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New Asset Classes Next on Instinet's Radar

Christopher Rogers

Christopher Rogers

Chief Technology Officer, Instinet

Instinet 3 Times Square New York, NY 10036

SIZE OF FIRM:
NA
PREVIOUS POSITIONS:
Most recently served as chief software architect, Instinet, responsible for work on Inet. Prior to joining Instinet, Rogers worked on the development of the MarketXT platform and other trading systems while at Tradescape Technologies.
EDUCATION:
B.S., Stevens Institute of Technology.
WHO WAS YOUR MENTOR?
I've had the good fortune of being mentored by a number of people with a huge amount of experience over the years. One of the first was Ben Sternlieb, my manager at my first job out of college. It was my first job working with real-time systems, and the knowledge and experience I gained from him was invaluable.
WHAT WORK EXPERIENCE HAD THE MOST LASTING IMPRESSION ON YOUR CAREER?
In the summer of 2003 I built the trading system for a midsize retail broker-dealer. I designed and built the entire system, which is still used today. I learned an incredible amount after dealing with almost all aspects of the system and gained tremendous confidence watching it grow.

Christopher Rogers

Chief Technology Officer, Instinet

Instinet 3 Times Square New York, NY 10036

VITALS:

IT Budget:

Instinet's financial budgets are not broken out separately.

Key Technology Management:

For competitive reasons we do not disclose the members of our technology team.

Size of Technology Team:

NA

Percent of IT Projects Outsourced:

All development is done internally.

Key Technology Partners:

For the most part Instinet uses commodity hardware and handles all software development internally.

Success Metrics:

We primarily measure success by our ability to provide the tools and technology that the business needs to be successful. Obviously there are other criteria, such as whether the project was delivered on time and on budget.

THE U.S. equity markets were revolutionized in the late '90s by electronic marketplaces. This trend is going global. We've seen systems like Chi-X enter the European markets and lower costs for investors and increase volumes. This process is now playing out in Canada. I expect Asia to be the next region, with Australia likely to be the market where the evolution starts.
TOP 3 CURRENT PROJECTS

Chi-X Build-Out

We continue to add functionality, such as smart order routing and support for new order types, to Chi-X. We're now in the process of bringing Chi-X to Australia.

Nomura-Instinet U.S. Integration

We've integrated Nomura's U.S. equity group into Instinet. In addition to adding 15 traders to our trading desks in New York and San Francisco, Nomura's U.S. algo trading platform was combined with Instinet's algorithms and smart routing capability. John Comerford (EVP & global head of trading research) and his team are now globalizing the algorithm platform, which we call the Instinet Execution Experts.

Keeping Up With Global Market Structure Evolution

Our clients are also now asking us to help them access the myriad new venues -- both dark and displayed -- that are popping up around the world. We are working to provide clients access to as many of the new platforms as possible, which is why our U.S. broker-dealer has formed partnerships with many of the other dark pool providers, and why Instinet Europe will link to the new European MTFs, including Turquoise.
2009 INITIATIVES

New Asset Classes

While Instinet can currently trade futures and options for U.S. clients, we intend to move into new asset classes by giving clients the ability to trade electronically. While our technology team will soon begin the work of connecting to the major derivatives venues and taking in new market data feeds and incorporating new symbology into our front ends, we anticipate this project stretching into next year given the scope. Additionally, Comerford's team is working to build new trading strategies for these new asset classes.

Newport Build-Out

Instinet Newport is a global EMS that clients use primarily to trade cash equity portfolios. Our intention is to enhance its functionality by adding multi-asset-class trading capabilities, thereby creating a full-fledged multi-asset, broker-neutral EMS.

Global Smart Order Routing

Given that the ECNs and dark pools are growing in Europe and Asia in parallel with the primary exchanges, smart routing in these markets is becoming much more important. While our smart router exists in these markets today, we are devoting much development effort to customizing ours for the evolving market structures.
Greg MacSweeney is editorial director of InformationWeek Financial Services, whose brands include Wall Street & Technology, Bank Systems & Technology, Advanced Trading, and Insurance & Technology. View Full Bio

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