Capital Markets IT Professionals in Strong Demand

            The opening line of this article is, “It is a good time to be an IT professional in the capital markets space.”  This quote generally sums up the rest of the article.  While technology seems to be removing bodies from the floor space of the stock markets and eliminating the need for brokers and physical presence, several other opportunities are opening up.  While Wall Street lost 3,900 jobs, 1,210 jobs also opened up in other arenas.  Employers on the “buys” side seek technologists who do not necessarily have financial expertise.  They can learn the trade, but the quantitative analysis skill is key for employers to work with.  Those on the “sell” side look for both a technological background and financial experience.  Another priority is those with experience in risk and risk management. 

          These priorities, as expressed in the article, seem to make sense and follow the basic trends of Wall Street.  With the rising popularity of cloud-based technology to house information, security has become a high concern for people in the financial services industry.  This is why there is a high priority on personnel who can handle risk management and work to provide the utmost security for customers and traders. 

          High frequency traders have become a sweeping phenomenon that Wall Street has to keep up with.  They need to put in the research and development to handle transaction speed that comes with high frequency trading.  They already have personnel that understand the financial aspect of the business.  In fact, that personnel is in excess; hence, the job loss in the capitals market.  However, they are in dire need for technologists who can learn financials through experience. 

          Financial specialization alone is not a highly sought after skill, but having an understanding of emerging technological trends and the future of the capitals markets is what is going to put new job-seekers ahead of the competition.  This idea keeps me fairly optimistic when entering the job market.  Young new professionals in an economy with very few jobs are in constant competition with one another.  Having two skills is something that we all will be able to bring to the table in an interview.  Professors have been telling us this for years.  This article proves that it is not a trend that is going away any time soon.  Employers need people who understand cyber security and the need for efficiency through computers.  Not only do they need people who know what is already know the capital market environment, but people who will be able to come up with new ideas and trends to keep up with and surpass the competition.  

http://wallstreetandtech.com/articles/232301549

Aimed at Banks, Volcker Rule Hits Unlikely Targets

        

In class we are beginning to discuss the bond markets and their importance to providing government and local municipalities with the ability to fund different projects. In close relation the Volcker Rule which looks to be implemented in July of this year plans to prevent banks from using their own funds in proprietary trading.  Right now the rule is one of the most discussed and aspects of the Dodd Frank financial act which is in response to the 2008 financial crisis. Banks have the ability to use their deposited funds to place bets, particularly because of government backing through deposit insurance.  The rule looks to prevent proprietary trading however; there is a gray area in regards to defining proprietary trading and market making. Market making is when banks hold bonds with the speculative purpose of later selling them to customers.  Because of deposit insurance banks have the ability to use their funds to place bets, particularly in the municipal bond market.

A large portion of discussion for the Volcker rule is its treatment of the bond market. The rule would exempt about 60% of bonds in regards to restrictions on banks proprietary trading. The real hit is taken by those organizations who are not considered city or suburban municipalities. These organizations could include public’s works organizations who work on joint projects with the city and suburban organizations. As an example, “the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority and the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission in neighboring Maryland are more than similar. They are linked through a joint $2 billion project to clean up nitrogen at the Blue Plains wastewater treatment plant that serves Washington, Virginia and Maryland. However, the city authority could end up paying more when it borrows for projects — including the nitrogen clean-up — than its suburban sister. Because the agencies have slightly different relationships with their local governments, they could end up on opposite sides of the Volcker Rule, Firestine said.  Relationships of public works organizations could be an interesting topic for the decisions to change the rule. Public works projects could lose their ability to fund their projects through issuing bonds. Many economists and financial analysts believe that the Volcker Rule would be detrimental to the financial recovery and the bond markets as whole.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/46480472

http://www.cnbc.com/id/46382795/?At_Volcker_Rule_Deadline_a_Strong_Pushback_From_Wall_St

The Rise of Cloud Computing on Wall Street

Wall Street is continuing to struggle with violate markets and uncertainties about where the markets are headed, along with diminishing profits. As a result of this, financial firms are looking for a way to reduce their capital expenditures, and are experimenting with cloud computing. They are targeting the costs of data centers and maintain serves, and looking to outsource pieces of their infrastructure to the cloud.

