Minimising the Impact of the Inevitable Regulatory Changes

This interactive session will focus on the European Commission’s MiFID review proposals and the issues discussed will be chosen by the audience. You will have the opportunity to hear what those involved in the regulatory debate really think, as well as their ideas for alternative solutions.

You will then be invited to vote on whether you agree with the ideas discussed by our panellists:

• Will the new OTF regime benefit the market?
• Will pre-trade transparency proposals reassure investors?
• Will regulatory zeal threaten liquidity and innovation?

Developing a More Transparent Approach for Latency Measurement
Strategic & Technical Committee

In today’s latency sensitive environment, promoting strong latency results is common practice for many firms. However, it is questionable the degree that latency measurements are comparable, when no standard approaches exist.

To increase transparency in latency measurement, FPL will be launching the industry’s first free, open and non-proprietary latency measurement standard. It will consistently measure the latency of a trade as it travels through systems at exchanges, trading venues and investment banks, and issue industry guidelines to encourage common latency reporting, enabling like-for-like comparisons to be achieved. 

Attend this session to learn more about this important development.

FPL 2012 Technology Roadmap

This session will provide attendees with an update on how the FIX family of standards have developed over the past 12 months, and look to the year ahead, informing delegates of the key initiatives in the pipeline.

Electronic Trading in Volatile Markets

This session will explore how firms have adapted the use of algos in volatile markets, the challenges firms face under such conditions and what is the optimal strategy? It will cover how firms will need to adapt models to deal with market volatility in order to maintain performance and discuss how you may go about educating your clients.

This session will also provide attendees with a review of market micro structure changes and look at whether we have seen an increase or decrease in order size as a result.

FIX vs. Proprietary Protocols: The New Fragmentation

At the same time that the FIX Protocol continues to achieve global traction, there has also been resurgence in proprietary protocols promoted by exchanges and execution venues. This panel seeks to consider whether those proprietary protocols are filling a gap left by FIX. The reasons behind this resurgence of proprietary protocols, and what the FIX Protocol should do to remain relevant.

The session will also explore what role proprietary protocols play and if they are better suited for the niche requirements of the trading community?

FIX Inter-Party Latency: From Concept to Implementation

For the first time with FIX Inter-Party Latency (FIXipl), the trading community will have a common bench-mark for the measurement of latency. Currently in its final stages of being standardised, It will provide a mechanism for interoperability between latency measurement solutions, delivering significant industry-wide benefits.
Attendees at this session will benefit from technical guidance and implementation advice delivered by the experts responsible for its development and hear where and how you will be using this.

Piecing Together the European Consolidated Tape

This session will review the latest developments on preparing for the creation of a pan-European consolidated tape. It will cover the mechanics of how the tape might work, how data is being standardised across markets, and how it will be represented to end users.

The session will also explore the expected benefits of the tape and question whether it is likely to actually deliver on expectations?

Meeting the Challenges of Risk Management in the Pre-Trade Environment

In a world of heightened focus on risk regulations, this session will seek to provide delegates with answers to the following questions:

• What are the regulators trying to achieve - what is their intent?
• Will it achieve what it is setting out to do?
• What are the likely timescales?
• What is the potential for unintended consequences?
• How is it possible to provide total risk management in a global, fragmented market place?
• What is the latest position of ESMA?

This session will focus on existing best practices in pre-trade checks and post trade surveillance and how these best practices may need to change and adapt under an increasingly invasive rules setting environment.

FIX 5.0 SP3: Supporting the Latest Requirements of the Global Trading Community

As the business needs of the global trading community have evolved over the past 18 months, FPL has developed additional FIX functionality to support emerging requirements.  This functionality has been released in the form of extension packs and the latest version of the FIX Protocol, FIX5.0 SP3 due for release in late 2012, will collate all of the new functionality developed. Join this session to learn about the potential that FIX5.0 SP3 could present to your firm.

Additionally, this session will also encourage debate about the current form of the FIX specification, whether it is effective as it stands or if there are ways in which it could be improved?

OTC Trading: Preparing for Greater Transparency

This session will present the key changes occurring in the OTC derivatives markets as a result of Dodd-Frank and EMIR, with a focus on the impact of pre-trade transparency requirements. Topics covered will include:

• The impact on market architecture (CCPs, SDRs, SEFs and OTFs)
• The impact on market structure and business processes (all-to-all trading venues vs inter-dealer vs dealer-to-client)
• Key considerations for the sell-side and buy-side (business and technology)
• The role of standardisation initiatives (LEI, UPI, USI, standardised connectivity)
• And remaining areas of uncertainty

Relevant Tools of the Trade

This session will focus on current and future trends amongst OMSs and EMSs to discover what's in store for the future of such systems. The discussion will also assess whether there still is a distinction between an OMS and an EMS and if the convergence between these two systems is now completed.

