Chris Skinner's blog

Shaping the future of finance

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Causes of the Credit Crash, Part One: The Machines

Technology is blamed as a major cause of the current market meltdown according to an in-depth article in today’s Financial Times entitled: "Algo trading: the dog that bit its master". These themes build upon the review of capital markets I put forward in December, as well as the discussion of Goldman Sachs’ $1.5 billion algo…

Web chat worth more than America’s fifth largest bank

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…

Regulators teach grandma to suck eggs

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: …

Regulators teach grandma to suck eggs

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: …

Banking on the Moon

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…

Technology may be key, but people make the difference

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…

Technology may be key, but people make the difference

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…

Technology may be key, but people make the difference

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…

Technology may be key, but people make the difference

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…

Grids, clouds, parallelism and paralysis

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…