Some of the larger firms at the moment are already experimenting with cloud computing, however they are only testing it with non-production areas such as server provision and storage networks. However most of the firms are questioning the reliability of the security of the cloud, and refuse to let client information leave the relative safety of their own facilities, "We want to manage our own destiny," says Darren Tedesco, managing principal, innovation and strategy, at Commonwealth Financial, an independent broker-dealer that built an enterprise private cloud to host the firm's wealth management platform.

Last year, Wall Street faced sluggish profits and low trading volumes, and they are looking to convert large capital expenditures in operational expenditures. As a way to react to tighter IT budgets, it is expected for cloud computing to gain more momentum this year. One major advantage with cloud computing is the ability for firms to plan their capacity budget more effectively. In the past, firms would have to add capacity in the expectation of a sudden burst, however during the tough economic times; firms do not want to have to add more capacity unless they have to. With the adoption of the cloud firms will be “burst ready”, which is more critical now then in the past due to the volatility of the markets. Some firms already are migrating to applications managed in private clouds. These clouds offer robust security, without firms requiring to increase the number of heads in the IT department. This will also lower the cost and firms will not have to worry about doing a technology refresh.

The big question however is it the big financial firms on Wall Street embrace the public cloud offered by Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. Big companies such as Netflix are using Amazon’s public cloud to run their business, but as of right now financial firms are staying grounded at keep their data stored internally. The main concern with the public clouds and their infrastructures are set up to publically shared, that is why firms are using private cloud contractors because they have dedicated infrastructure, which includes dedicated storage. The article then goes on to talk about the advantages of private clouds, such as clients do not have to make massive up front investments in IT from a capital perspective. Many firms right now agree that at the moment public cloud computing does not much sense, put over the next decade that could change with the improvements in the public cloud.

After reading this article, I do agree with the financial firms, that at the moment cloud computing is not their best option. Many are using private clouds either from a third party or a cloud set up internally by the firm to cut costs. This allows the firms to monitor the security of the cloud and that gives them a sense of internal control, and will not have to worry about confidential information being leaked, or have trouble accessing their data. For example Amazon’s cloud recently crashed and companies were not able to access their information for hours, which can cost the company bundles of money. Now just imagine if a huge financial bank could not access their data for a couple of hours or a day, what would happen to our economy. However, once all of the bugs have been worked out and companies do not have to worry about information being leaked or shared, then it would make perfect sense for these firms to migrate some of their data over to the cloud. This does not mean that everything should be moved as that could be a huge liability for them, but to move over most and keep the high frequency data within the company could prove to be highly beneficial for the firm.

http://wallstreetandtech.com/articles/232500328?pgno=2

High-frequency trading raises concerns at SEC

Today a large portion of the trading on Wall Street in the equities market has little to do with analysts understanding the history or current stability of a given company, but more focuses on “the minuscule aberrational price move” of stocks. Computer-assisted traders detect these miniscule differences in prices with direct connections to the exchange allowing them to jump on the stock in a fraction of a second. These frequency traders can realize million dollar profits in very short periods of time. The SEC is questioning the safety and fairness of high frequency trading on the market. SEC Commission chairman, Mary Schapiro, hinted at new political aims in order to curb this sector of trading. One of the policies being debated regarding these high frequency traders is forcing these traders to pay for their canceled trades, which makes up more than nine-tenths of their orders. Another possible solution discussed was requiring these traders to maintain competitive buy and sell order positions in the market throughout the day. Shapiro admits that even though high frequency trading poses some threats to the economy it is also a source of liquidity for the market. I think the problem with high frequency trading is more an issue of the risk had poses to the market. There are concerns that high-speed trading sparked the May 6, 2010 “flash crash”, which caused the Dow Jones Industrial Average to plummet hundreds of points in a matter of minutes before recovering much of the lost ground. The stock market is already a risky and very volatile arena so by adding risky trading can be very detrimental to the economy as a whole. If high-frequency trading is going to be allowed there should be some regulations which inhibit it from creating such stress in the market from buying and selling securities in the fraction of a millisecond. I see the problem more as a risk problem then a fairness problem. The stock market is a competitive market and there always is going to be advancing technologies that will give investors a leg up, but the real problem with high frequency trading is its’ possible detrimental effects on the market in any given day. Investors have confidence in the market, but by adding risky factors that are not highly regulated they could potentially loose all of their investment. The SEC’s mission is to “maintain fair, orderly and efficient markets” and to “facilitate capital formation.” If investors and consumers fear that the market will crash, they will stop providing the capital that public companies need to expand their businesses, so it’s the SEC’s responsibility to regulate these areas of potential risk. Shapiro talks about creating a consolidated audit trail that can track all trades in the stock and options markets in order to gain a better understanding of high frequency trading. It is important for the SEC to conduct further investigations in order to implement policies that accurately reflect the potential risks of this type of trading. 


