Day One

Introduction to real-time financial market data

This course unit gives a framework for the understanding of the industry and the key role of market data within it. This one day course unit is designed to provide a broad overview and introduction to the market data business, its systems and vendors.

9.00 Registration and coffee

9.30 A summary of the global financial markets

-Brief history of the markets
- Roles and interactions of financial institutions
- Regulatory frameworks
- Introducing traded securities and their representation in market data systems

10.30 Understanding the market data types and sources

- Exchange and OTC data
- Indices and other calculated data
- Reference data
- Instant messaging
- News, commentary and analytics

11.00 Morning Break

11.30 Identifying market data usage in a modern investment bank

- Roles of front, middle and back office
- Price discovery
- Risk management
- Trade settlement
- Increasing usage by compliance

12.15 Highlighting reference data challenges

- Standards landscape
- ISO & FIX
- Symbology
- Example datasets
- Corporate actions
- Class actions
- What solutions are there for storage and maintenance
- New combined real-time and reference data systems

13.00 Lunch

14.00 Reviewing the market data vendor landscape

- Overall market shape and size
- What have been the trends over the last 3 years
- Vendor relative market share
- Comparison of relative vendor growth

14.30 Thomson Reuters overview

- Brief history
- Platform and workstation
- Product offerings
- Datafeeds
- 3000xtra, Reuters Trader, Thomson One
- RMDS,
- Reuters trading system
- Core strengths and weaknesses

15.15 Afternoon Break

15.30 Bloomberg overview

- Brief history
- Product offerings
- The Bloomberg Professional,
- The Bloomberg data feed & data license
- The Bloomberg Platform
- Core strengths and weaknesses

16.00 Evaluating other vendors – Interactive data, SIX Telekurs, Fidessa, Morningstar, Sungard etc

- Sector strengths
- Product offerings and demonstrations

16.30 Impact analysis of current vendor merger activities

16.45 Basic principles of market data usage and cost control

- Typical cost breakdown
- Areas of focus in rising and falling markets
- New pricing models
- Hazards when data usage is not under control

17.30 Questions and close

17.45 End of day one