Chris Skinner's blog Shaping the future of finance

I haven’t written much about Facebook lately because we’re all familiar with it now, although you may not be familiar with the fact that Wells Fargo have recently launched Stagecoach Island, their virtual world, in Facebook. But I’m more interested in the fact that David …

BATS recently extended their market data feeds into free real-time feeds for AOL and Yahoo! Finance users. In recognition of this move, NASDAQ OMX now delivers free real-time market data to Google, the Wall Street Journal, CNBC and Xignite. Real-time market data for free on …

BATS recently extended their market data feeds into free real-time feeds for AOL and Yahoo! Finance users. In recognition of this move, NASDAQ OMX now delivers free real-time market data to Google, the Wall Street Journal, CNBC and Xignite. Real-time market data for free on …

Is it just me, but the news today that eBay are trying to force all Australian users of its website to use PayPal seems to be a bit of a strange strategy.  Don’t they remember that PayPal succeeded because it was available across all sites …

Is it just me, but the news today that eBay are trying to force all Australian users of its website to use PayPal seems to be a bit of a strange strategy.  Don’t they remember that PayPal succeeded because it was available across all sites …

Is it just me, but the news today that eBay are trying to force all Australian users of its website to use PayPal seems to be a bit of a strange strategy.  Don’t they remember that PayPal succeeded because it was available across all sites …

As 2008 progresses, some organisations are realising the true meaning of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, MiFID. First you have the new upstarts: Chi-X, Turquoise, BATS Europe, Equiduct, NASDAQ OMX Europe and more circling to take advantage. All of these Multilateral Trading Facilities (MTFs) …

Absolutely nothing to do with banking but, as I think of this as a dialogue, I wanted to share a few stories with the Finanser community that made me smile this week, as well as made me proud to be in Europe. First was the …

We use the word crisis to mean danger and opportunity, and yesterday I blogged about what that means for local communities, who are using the current crisis to create local currencies. Today, it’s time to take a reality check regarding property.  For some, buying a …

We use the word crisis to mean danger and opportunity, and yesterday I blogged about what that means for local communities, who are using the current crisis to create local currencies. Today, it’s time to take a reality check regarding property.  For some, buying a …

We use the word crisis to mean danger and opportunity, and yesterday I blogged about what that means for local communities, who are using the current crisis to create local currencies. Today, it’s time to take a reality check regarding property.  For some, buying a …

In times of crisis, there is danger and opportunity, and this is no truer than when there is a recession, stagflation or war. In the 1920’s for example, during the runaway hyperinflationary times of the Weimar Republic, Germans started to create alternative economies using local …

Following on from previous entries, U2 are now the subject of a scandalous lack of privacy when their new album, No Line on the Horizon, was filched by a tourist in the South of France.    The tourist happened to be walking past Bono’s house …

Following on from previous entries, U2 are now the subject of a scandalous lack of privacy when their new album, No Line on the Horizon, was filched by a tourist in the South of France.    The tourist happened to be walking past Bono’s house …

Yesterday I asked the question, “Do we really need Fund Managers” and there were a couple of interesting comments which, rather than responding individually, I thought it worth writing a follow-on note. One was from Matthieu de Heering who says: “If you're trying to do as well as the …

Yesterday I asked the question, “Do we really need Fund Managers” and there were a couple of interesting comments which, rather than responding individually, I thought it worth writing a follow-on note. One was from Matthieu de Heering who says: “If you're trying to do as well as the …

As most of you know, I’m always messing about with internet applications for social networking, virtual worlds, future tech, gadgets, games and so on and so forth. There’s always a reason for this, as in it’s fun, but I like to think it’s all work-related …

According to the media in Britain this week, it’s all doom and gloom in the financial markets. Unemployment numbers up, inflation rising, house prices tanking, the euro sliding and oil and gold prices sunk.  The press are even forecasting that China and India’s economic boom …

According to the media in Britain this week, it’s all doom and gloom in the financial markets. Unemployment numbers up, inflation rising, house prices tanking, the euro sliding and oil and gold prices sunk.  The press are even forecasting that China and India’s economic boom …

According to the media in Britain this week, it’s all doom and gloom in the financial markets. Unemployment numbers up, inflation rising, house prices tanking, the euro sliding and oil and gold prices sunk.  The press are even forecasting that China and India’s economic boom …

Some brands are fairly ubiquitous. I have a Sony TV, Sony Mobile, Sony Laptop and Sony Games. My friend has a Virgin Mobile, Virgin Media with Virgin Broadband and Virgin Television, and flies with Virgin Atlantic. Another shops with Tesco online using Tesco broadband, they …

Some brands are fairly ubiquitous. I have a Sony TV, Sony Mobile, Sony Laptop and Sony Games. My friend has a Virgin Mobile, Virgin Media with Virgin Broadband and Virgin Television, and flies with Virgin Atlantic. Another shops with Tesco online using Tesco broadband, they …

Social networks have created new forms of money already and, as I spend more time playing with these virtual currencies, I can see how they may become the future of money, from a retail and consumer viewpoint anyway. For example, last November, I wrote about …

Social networks have created new forms of money already and, as I spend more time playing with these virtual currencies, I can see how they may become the future of money, from a retail and consumer viewpoint anyway. For example, last November, I wrote about …

Social networks have created new forms of money already and, as I spend more time playing with these virtual currencies, I can see how they may become the future of money, from a retail and consumer viewpoint anyway. For example, last November, I wrote about …

After posting the rumour that Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) were going to record the biggest losses in banking history earlier this week, they actually announced a pre-tax loss of £691m for the first half of this year.  That’s almost £1.1 billion less than the …

There was a nice little press release from research firm IMS this week headlined, “Smart Card Global Domination Nearing Completion”. The report is all about the fact that there will be over seven billion smart cards issued in 2009. The human race won’t reach seven …

Only because I feel badly about being so horrible about Microsoft and my rubbish PC, I thought I would be fair to them and let you know that Microsoft are putting significant marketing $’s into trying to turn around the negative views about Vista.  In …