How Trading Desks Are Becoming Tech Support

from the it's-all-algorithmic-now? dept

Last week, the big news on Wall Street was both Nasdaq and the NYSE trying to buy up ECNs -- recognizing that the future of trading is on those electronic networks. In a sidebar to an interesting Business Week article looking at what all of this means, it's noted that the role of the trader is is rapidly changing from trading to tech support. That is, people no longer want to just call up their broker and then have that broker call a trader. They want direct access to the electronic networks themselves. That means that the role of many banking firms has changed from providing human support to manage trades to building sophisticated software products to help their customers execute trades -- meaning that people are more interested in the algorithms than the traders. So, the real issue going forward in winning business is being able to create more sophisticated algorithms for people to use themselves, rather than trying to win people over with personal support.

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