Why monitor market data?

With digital innovation and sophisticated technologies such as cloud computing, big data and new media capabilities, the demand for increased data volumes and complexities has uplifted exponentially in the financial markets.

Capital markets trading organisations require real-time pricing data of financial instruments across all asset classes, as well as the expected statistics, ratios, historical returns, analyst views, bulletins and participant decisions for the purposes of research, analysis, trading and accounting.

And not only is the required quantity of data rising; so too is the desired quality.

In a sector continuously beset by ever more stringent regulations and ever more binding commercial contracts there is a growing trend towards tighter control and centralisation of data management strategies, including monitoring and analysing the flow of real-time and reference data traffic.

Market Data Quality

Speed, accuracy, reliability, credibility and efficiency are vital ingredients in a trading organisation’s provision and consumption of market data.

Data management, traffic and consumption monitoring are rapidly becoming key competences of capital markets businesses. Organisations need to be able to trust the data they are being served, and act quickly to rectify any issues threatening the integrity and security of the data they are relying on.

Due-diligence

Perhaps more in private equity classes than liquid markets, investors need to have confidence that the infrastructure, governance and administration of a trading organisation are well-managed. This includes the data management strategy being deployed.

More than ever it is important for organisations to be able to show what goes on under the bonnet of their trading infrastructure. Fund and stock performance metrics are no longer enough. Firms demand more and more trust-worthy and transparent data flows. It is vital to demonstrate the completeness, coherence, and currency of data within the trading mechanism in order to trust the advanced data visualisations and analytical results.

Operational efficiency

In the fast-moving capital markets sector manual data processing is no longer viable.

Organisations are up-levelling their skills, resources and infrastructure to support the increase in scale and agility required.

Given that a typical trade interval for stock is between 0.2 – 0.9 seconds, ultra-low-latency data automation achieving optimally priced trades in a well-managed, secure and compliant environment is a necessity. Keeping tabs on the speed, accuracy and integrity of the data in circulation is a vital role of data monitoring.

Commercial contracts

A further reason for firms to monitor market data consumption is to mitigate the imposition of contractual penalties by data vendors.

Market data decoding is a highly complex pursuit and vendors operate in an environment characterised by low levels of competition. As a result their contractual conditions for the gathering and distribution of data can be extremely detailed and binding.

For example vendor prices increase annually and punitively, on average between 2 – 10%.

In addition vendors impose their right to inspect how capital markets firms are utilising the data they provide. The audit process can result in hefty penalties.

With keen data management techniques organisations have greater visibility of their data consumption through their own infrastructural monitoring. This can highlight where any hidden gaps, inefficiencies and unfair consumption costs might be arising and give the firm more control over their contractual obligations.

The Role of Analytics as a Service

The old adage of rubbish in rubbish out is tricky to prove or disprove in trading environments where speed is of the essence.

Data monitoring needs to be an in-built mechanism, designed and deployed specifically for the volumes, quality, accuracy, speed, reliability and efficiency required by capital markets participants.

Taking control of analytics at an infrastructural level means that the platform upon which data is processed is subject to the same rigorous monitoring as the data itself, ensuring that the information flows are not introducing any risk or opportunity cost.

Analytics as a Service can help firms achieve trust in their data, operational efficiencies, as well as leveraging data vendors’ contractual conditions.

Beeks’ offering

For an accessible monthly subscription Beeks Analytics offers an innovative, secure, dedicated and cost-effective Analytics service that is tailor-made to the requirements of financial trading environments.

Beeks Analytics as a Service is an important element of cloud-based infrastructure service provision, helping organisations scale up rapidly and consolidate costs.

Scanning the complete data processing horizon from within one platform it guarantees a unified view, preventing costly duplications and silo working.

Partnered with Beeks Cloud infrastructure Beeks Analytics provides a level of performance insight that other hyperscale cloud providers would not be able to access.