Most Read
- Wall Street Eagerly Waiting for Carbon Credit Trading
- The Bigger Questions Post Madoff
- CME Revs Up for Surge in Carbon Credit Trading
- NYSE Divulges More Details About Its New Data Centers
- The Urgency and High Price of New Cost Basis Reporting Law
- Algo Traders Connect To Twitter
- Sentence Puts Madoff into 100-Year-Plus Group
- Goldman Seen Ahead of Morgan Stanley in Recovery
Iowa Grain Launches Internet-based Commodities Trading Front End
PRODUCT SPOTLIGHTBy Cristina McEachern
June 01, 2000
"Our original plan was to go out and buy someone else's order entry system to service our commodity customers," says Scott Eisner, executive vice president of Iowa Grain. "A lot of the older systems we looked at were designed for one purpose and then modified to do new things, but none really met our goals, so we decided to write our own." Eisner adds that after looking at many of the other systems available, they were able to design a system to fit the needs of Iowa Grain users.
The OAK system is comprised of three tiers, according to John Walls, chief information officer of Iowa Grain and primary architect of OAK, that can be mixed and matched as needed by the user. "The Internet-based front end is completely separate for inputting, checking and canceling orders," says Walls. "The middle tier is all of the business logic and risk analysis-such as can this guy trade, how much can he trade, what are his limits, who is allowed to see orders that he has placed and which commodities and contracts are available on which exchanges." Walls explains that the last tier is a queuing system that routes orders to different exchanges, with additional API's written for each. Currently the OAK system routes orders into TOPS, the Chicago Board of Trade and Chicago Mercantile Exchange's system, but Iowa Grain expects to add Eurex communication in the future.
"On the front end we wanted to make sure people don't make errors, we designed it really to protect people from themselves," notes Walls. "We said, what's been working down on the floor for all these years is the actual order ticket with the buy side and the sell side, so we're going with that model." Security features included in this model, says Walls, are "little things like when you choose a buy order, all of the text on the screen changes to blue. A sell order changes to red." As orders are put in, the background color of the screen changes with different quantity levels and tone warnings alert users to abnormal quantity levels. "So if you're typically a one lot or twenty lot trader, you'll see something different as you change quantities," adds Walls.
"We heard all the horror stories that other firms were going through-the guy who leaned on a key board and bought ten thousand shares of stock," says Walls, noting that the OAK system avoids that possibility by placing buttons for execution and confirmation on separate sides of the screen. The OAK system runs on Netscape Explorer 3.0 or higher and delivers orders to Electronic Clerk, CUBS devices in the pit, TOPS ticket printers and Globex for E-Mini's at the Chicago futures exchanges. According to Eisner OAK is also integrated with Iowa Grain's back office systems, for real-time position and account view.
As for future OAK system plans, Eisner says, "One of our intentions is looking for additional APIs so that we could form a loose strategic partnership with a global FCM or investment bank and private label a version for that purpose."
White Papers
Eight Step Guide to Building a World-Class Investment Strategy and Reporting Process
Extraordinary Accounting for Extraordinary Times
Related Articles
Related Blogs
Gregory MacSweeneyChina’s New GEB Exchange takes on Nasdaq to Nurture Tech
China's new Growth Enterprise Board (GEB) hopes to reward the country's tech stars the sam...
BIDS Chief Mahoney Says Fragmentation Distorts Volume and Volatility
Ex-Deutsche Bank Trader Launches New Social Networking Site for Retail Traders
OTC v Exchanges: a question of risk and regulations (video)
Larry Tabb Columns
Larry TabbNow Is the Time for Firms to Position Themselves for the End of the Economic Downturn
Downturns happen -- the industry will survive. But firms need to adjust to changing market...
Risk Management IT Comes to the Forefront in the Wake of Subprime Credit Crisis
In a Tumultuous Economy, Wall Street Must -- and Will -- Find a New Model
CHECK THIS OUTMake your organization more efficient and customer focused. Visit the Transaction Lifecycle Management Site today! Featured White Paper |
EventsLive Events:Advanced Trading's Buy-Side Trading Summit November 15 - 17, 2009 |
|
Marketplace |
Career CenterReady to take that job and shove it?
|
Most Recent Job Posts:
* Kforce seeking Collector in Getzville, NY
* KForce seeking Health Information Management Directors in San Francisco, CA * KForce seeking Health Information Management Directors in New York, NY * Apollo College seeking Program Director in Albuquerque, NM * Amalgamated Bank seeking Chief Information Officer in New York, NY For more tech jobs in the industry, visit Wall Street & Technology's Career Portal. |


























