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Real-Time Risk: Why we all need to study Big Data By PlanetCompliance, July 28, 2017 Everything changes. Financial Services. Markets. Risk. Technology and innovation transform an entire industry and if you want to survive, you need to change, too. In order to change though, a profound understanding of the new technologies is necessary. PlanetCompliance spoke to Irene Aldridge, the author of the bestseller “Real-Time Risk” about what investors and finance professionals need to know about Fintech and the way Big Data is transforming the world we live in. There are without doubt not enough women in finance. Not in traditional banking, nor in Fintech. However,Read More →

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By Irene Aldridge Adapted from Real-Time Risk: What Investors Should Know About Fintech, High-Frequency Trading and Flash Crashes, by Irene Aldridge and Steve Krawciw (Wiley, 2017)   Recently, a frenzy to delay orders consumed exchanges. First came IEX, whose innovation was to delay all orders by 350 microseconds. Following IEX market share gains, reported here, many venues are competing to provide a similar offering to traders. This article looks at the mechanics of the delay and how it really helps trading venues gain market share, and at whose expense. In a nutshell, execution delay can be very risky and costly to investors. In all fairness,Read More →

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Interview with Prof. Marco Avellaneda of NYU Courant, world-recognized expert in Financial Mathematics, Big Data, and Volatility, Quant of the Year, Chair of Big Data Finance Conference (May 19, 2017, NYU Center for Data Science, 60 5th Ave., New York, NY). In discussion with Irene Aldridge (IA), IA: What is new in data, and Big Data in particular, in comparison with last year? MA: This year, Big Data Finance is becoming very serious. More and more financial institutions are applying Big Data Analytics and Blockchain technology in the real world of finance. The three key trends pertaining to Blockchain that we observe are: 1) theRead More →

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By Irene Aldridge Recent proclamations (see Forbes, ZeroHedge and others) that high-frequency trading in equities has become too competitive and unprofitable for many firms has prompted exits and fire sales of assets.  The recent mergers and consolidations in the HFT industry are indeed real.  And as described in our new book, “Real-Time Risk: What Investors Should Know About Fintech, High-Frequency Trading and Flash Crashes” (Wiley, 2017), the technologies required to successfully trade at high frequencies have indeed become increasingly sophisticated.  However, the reports of death of HFT may be highly premature.   Our firm, AbleMarkets, tracks the participation of a specific group of high-frequency tradingRead More →

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By Irene Aldridge President Trump has announced sweeping deregulation and the financial services industry rejoiced. While I am personally a strong proponent of free, deregulated markets, one of the proposed deregulation measures may simply be outdated, even before the underlying regulatory measure is still to be enacted. Of course, I am talking about the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Fiduciary Rule. The rule, scheduled to go into effect beginning April 10, 2017, will require all investment professionals who work with individuals’ retirements accounts to legally uphold the retiree’s interests ahead of their own. It may come as a surprise to some readers, but at present, financialRead More →

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If you live in Asia, you will hear this refrain about the Chinese stock market again and again: that it is the government casino. The way the casino works is through guanxi, a set of connections to the higher authority and a network of favors, if not bribes. According to locals, Guanxi permeates pretty much every aspect of the Chinese society. And the Chinese stock market, in particular, has proven to be beholden to Guanxi: those with connections and, as a result, in the know about upcoming government moves make a ton of money. The regular folks are pure gamblers, placing their money on theRead More →