http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/high-frequency-trading-raises-concerns-at-sec/2012/02/22/gIQAfpLdTR_story.html

Cloud Computing Gains Popularity on Wall Street

Ivy Schmerken’s article on wallstreetandtech.com entitled, “The Rise of Cloud Computing on Wall Street” gives us a glimpse into the innovative ways in which Wall Street firms are looking to cut costs in these lackluster economic times. Many firms are recognizing that it is simply too expensive to maintain all data in building data centers and server farms. For this reason, cloud computing is becoming a viable alternative.

The issue is that while many large Wall Street firms are already storing some information in the cloud, of this data is top- many firms are still averse to outsourcing their sensitive and crucial client data. Security of this data is top-priority for Wall Street firms.

The article cites that because of reduced profits and lower trading volumes last year, “Wall Street firms are looking to convert large, up-front “cap-ex,” or capital expenditures, into more variable “op-ex,” or operational expenditures.” Moreover, while large Wall Street firms are looking to reduce costs, many mid-range firms are becoming interested in cloud comp ting’s “pay-for-what-you-eat” principle.

Schmerken’s article concludes with the open-ended question of whether or not Wall Street firms will venture from the private cloud into the public clouds of companies such as Google and Amazon. For now, these firms are remaining private.

Undoubtedly, cost cutting and client security are the top two priorities for Wall Street firms, both large and small. Clients need to feel that their assets are safe and secure with these firms, while at the same time these firms need to keep costs as low as possible in order to make a profit. Cloud computing appears to be a viable option for Wall Street firms to save money by eliminating these physical data buildings and centers. But the question becomes, how safe is the cloud? Just as clients need to feel safe with the Wall Street firms they choose to do business with, so must the Wall Street firms themselves when it comes to their data storage. At the moment, it seems that most firms have not evolved to the point where they would freely use cloud computing for the entirety of their data storage needs. However, it is looking more and more likely that these firms, both large and small, are considering moving in that direction.

I believe that making use of cloud computing is an advantageous activity to engage in for all Wall Street firms. For the bigger firms, physical data centers can be eliminated, or significantly reduced. For the smaller to mid-size firms with less data to store, it is a smart move because they can pay for what data they do use. As long as the safety and security of cloud computing can be verified and ensured, I see no reason why Wall Street should not phase out traditional data storage and migrate towards cloud computing. I think that in a few years, those firms who have not significantly moved towards cloud computing will be behind the firms that have.

http://www.wallstreetandtech.com/it-infrastructure/232500328

Wall Street Conquers Big Data on the Web

The internet is an ocean of information, and now certain companies are using it to sift through public information to gain insights that they can use to aid in trading, using a process known as sentiment analysis. Recorded Future is one such company based out of Cambridge, Massachusetts that scans over 300,000 web documents per hour from over 40,000 sources to create data points. These companies troll the internet for news dealing with “earnings call announcements, government filings, product releases, blogs and social media interactions -- to uncover patterns and relationships that help predict the future of the markets.” They then sell this data to other companies such as hedge funds and investment banks who try to capitalize in this data.

Sentiment analysis is certainly an interesting trading strategy. Basically, it is what it sounds like, measuring the positive or negative sentiment of a company/person/product with information from the internet based on data that is being collected; some sort of momentum score is also calculated for how much interest in the topic there is. We all know stock prices can change due to speculation, and using social media sites and blogs are great places to get reactions and thoughts on certain topics, possibly identifying trends before they are reflected in the market.

