To date, much of the low latency focus has been on equities. But now traders are demanding low-latency in equity options, futures and even foreign exchange as algorithms and electronic trading strategies proliferate in these asset classes.

Speaker:
Stephen Goldman, Director Enterprise Architecture, CME Group

If a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, is a trading system only as fast as its slowest router (or switch, or processor, or data feed)? The simple answer is, yes – any high-performance system that is designed for zero downtime and consistent low latency will be defined by its slowest single response, not by its top speed. So, as the industry moves to microsecond measurements of data latency, firms are looking at all points in the trading system as a way to reduce latency – servers, feeds, switches, routers, performance monitoring devices and more. Where is the next area or type of technology firms will focus on when it comes to reducing latency and how can firms revitalize data centers for low latency?

Moderator:
Penny Crosman, Executive Editor, Wall Street & Technology

Speakers:
Tony Bishop, Founder and CEO, Adaptivity
Saro Jahani, CIO, National Stock Exchange (NSX)
Michael Mollemans, Head of Electronic Execution Sales, Daiwa Securities America Inc

Electronic markets are using complex event processing (CEP) for a variety of tasks, including finding liquidity, price discovery and even fraud detection/anti-gaming. What does this mean for electronic markets and does it give these systems an advantage over rivals? What can competitors and participants learn from these examples?

Moderator:
Ivy Schmerken, Editor-at-Large, Wall Street & Technology

Speakers:
Artur Fischer, Joint CEO,  Equiduct Trading
Dmitri Galinov, Director and Head of Liquidity Strategy, Credit Suisse Advanced Execution Services (AES)
Kevin Lupowitz, Chief Information Officer, Liquidnet
Kevin McPartland, Senior Analyst, TABB Group

Soup to Nuts: Building an End-to-End Low Latency Environment
Gaining a millisecond here or a microsecond there can add up in the low latency arms race. Firms are now looking to squeeze speed out of all parts of their systems and data center architectures. Besides the high profile quad-core servers and fastest processors, there are numerous other parts of latency-sensitive systems that can be tweaked and accelerated.

Moderators:
Melanie Rodier, Associate Editor, Wall Street & Technology
Greg MacSweeney, Editor-in-Chief, Wall Street & Technology
Kerry Massaro, Editor-in-Chief, Advanced Trading

The Next Low-Latency Frontier
How are technologists and traders handling the demand for low latency trading technology in other asset classes, including equity options, futures and foreign exchange? Can low latency strategies/technology be used in other asset classes, or is completely new technology required?

Moderators:
Ivy Schmerken, Editor-at-Large, Wall Street & Technology
Penny Crosman, Executive Editor, Wall Street & Technology
Cristina McEachern, Executive Editor, Advanced Trading

Many firms have reduced latency by co-locating trading servers closer to trading venues. In fact, some exchanges, like NYSE Euronext, have had to expand co-location facilities in order to accommodate increasing demand from firms. And, believe it or not, according to NYSE Euronext CIO Steve Rubinow, even co-locating in the same data center may not be 'close' enough for some trading applications Firms sometimes inquire why competitors' technology is located a few feet closer to NYSE's servers inside the same data center!! What do firms really gain through co-location and how are exchanges preparing to accommodate even more firms' technology?

Moderator: Greg MacSweeney, Editor-in-Chief, Wall Street & Technology

Speakers:
Andrew F. Bach, Senior Vice President, Technology for NYSE Euronext
Thomas Chipppas, Head of Autobahn Equity North America, Deutsche Bank
Scott Ignall, Chief Technology Officer, Lightspeed Trading, LLC

Having a complete latency sensitive environment doesn’t just start with data feeds and and end with fast software. There are other tools and hardware that firms can use to accelerate communication for applications that demand the lowest possible latency. Hardware acceleration, including FPGAs, ticker plants and GPUs, can drastically speed up any calculation, while latency monitoring devices can detect logjams or other inconsistencies on the network before they become an actual problem for the business. Hear how today’s leading technologists are using all of the tricks in their toolbox to lower data latency to the most sensitive systems.

Moderator:
Kerry Massaro, Editor-in-Chief, Advanced Trading

Speakers:
Conor Allen, Vice President of Technology and Director of Research and Development, NYSE Technologies
Albert Doolittle, Vice President - IS, George Weiss Associates
Tsvi Gal, General Partner, Exigen Capital
Adam Honore, Senior Analyst, Aite Group

Analyzing Real-Time Information
Analyzing news and other unstructured market information, alongside traditional market data, in an automated trading model has been the talk of the Street for a while, but where are firms with this strategy? Is CEP and other real-time data analysis techniques helping Wall Street accomplish their goals with reliable results?

Moderators:
Rod Arbaugh, Chief Operating Officer, Exegy
Penny Crosman, Executive Editor, Wall Street & Technology
Sean Hallahan, Director of Sales, Volante Technologies, Inc.
Greg MacSweeney, Editor-in-Chief, Wall Street & Technology
Venkat Malla, Vice President, Product Management, Volante Technologies, Inc.
Cristina McEachern, Executive Editor, Advanced Trading
Scott Parsons, Chief Scientist and Architect, Exegy
Melanie Rodier, Associate Editor, Wall Street & Technology
Ivy Schmerken, Editor-at-Large, Wall Street & Technology

As firms finalize 2009 budgets, how will firms balance the opportunity cost of algorithmic trading with the hard technology costs associated with reducing latency? Leading firms no longer measure latency in milliseconds. Today, advanced trading systems are spending IT resources to reduce latency by microseconds. However, as the bar gets pushed lower in the latency race, costs escalate. To succeed, financial firms are leveraging traditional spending tactics along with identifying new technologies to increase their return on their low latency spending.

Moderator:
Melanie Rodier, Associate Editor, Wall Street & Technology

Speaker:
George Hessler, Executive Vice President, Lime Brokerage
Peter Lankford, Director, Securities Technology Analysis Center (STAC)