Support Provided by FIX Tools

As FPL continues to support firms implementing the FIX Protocol, the organisation has developed a set of tools to help support execution.

The Changing Landscape of Retail Trading in Europe

This session will look at a number of retail customers and will examine what MiFID II has brought to the retail investor and the potential implications of best execution. It will explore exactly how big the retail markets are and look at the interaction between institutional and retail flows.
Finally, it will go on to examine whether retail best execution exists and if not, how this can be improved. It will also review what the best model for European retail trading could be.
This session will explore subjects such as:

• How engaged is the retail investor?
• Are they aware of MiFID II?

Is the market infrastructure delivering the expected benefits to allow the equities trading community to invest in confidence?

This session will focus on the clearing infrastructure and will try to answer the question as to whether the introduction of interoperability has yet delivered cost savings and changed brokers’ behaviour? It will examine the implications for equity market participants:

• Are brokers analysing post-trade costs and are their decisions mainly based on costs or is risk also being taken into consideration?
• Are trading venues reappraising their approach and their post-trade strategies in light of the introduction of interoperability?
• Is the buy-side benefiting from enough transparency to be able to analyse and break down post-trade costs?

On Boarding Best Practices

Now that trading is accessible for local and international market participant’s alike, providing global access to trading venues is and will continue to be a key driver of growth for many market participants.

On boarding is one of the final stages of the go-live process, yet currently on boarding processes vary among counterparties as well as among asset classes, which can lead to inefficiencies. Process improvements have been known to significantly streamline client on boarding, helping to add trading access for both local and international market participants.

This panel discussion will explore client onboarding best practices for exchanges, sell and buy sides.

A Day in the Life of an Emerging Market Trader

This session will explore the issues and challenges that firms face as they seek to trade in emerging markets and the beneficial impact that increased use of the electronic trading practices and the FIX Protocol could present to help firms keen to overcome these difficulties.

Topics to be discussed will include the costs of trading and how increased use of technology (especially FIX) has the potential to generate greater market efficiencies and significant cost savings for the user community.  It will also explore electronic order routing options available locally and the steps that emerging markets could take to increase inbound electronic order flow.
Furthermore, the session will discuss new instruments for trading and reporting available over FIX within the equities, fixed income and derivative markets.

Foresight project

The Foresight project, led by the Government Office for Science, explores how computer generated trading in financial markets might evolve in the next ten years or more, and how this will affect:

• Financial stability
• The integrity of financial markets including price information and liquidity
• Competition
• Market efficiency for allocating capital
• Transaction costs on access to finance
• The future role and location of capital markets

The project, involving leading experts in this field, will also assess options for addressing the key challenges ahead, and consider how the opportunities offered by advancements in computer technologies could be capitalised upon by the financial sector.
This session will take a closer look at how the project is developing and how your firm can benefit from the research being carried out.

Trading Fixed Income OTC Products Using FIX

In 2011, the FPL Global Fixed Income Committee (GFIC) launched an initiative to create best practices for trading fixed income OTC derivatives using the FIX Protocol.  This was supported by many of the world’s largest broker-dealers and trading venues.

This session is aimed at architects, analysts and developers who are involved with designing or implementing FIX solutions for trading fixed income OTC products and will explore, the key best practice recommendations produced by the group as well as the resulting enhancements to the FIX specification and how the FIX Protocol is used for trading swaps.

The session will also discuss the latest GFIC developments in this space, including plans for the rest of 2012 .Attendees will also have the opportunity to receive technical guidance from the experts responsible for the development of the best practices.

Pensions: The Ultimate Client

Based on the research, knowledge and experience of a leading consultant to our ultimate clients, the pension funds, this session will explore the key trends that have emerged following the events of 2010 and 2011 within the pension fund space including the increased scrutiny of non-investment issues. These trends are likely to generate a range of issues, challenges and opportunities that will drive decision making in 2012.

Looking further ahead, as these and other trends are expected to evolve over the next 3-5 years, this session will look at the implications for the investment management community from a structural and operational perspective and help determine how you allocate your assets.

Attend this session to gain a stronger understanding of how these developments could impact your future trading desk and operational departments.

Updates on Output from the FIX Protocol EMEA Business Practices subcommittee

As market structures evolve and trading strategies become more sophisticated, both the sell side and buy side are finding themselves having to manage new types of data and business processes. This session explain thes output from various FPL groups working on business practice initiatives, including execution venue reporting, risk guidelines, the usage of algorithms and FIXatdl. Attendees will learn the latest best practices and standards, and debate what needs to be covered in 2012.

ndustry Standards: Ask the Experts

Within the financial services industry, there are multiple messaging standards being used, and the purpose of the Standards Coordination Group has been to create an approach that leverages and includes these standards into a broader framework without reinventing and creating redundant messages that increase implementation costs and cause confusion for the industry.