There is no fool-proof plan to beat the market, but some companies using these types of tools are proving successful. While some companies are using broad content on the web, others are focusing on single sources, such as a Derwent Capital which uses only data from Twitter. Others are using sentiment analysis in their algorithms for high-frequency trading.

The idea of sentiment analysis should not come as a surprise strategy for anyone in finance, as the sentiment of certain stocks could be very strongly correlated with stock price. The problem comes in how effectively companies can quantify text on the internet into actionable data. Just like with algorithms, if everyone uses the same formula then no one has an edge. This is why it is crucial for companies using these types of tools, such as Thomson Reuters, to have their own unique internet analytic services effective enough to compete with the best of them. This also seems to be a very time-sensitive tool, as much of the data found on the internet is old news and already reflected in the stock price. Nowadays there is almost an endless amount of data available, the problem is how to collect it and turn it into useful information. Whoever can master this process is sure to make a lot of money.

http://www.wallstreetandtech.com/data-management/232200678

TD AmeriTrade's New Mobile App Scans for Investment Opportunities

The online broker, TD AmeriTrade, released a new mobile app on February 21^st that will allow investors to use the camera in their phones to pull up stock quotes. How does it work you may ask? Snapstock allows investors to take a snapshot of a products bar code using the camera on their smart phone, in turn the user will receive a detailed report about the public company that produces the product. The application is available for both the iPhone and Android platforms.

The purpose of the tool is to allow consumers to explore investment opportunities with their smart phones during everyday shopping experiences. Snapstock will empower consumers to utilize the information they already know and consider investment opportunities in the company that produces the product of interest.

Corporate Insight senior analyst Nicole Sherrod points out that retail investors are the primary consumers of products produced by companies with a high likelihood of capital appreciation. This puts such consumers at the forefront of the retail marketplace. Consumers in a retail environment with analytical tools at their fingertips may be arguably better positioned to discover the next big retail trading opportunity than Wall Street itself. This new trading tool makes such an edge possible.

According to Sherrod research indicates that investors are more likely to open new transaction orders on their mobile devices than close them. This new tool will cause many investors to be on the lookout for new products and new investment opportunities no matter where they are. Snapstock exploits a mobile investors tendency to open new positions on their smart phones by giving them a sheik, fun, and easy to use tool available to them wherever they are.

While TD AmeriTrade hopes to empower consumers using Snapstock, I remain skeptical. It appears that the tool will be more likely to exploit the curious than aid the experienced. Active and educated investors are likely to already have the information that Snapstock provides. Those investors that do not have access to the barcode-based summaries are likely to have access elsewhere to more comprehensive reports than the application can provide. Further the intriguing nature of the application is likely to draw inexperienced investors who may believe that a popular product is all that determines the movement of a stock. Rather than capturing investment opportunities ahead of Wall Street at the “forefront of the retail marketplace” it is more likely that random price movement will be the result of naïve investors who base share value on product popularity rather that fundamentals.

However innovation is a gateway to ideas and designs. Often once one company has tackled a particular innovative step, its competitors are in hot pursuit with a bigger better idea that will trump its predecessor. Although I do not view Snapstock as a big hit [AMTD 0.14(0.79%)] , I believe any innovation in mobile financial services is a step in the right direction as our devices become more powerful and our capabilities broaden.

http://www.wallstreetandtech.com/trading-technology/232601245.
http://www.amtd.com/newsroom/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=650092.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=AMTD&ql=1.

User Privacy Battle Heats Up

 User Privacy Battle Heats Up

The battle between Microsoft, Google, Apple, and other tech giants once again is heating up, but not because of what they offer, but because of how they operate.  The latest battle revolves around user privacy and how each company attempts to protect user’s private information and how they simultaneously circumvent their competitors security settings to gather more information about what we, the users, do when we are online.  According to CNNMoney, just “last week, Google was caught circumventing Apple’s Safari browser privacy settings.”  When this became public information, Microsoft quickly chimed in claiming that Google had on multiple occasions done the same thing to Internet Explorer.

