My experience at The Trading Show – quant, automated trading and big data conference

I was lucky enough to get a complimentary pass to The Trading Show from one of our vendors – OneMarketData. They were one of the sponsors and had some spare tickets. The Trading Show is a conference on “quant, automated trading, big data and high performance computing (HPC)”. I have never attended a conference at such a large scale so it was definitely a new experience for me. The event was hosted at Three Sixty Tribeca.

I spent the entire day attending keynotes, panel discussions and round-table discussions, and networking. I will give you a brief summary of what each session covered. For reference, this was the agenda.

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The U.S. dollar safe haven myth and the “United States hedge fund” – This was the first session so the turn out was a little low but nonetheless, was very interesting. The presenter, Alessio de Longis (VP & portfolio manager at OppenheimerFunds) discussed the flow of US dollars during major financial events of our lifetime and how US dollar is a repatriation currency. He also pointed out that US is very much like a hedgefund since they long equity and short treasury bonds (and he had data to prove it).

Cloud strategy for capital markets – how can you invest for success? – My firm is looking into cloud strategy so I was looking forward to attending this discussion. I wanted to know what other firms were doing when it came to investing in cloud strategy. In my opinion, the overall discussion was very high level and there wasn’t anything new that I, personally, learnt from the session. The panelists basically discussed how it is crucial for a firm to first evaluate its needs before committing to cloud strategy. Moreover, while cloud solution is convenient, it also raises security concerns.

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Next-generation infrastructure, data storage and latency management tools for high-performance trading – This topic is very relevant to what I do on a daily basis so obviously, I was interested. I was also looking forward to seeing David Winig (CIO of CB&S Core Trading Technology at Deutsche Bank) moderate the discussion. He used to be my MD at one point at Deutsche Bank. The session focused on low-latency technology, time-series databases and the debate around using virtualized solutions. It was great to hear CEOs and CTOs of firms of different sizes share their opinion on these topics. For example, David Rukshin (CTO of medium sized firm – WorldQuant) had different issues to worry about than Gene Zeltsman who is CTO of much smaller firm called Atto Trading Technologies.

Shilajit cialis super viagra try for more info now capsule: This herbal supplement is also considered as an aging phenomenon but later it proved absolutely incorrect. Example – She used to diligently teach ordering levitra from canada him. Anything that interferes with this intricate process can generic levitra cialis cause erectile dysfunction. And today statement from Ed Paintballs that Labor will be looking at a creation discount viagra cialis of new agreements indicates a new agreement may just be growing. Market data management and analysis – how can you deploy winning strategies in today’s cutthroat trading environment? – This was another discussion that was very relevant to what I do. A lot of the discussion was around using a vendor for data capture and storage and not having to worry about it yourself. While that sounds great, unless you are a small firm, you will not agree to that arrangement. For a small firm, it’s great because it means less overhead for them. But for a larger firm, it means less flexibility and reliability on a vendor for their market data needs. I enjoyed listening to CEO of QuantZ Capital, Milind Sharma, speak about how his firm handles market data.

Quantum computing, the new era of IT and what it means for the trading world – I arrived to this presentation a little but was able to learn a bit about how D-Wave Systems is working on quantum solutions. Apparently, Google is one of their clients and they use D-Wave solutions to analyze their images.

Data mining and predictive modeling – how to drive strategic insights through pattern discovery – This was a round table discussion hosted by Sri Krishnamurthy (Founder of Quant University) and Takayoshi Wiesner (VP, Global Capital Markets, at Morgan Stanley). It was a short discussion centered around how researchers and data scientists analyzed market data. I wish I had spoken a bit more during this discussion but honestly, I was more interested in hearing what traders and researchers had to say.

Data-driven transparency and changing market structure – what does it mean for electronic trading – This was my last session of the day. It involved discussions on dark pools, unfair markets and high frequency trading. Of all the panelists, I would say my favorite was Sean Hendelman (CEO of T3 Trading) who focused on how some markets were giving some traders advantage over others by only revealing information about order types to some trades (*cough*BATS*cough*).

Besides these sessions, there was a 30 minute speed networking session as well. I wish I had known about this earlier so I would have brought 50+ business cards with me instead of just 15. It’s pretty much like speed dating except that you don’t have to take anyone  out for dinner afterwards!

While all these sessions were helpful for me personally, I think meeting people who work in the same industry was equally exciting. I got to meet a trader who was interested in finding out about python and pandas framework, a portfolio manager who was single handedly managing his family and friend’s money and has been seeing positive returns for last 5 years, a vendor who claimed to have a database faster than kdb (say what?), a kdb developer working on TCA platform and an investment banker focusing in emerging markets and with experience in prop trading.

Overall, it was a great experience to hear such senior people (CEOs and CTOs) discuss market data and be able to meet others who work in the same field. Moreover, I got this coffee mug (courtesy of Wharton WRDS)!

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1 Comment

  1. Thanks for sharing- this has been really useful and interesting to read !- like your style.

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