Palantir Technology Takes on Rogue Traders
June 9, 2016
Rogue trading has always been a problem for the stock market, but the more technology advances the easier it becomes for rogue traders to take advantage. The good news is that security and compliance officers can use the same tools that rogue traders use in their schemes to stop them. CNBC showed the story; “Tech Takes On Rogue Traders” that explains how technology is being used to stop the bad guys. The report is described as:
“Colleen Graham, Chief Supervisory Officer at Signac, discusses Palantir and Credit Suisse’s joint technology initiative to crack down on rogue traders.”
Palantir Technology is being used along with Credit Suisse to monitor trader behavior data trade data, risk data, and market data to monitor how a trader changes over time. They compare individual trader to others invested in similar stocks. Using a combination of all these data fields, unusual behavior is monitored to prevent rogue trading.
The biggest loss on Wall Street is rogue trading. The data Signac gathers helps figure out how rogue trading happens and what causes it. By using analytical software, compliance officers are able to learn from past crimes and teach the software to recognize similar patterns. In turn, this allows them to prevent future crimes. While some false positives are generated, all of the captured data is public. Supervisors and other people actually are supposed to read this data; Signac just does so at a more in-depth level.
Catching rogue traders helps keep Wall Street running smoother and even puts the stockbrokers and other financial force back to work.
Palantir scored a new deal from this venture. The same technology used to monitor the Dark Web is used to capture rogue traders.
Whitney Grace, June 9, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
CFO Ruth Porat Leads Transparency Directive at Alphabet Google
October 12, 2015
The article titled Google Opens Up to Wall Street on The Wall Street Journal describes the transparency efforts ramping up at Google under the direction of new CFO Ruth Porat. It seems that as risks go up for the “Alphabet” Google thing, the company wants to be more transparent to the Wall Street crowd.
“The new approach has contributed to recent gains in Google shares, Mr. Mahaney said. Google shares are up about 15% in the past three months, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index has dropped about 8%. Google still doesn’t offer revenue or earnings forecasts, as many companies do. But Ms. Porat is trying to provide insight to help investors better understand how Google runs its business and help analysts more easily build financial models. A Google spokesman declined to comment.”
The most impactful initiative the article discusses is “Office Hours,” or analyst and investor briefings wherein Google speaks to public information that will effect expenses, such as the seasonal hiring of recent college graduates. Investor and analyst briefings of this sort are common at most companies, although they skirt securities regulations. As long as Google only discusses already publicly disclosed information in the sessions they are safe.
Chelsea Kerwin, October 12, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Wall Street Sees Challengers to the Bloomberg Terminal
September 25, 2015
Few industries rely on timely data quite like Wall Street, and the trading platform that has long been the industry favorite has been enjoying that revenue stream for almost 30 years. However, the New York Times now reports that “The Bloomberg Terminal, a Wall Street Fixture, Faces Upstarts.” Writer Nathaniel Popper notes that funds from the popular terminal enable the company’s news endeavors: BusinessWeek and the Bloomberg Business website, it seems, “cost more than they earn.” Will all that fall away if the Bloomberg terminal loses ground to the competition?
The article relates:
“Bloomberg has sustained several challenges to its dominant market position, fending off smaller competitors hoping to bite off a corner of its business. And it has the cash reservoirs to wage a vigorous defense this time around. But Bloomberg’s own history shows that it is not easy to maintain a profitable market position like the one it has held for more than two decades. Bloomberg rose to prominence in the 1990s by nimbly replacing earlier Wall Street data companies — like Quotron and Telerate — that failed to change quickly enough to protect their longtime market dominance. Morgan Downey, the former Bloomberg executive who is building Money.Net, said he decided to leave Bloomberg in late 2013 and create a low-cost challenger after seeing how slowly Bloomberg was changing and how many of the company’s clients wanted a cheaper alternative.”
Cheaper, it seems, is the key word here. Firms are under pressure to cut costs amid new regulations and shifting markets; they are now eyeing lower-cost alternatives to the Bloomberg terminals, which run about $25,000 per year each. See the article for more on the competition, like Money.Net and chat provider Symphony.
What of Thomson Reuters? According to the article, that company’s terminal sales in the U.S. continue to disappoint, though they have done well in certain niche markets. Their terminals, we’re told, are “not notably cheaper than Bloomberg’s.” Will the upstarts topple both venerable firms?
Popper reports stockbrokers have been complaining about Bloomberg’s terminal pricing and lack of innovative product design. Then again, retired New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg is said to be taking a more active role in the company. Perhaps with his efforts, it will manage to fend off the challengers. For now.
Cynthia Murrell, September 25, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
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