            Google then went on the defensive claiming that it is nearly impossible to comply with Microsoft’s privacy policy and still offer modern web functionality.  Google is not the only company that has been known to violate user’s privacy settings, Amazon, AOL, GoDaddy, Hulu, IMDB, and Facebook have also been guilty of violating user privacy settings.

            There are many reasons why user privacy is so important and why a handful of tech companies are willing to breach the security.  First, the data that these companies mine comes from what users do when they are on the Internet.  What websites they visit, where they shop online, what they read, and anything else you might do online.  This data is then used to target specific advertisements to what each user likes.  This is the main driver of revenue for websites, and the better they are at targeting specific ads for users, the more money they can make.  While this might not seem like a big deal, and almost helpful when users will only see advertisements that more than likely interest them it can lead to the fear of what else these companies might know about us that we don’t want them too. 

            A major issue revolving around user privacy is the ever-increasing use of the Internet for things like banking, trading, and shopping.  If these companies are saving information about us, what stops them from saving our bank account numbers, credit card numbers, passwords, phone numbers, and all other sorts of extremely private information? 

            The battle between Google, Microsoft, and other technology giants will continue to heat up until a universal agreement can be made on the issue of user privacy, and when it does it might make Facebook and the like change the way they provide advertisements and subsequently change their revenue stream.

BATS gets Approved

BATS Exchange was approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to implement its new CLP program. The CLP, Competitive Liquidity Provider program was designed for business listings in the U.S. The program lists businesses as a rewards-based program. This will allow more of an incentive for market makers to make “tighter quoted spreads.” As a result of all of this, there will be an increase in the liquidity of the exchange. Their program was focused more for small to mid-size cap companies because they lack liquidity as opposed to the larger cap companies. Because of this problem, the exchange has been struggling trying to find larger sized investors. Through the program, the market makers compete daily for a reward through posting competitive stocks. The rewards are based off of the quoted size of the National Best Bid/Offer in the securities that the makers are registered for. To become a CLP, you must register through BATS and it must be registered in a corporate listing. When it comes to an exchange traded product public offering, the more CLP’s for that listing, the better.

BATS is slowly making its way into the trading world. It’s not the most common exchange and not the most popular, but they putting their feet on the ground. With all of the new developments in technology and in the finance industry, BATS found a way to swoop in and break some ground. Because of all of the technological developments, one day the actual trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange might not be there. The trading floor is still used today, but isn’t as popular or used as much that it used to be. A lot of the work now is done electronically. It has been proven that going the electronic route is faster, easier, and can be cheaper. BATS is still a fairly new exchange but because of all of the development and information out there, eventually it could be as big as NASDAQ. The role of the exchanges will eventually change in the future and the NYSE will start to decrease as the electronic ones like BATS or NASDAQ will start to increase more and more.

The new Competitive Liquidity Provider program seems that it will work out better for the exchange and generate more trading. Anyone is bound to do more work or put in more effort if there’s an incentive or a reward involved. This program will increase the competition on the exchange. Competition is a good thing because it will generate more money and more trading. As long as people participate in the CLP program, I think that it will prove to be a great thing. The more people that post listings with new bid/offers, the more interested people will be in trading with them. With different CLP’s posting under one listing, the competition will rise and the spread between the bid and the offer will get smaller and smaller with each post. The program is designed to encourage the CLP’s to post by offering them rewards. But in reality, the more they post, the better off the traders are. This program will benefit the traders more than anyone else. The more of an increase in trading, the more of an increase in the exchange of money.

http://wallstreetandtech.com/exchanges/232600315

Google and London Stock Exchange Team Up

It was announced today, February 21^st, that the London Stock Exchange will begin to provide Google with real time stock quotes. This recent partnering is should bolster Google Finance’s offering to the World Wide Web. Google will also get real time market data from the Borsa Italiana.

This is a crucial move by Google because the LSE will now provide real time prices of the last traded stocks. Before, the stock prices were delayed fifteen minutes so this move will help increase reliability and usefulness to retail investors using the free program.

