How Trading Desks Are Becoming Tech Support
from the it's-all-algorithmic-now? dept
Last week, the big news on Wall Street was both Nasdaq and the NYSE trying to buy up ECNs -- recognizing that the future of trading is on those electronic networks. In a sidebar to an interesting Business Week article looking at what all of this means, it's noted that the role of the trader is is rapidly changing from trading to tech support. That is, people no longer want to just call up their broker and then have that broker call a trader. They want direct access to the electronic networks themselves. That means that the role of many banking firms has changed from providing human support to manage trades to building sophisticated software products to help their customers execute trades -- meaning that people are more interested in the algorithms than the traders. So, the real issue going forward in winning business is being able to create more sophisticated algorithms for people to use themselves, rather than trying to win people over with personal support.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
