at a potential dataset to explore, what are the prerequisites you look for? 8:15-10:00 Why are so many players—from startups, to the biggest vendors, to the banks themselves—trying to get into this space with their own offerings? 10:00-12:30 For those concerned about privacy, how do you make sure that no personally identifiable information is shared with clients? 12:30-15:05 Do you provide context around the data,

Last week, Anthony and James discussed the announcement that State Street was buying Charles River Development. Well, a week later, and after speaking with over a dozen industry sources, they are back to dig deeper into this significant acquisition (2:15). But first, they look at some recent developments in the bitcoin ETF space, which is a topic they broached two weeks ago. This time, though, they dig into a story written by Josephine Gallagher that quotes executives from Goldman Sachs and Vanguard to get the institutional side of the industry’s thoughts (16:00). https://www.waterstechnology.com/organization-management/alliances-mergers-acquisitions/3774631/questions-raised-on-state-street-and-charles-rivers-boston-wedding https://www.waterstechnology.com/trading-technologies-and-strategies/3769671/traders-urge-caution-on-potential-bitcoin-etfs https://www.waterstechnology.com/industry-issues-initiatives/3760866/wavelength-podcast-episode-130-state-street-buys-charles-river https://www.waterstechnology.c