Google Finance will now be using information from the LSE, New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and exchanges in both China and India for market data. This move comes as the London Stock Exchange’s data business has recently soared in the last quarter, up over 24% in revenues. This is a crucial deal that will both Google and the LSE will benefit from substantially.

My view on this partnership is that this sound like a deal that everyone should have expected. In a recent world that seems to be dominated by Google, a partnership with one of the top three stock exchanges in the world does not come as the biggest surprise. Google Finance has become a main stream website for market data and has given top rival Yahoo Finance a run for its money. Now that Google Finance will be producing real time stock prices, I expect to the usage of the website to increase substantially.

Currently Google is trading around $614 a share on the NYSE and I expect an announcement like this will contribute to an upward trend in days to come. Ian Walker, news reporter for the Dow Jones Newswire, announced that the LSE shares went down 1% after the announcement was publicized. Today’s announcement created a large spike in investment into the Google stock (GOOG) in the early hours and eventually became more stable as the day went on. Although nothing too spectacular happened to the stock price today, a move like this that brings real time market data to Google Finance can only increase the value of Google in the long run. Investors should be highly receptive of this partnership because it is the first time Google will offer free real time data and it will allow the investors to track developments in European markets quicker and more efficiently.

http://wallstreetandtech.com/exchanges/232601157

The Financial Problem with Social Networking

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204792404577225124053638952.html?mod=WSJ_Tech_LEFTTopNews

          This article has to do with the newest and fastest growing social networking site, Pinterest.  The site is bringing something new to social networking in that it’s completely acceptable to share ideas and “pins” with complete strangers.  The site is based around sharing ideas such as crafts, recipes, even exercises. (http://thenextweb.com/twitter/2011/12/19/10-cool-pinterest-accounts-you-should-be-following/) However, newspapers and magazines are also trying to get back in the game using the social media site to share their articles and pictures, seeing it as an easier tool than the competition, namely: facebook and twitter (http://www.mediabistro.com/10000words/5-news-organizations-to-follow-on-pinterest_b10635). 

            Pinterest has an incredible growth rate (increasing ten-fold in six months), and an even bigger growth opportunity.  However, they are struggling with a very important aspect of being a successful company—earning money.  Pinterest is a freely accessible site (much like facebook and Twitter), however they currently have no means of ad revenue, and no usage fee.  One reason for this lack of advertising is the lack of a viable place for people to marketers to put their ads.  There is no easily recognizable place to insert ads.  It’s also not easy to target the users in a similar way to Facebook (based on “likes”) or Twitter (based on followers).  Because of the way Pinterest set up “boards” and “repining” ideas, there is currently no succinct method for outside companies to find target customers on Pinterest. 

            Now this is not to say that pinterest is not a profitable enterprise.  Many small businesses as well as the website Etsy (http://www.etsy.com/) have been able to profit using Pinterest’s set up.  However, despite the fact that users are able to buy and sell things using the Pinterest website, they are not built as a retailer such as Amazon or Ebay and therefore receive no commission for being the middleman.  Because their interface is not like the purchasing giants, they receive no compensation for bringing buyers and sellers together.

            What is more concerning than the lack of revenue currently is a lack of a plan to get revenue.  Or, more accurately, they have a number of ideas, but no real plans.  This is concerning for both users and potential investors because leadership does not seem very strong, and important decisions are being deferred and deferred until a later date.  The lack of foresight and future planning could be worrisome to potential advertisers, as is the open (and concerning) wording on Pinterest’s privacy policy.  Privacy issues have gotten both internet giants such as Google and Facebook into hot water in the past, and should be a concern for Pinterest to avoid. 

Pinterest is quickly becoming one of the top social media sites around, and what started as a niche craft website in the Midwest is gaining an international following, and it has the potential to be a giant.  However, we have seen most recently with Facebook’s IPO that investors are very much concerned with the ability of the company to capitalize on the traffic, it will lose ground and market share to competition that can figure out this most important element.  

