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Most of you know that America’s fifth largest bank, Bear Stearns, was sold at bargain basement prices to JP Morgan over the weekend.  The price?  $2 a share.  That’s 90% less than the bank’s valuation last week, and a fraction of the $117 per share value for the bank last October. So, JPM pays $240…

I just read the FSA publication, Market Watch 25, which focused on the systems and controls trading banks should implement in light of Societe Generale’s rogue trader incident.       Apparently, since the SocGen incident, the FSA has had cosy little chats with about fifty trading banks around London.  The conclusion is that firms should: …

I just read the FSA publication, Market Watch 25, which focused on the systems and controls trading banks should implement in light of Societe Generale’s rogue trader incident.       Apparently, since the SocGen incident, the FSA has had cosy little chats with about fifty trading banks around London.  The conclusion is that firms should: …

OK, OK … after all the knocking of Microsoft over their horrific Vista and Office 2007 faux pas,  I’ve found a good news story about them to balance everything. Yes, Microsoft has beaten Google’s attempt to conquer space by building the Worldwide Telescope. Debuting at TED Talks, the Worldwide Telescope (WWT) is an amazing interactive…

Yesterday I alluded to a bank being like a human body, with technology its lifeblood.  However, if technology is the blood of the bank, then you need a healthy heart, brain and soul to make that blood flow.  That is why the bank’s management team and staff make the difference here, as technology is only…

Yesterday I alluded to a bank being like a human body, with technology its lifeblood.  However, if technology is the blood of the bank, then you need a healthy heart, brain and soul to make that blood flow.  That is why the bank’s management team and staff make the difference here, as technology is only…

Yesterday I alluded to a bank being like a human body, with technology its lifeblood.  However, if technology is the blood of the bank, then you need a healthy heart, brain and soul to make that blood flow.  That is why the bank’s management team and staff make the difference here, as technology is only…

Yesterday I alluded to a bank being like a human body, with technology its lifeblood.  However, if technology is the blood of the bank, then you need a healthy heart, brain and soul to make that blood flow.  That is why the bank’s management team and staff make the difference here, as technology is only…

We were debating Parallel Processing, Grids and Virutalisation in depth last week at the Tradetech Architecture conference.  Halfway through the conference, discussions of Amazon started en masse.  I have to say that until recently I thought Amazon was an online book store. Apparently not.  Amazon is a Cloud. Cloud computing is the hot discussion in…

Last month, City broker Venetia Thompson wrote a tell-all tale of hedonism and debauchery in London’s trading rooms, which was published in the Spectator.  This month, according to the Daily Mail, Venetia Thompson is on the dole queue (see endnote).    Mind you, looking at what she was saying, I’m not surprised.  Her article was…