Despite Denver’s rude throttling by the New England Patriots, I am still bound for Boston to panel at the Wednesday NIRI chapter meeting called “A Day in the Life of a Trade: How Can IROs Know What’s Really Happening?” Hope to see you there!

One of our technology geeks shared a link at TED, the place where nerds of a commonly self-aggrandized feather gather to bloviate about culture. In this one, Kevin Slavin, founder of a game-hatching thought shop bought by Zynga, discusses how algorithms run our world. The guy is a good speaker and knows his imagery. Of algorithms, he says: “We’re writing things that we can no longer read.”

Slavin sets up his piquant point this way. He was on a flight with a Hungarian physicist who’s on Wall Street writing algorithms. The Hungarian used to work for the Soviets using math and physics to find American Stealth aircraft. Apparently, technology dissolves the signature of Stealth planes into a million fragments so they won’t look like planes to radar. The Hungarian wrote equations to find electronic tidbits hiding planes. Continue reading →

Observe. Orient. Decide. Act. OODA.

This is how Pipeline Trading describes its predictive analytics for helping buyside customers identify large-block trading opportunities.

For those of you who missed the news that rocked The Street this week, Pipeline, a dark pool, was fined $1 million by the SEC for misleading clients about the nature of its liquidity.

Were you harmed? Check to see if your shares trade at Pipeli—

Oh. You can’t. It’s a dark pool. You don’t know if your shares trade there unless Pipeline’s orders route to your listing exchange.

Of Pipeline, SEC Enforcement Director Robert Khuzami said in a statement: “Investors are entitled to accurate information as to how their trades are executed.”

Pipeline offers a platform where institutional customers like mutual funds can find “natural liquidity,” or real orders from other buysiders. What’s more, Pipeline provides execution algorithms that mimic how high-frequency traders try to project price and volume in order to place profitable trades ahead of moves. If the buyside can beat HFT at its own game, then instead of being victimized, it can also generate alpha – market-beating returns on trades. Continue reading →

Happy New Year! Good to be back after a two-week break from The Map. Karen and I spent Christmas in Texas, where there remains a general lack of fear of federal government.

I’m glad when winter solstice passes, that shortest and gloomiest of days. After that, we’ve rounded the corner from darkness toward light no matter what winter yet holds.

But in trading markets, darkness thrives. Monday in the Wall Street Journal, Jacob Bunge, who covers the exchanges, wrote that 34% of trades in December matched up off the exchanges in “dark pools,” doubling from last year. Why is money streaming off exchanges in search of darkness, and does it mean your shares aren’t priced right?

Let’s clarify “dark pools.” There are trading facilities like Liquidnet, Pipeline, ITG Posit and Aqua that offer twists on paths to more share-supply. They’re like the Millionaire Matchmakers of trading, finding liquidity love for willing parties. But these independent platforms and their broker-dealer counterparts at Credit Suisse (Crossfinder), Goldman Sachs (Sigma X) and Barclays (LX) command about 12% share. Continue reading →

Do you think your stock trades well?

While you ponder, a confession: We’re guilty of a bait and switch. If I’d written “implementation shortfall,” which is what I mean, rather than “missing the mark” above, which is what I said, I might be responsible for a chain-reaction narcoleptic catastrophe, people randomly falling asleep mid-word and banging heads on laptops, iPads, desks, afternoon pub beverages. Continue reading →

What does the word “actionable” mean to you?

It’s a decent name for a rock band, yes. But it means “what stuff can you do with this?”

Traders want actionable data – something to drive opportunity for profit. Investor-relations professionals want actionable tools – something that’ll improve stock ownership, share price, results of IR effort.

Knowing who owns your stock is good. But what actions can you take? Talk to sellers? That’s uncomfortable. Plus, unless you’re screwing up, selling is a compliment, an investment objective. The sellers should well buy again, when the time’s right. Continue reading →