Latest Commentary

Google Wallet makes eye-catching moves

If you want to win the hyper-competitive digital wallet payments war, you'll need your software to be near-ubiquitous. Smartphones are one obvious way to drive consumer adoption of payments software.

Thomson Reuters builds new IM platform

It seems that someone remembered the maxim that the word "crisis" can also mean "opportunity."

The return of the SOES bandits

The small order execution system (SOES) on the Nasdaq gave rise to a new trailblazing form of retail trader -- one who could sit in an office and traffic in the super-wide spreads that once characterized small stocks. The money flowed like milk and honey, giving rise to the modern day-trading industry, which tends to crash and burn whenever the markets shake out.

Bloomberg Spygate: Time to build your own terminal?

Well, we have a new wrinkle in the build vs. buy debate. If you build your own trading gear, you don't have to worry about your vendors spying on you.

Nasdaq offers new small cap liquidity solution

A massive market structure issue for years has concerned the plight of small companies. Wall Street once loved trading these companies' stocks because of the massive spreads and strong volumes that lined the pockets of market makers and other traders.

How Wall Street celebrated the Flash Crash anniversary

Happy anniversary, Flash Crash. My how small and inconsequential you've grown!

CBOE technical woes and the limits of Reg SCI

In March, the SEC voted to formally propose Reg SCI as a much needed response to the troubling string of technology-related incidents that have plagued the national market system.

Lessons learned from a locked-down city

As Boston deals with a senseless act of terror, families mourn the loss of three spectators and a young MIT police officer and the victims deal with their unimaginable injuries, things are slowly...

Authentication could be new revenue source for banks

These days, security looms as a massive challenge, sparking great fear among companies as well as significant innovation by vendors. Despite huge spending on this problem by banks, one thing has...

Smart systems fell for and recovered from AP's Twitter highjacking

Yesterday the electronic markets did exactly what they were supposed to do. After hackers hijacked the Twitter feed of the Associated Press -- some sources have linked these cyber-hackers to Syria...