Anonymous Backed Attacks Took Nasdaq Offline

The CBOE, Nasdaq and BATS stock exchanges all experienced site failures earlier this week following an attack by a hacktivist group.  The group claims to have ties to Anonymouse.  Customers were unable to access and use some of the exchanges websites in what is calls a "distributed denial of service" (DDoS) attack.  The attack was launched by the group claiming that it was in support of the "99% movement."  They called their attack "Operation Digital Tornado" and publicly taunted the exchanges the day before the attack was launched.
The exchanges issued statements reassuring customers that the website was not hacked and no customer information was ascertained by attackers.  They claimed the attack simply blocked its customers from accessing the website and in no way was any sensitive information received.  These are not the first attacks issued against stock exchanged by Anonymous.
According to the FBI the Nasdaq was easy picking for attackers, as a result of poor patching, firewall misconfiguration and outdated software.
I think that the Nasdaq being hacked is a travesty.  The Nasdaq is the second largest stock-exchange in the world by market capital.  The fact that it can be described as "easy pickings" is terrible and it speaks volumes for the current financial situation.  If the second largest exchange in the world is easily blocked forcing huge amounts of losses in trades, can you imagine what the impact would be if a hacktivist organization was able to hack in and completely shut down or even put down the website for more than just a short period of time.
If hacktivist organizations could attack an exchange that large, what is to stop organizations from attack smaller exchanges on a more extreme level.  The FBI, and Reuter, both reported the reasons that Anonymous was able to attack the site within hours of the attack.  Why are these organizations not monitoring their sites more effectively in order to prevent what could be a much more devastating attack.  Millions of trades are made daily on these exchanges, these exchanges should be protected.  Customers losing faith in the markets is the last thing the current economy needs.  These major exchanges need to protect themselves, their customers, and their offerings more diligently and efficiently.



Anonymous-Backed Attacks Took Nasdaq Website Offline

Accelerate IT Delivery, Or Die

Information Technology moves at an unbelievable place and speed. Today, cloud computing and mobile technology are changing the way enterprises and consumers live, work and play. It is amazing from a consumer standpoint how technology is changing, but from an enterprise standpoint it is somewhat alarming. Even with all the advances that are made on a daily basis enterprise-level IT continues to move at the same old turtle pace. The speed that technology changes and advances at makes it very difficult for Chief Information Offices to make long term IT plans. They are worried that once they actually change and fully integrate a new system that it will be outdated. And to be honest and fair, how can a Wall Street organization even envision what it will be running 24 months from now.

Many companies and organizations are now measuring enterprise IT with the same yardstick they use when buying a new smartphone it must be fast, innovative and useful. Long deployments are counterproductive unfortunately, enterprise technology and many enterprise software providers don't think in these terms. The problem is with many of the IT enterprise software are scheduled for 12 or 18 months with only gradual increases in functionality.

Meanwhile, large IT organizations continue to build 24- and 36-month business-technology road maps. Most enterprise-class firms and vendors continue to move at what seems like a snail's pace when it comes to IT. A company with 50,000 employees, tens of thousands of servers and multiple data centers can't plan month to month; IT organizations have to have some sort of plan in order to keep a company moving in the right direction. Enterprise technology is very complicated and complex thus integrating databases or rolling out new functionality across thousands of users can take an extremely long time to accomplish.

A prime example of technology constantly changing is the Apple iPad. The first version of Apple's iPad was released in April 2010, just 22 months ago. It's a pretty safe bet that any enterprise's technology road map developed in 2010 had absolutely no mention of tablet computing. But by early 2011, it was pretty clear that the iPad would bring major changes to businesses of all stripes. This is only one example of technology that is challenging status quo IT thinking. Cloud computing and the increasing number of quality SaaS offerings are two other examples of tech trends that are making big inroads into enterprise IT. During the past year, more companies are reporting that they are using, or considering using, these services. Cloud computing and SaaS applications can sometimes be rolled out in weeks or months, not years.

This is a much quicker timeframe, which is what is really appealing to most companies. Given the rapid evolution of technology, it would seem that long, multiyear implementation contracts aren't in the best interest of the business or its customers. That is one reason why newer technology companies are now offering software and services that can be implemented in weeks or months, not the traditional year long development cycles.

http://www.wallstreetandtech.com/it-infrastructure/232601056