MathWorks Links to Bloomberg, Live Data for Efficient Modeling
Bloomberg and The Math Works have joined forces to offer a streamlined product for developing financial and analytic models. The newly released Datafeed Toolbox combines Math Works’ core product, MATLAB development environment, with Bloomberg’s real-time financial data services for pricing, time series data, historical data and ticker symbols. The Toolbox can then be used for financial analysis and modeling in fixed income, portfolio management and risk management.
“Bloomberg provides an API so that MathWorks can make calls directly into the Bloomberg system for real-time data,” says Chris Garvin, senior developer for The Math Works. “The options are endless as to what you can do with the data once it’s in MATLAB.” The Toolbox provides basic modeling and analysis tools, but users generally create their own models using the MATLAB environment. Garvin says the advantage is that models can be built and programmed faster in MATLAB than in regular prototyping environments.
“In the MATLAB environment you can actually edit the code right in the MATLAB editor and run it immediately,” says Garvin. He adds that in a traditional development environment the user would have to write the code in C for example, have to compile that code and give it to users to make sure it works, then go back and write and compile again for any changes. “So it really shortens up the development process so you have to only write, test and distribute the models once,” explains Garvin.
The Toolbox can be utilized in a variety of areas including mutual fund companies, investment banks or anyone who performs analysis in the financial arena. Garvin describes a company using the Toolbox to find the best mutual fund portfolio. “Say you’re looking for the combination of funds with the lowest risk and the highest return. You take the historical data (from Bloomberg) from all of those funds and it will produce a chart with a curve of data points, or places where you get the low risk and high return and you can make a decision,” he says.
The Math Works is also planning to provide connectivity to other data providers and has agreements pending with Interactive Data Corporation and HyperFeed as well as two other providers that are still in the negotiation stage. The new versions are expected to be released sometime later this year, says Eugene McGoldrick, development manager for financial products at The Math Works. “We intend to roll out as many possible data feeds as quickly as we can,” he continues, adding that the Bloomberg connection was something that users had been asking for within The Math Works product.
“Basically we’re making financial engineers more efficient in that they don’t have to spend a lot of time porting their examples of models into their applications,” says McGoldrick. Since the Toolbox’s launch in January, there are around one hundred trial users for the software. The Toolbox is purchased directly from The Math Works and a Bloomberg feed must run on the user’s desktop.
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