Richard Messer, of event organizers, G-MAC, provides an overview of the highly anticipated and well-attended Tokyo conference.
On a beautiful October day and with a sense of imminent recovery in the market, more that 525 delegates showed how essential the electronic trading conversation has become by converging at the FIX Protocol Ltd (FPL) Japan Electronic Trading Conference on 6 October. In a day-long session, a series of expert speakers had the room buzzing with everything from FIXatdl and HFT, to SOR and PTS.
Opening the day-long forum, Matthew Simon, Senior Analyst TABB Group spoke of the Global Market Trends in Electronic Trading and Projections for Asia. He gave not only the macro picture, but also themes on the trading desk, market complexity and the future outlook. Simon went on to educate the audience on the opportunities that exist: from the need for the best technology to greater connectivity and lower commissions. As Simon pointed out, it’s not all a bed of roses, with many still facing the challenges of greater market complexity, increased competition and regulatory change. From his perspective best execution remains the highest priority for success in the next year.
Opening Keynote – Changing Global Stock Market Regulation and Japanese Issues
Changing Global Stock Market Regulations was addressed by Sadakazu Osaki, Head of Research, Center for Strategic Management & Innovation, Nomura Research Institute, Ltd. and visiting Professor, Graduate Schools for Law and Politics, University of Tokyo. To start, Mr. Osaki gave an overview on the world’s evolving securities trading systems. He explained that two key trends stand out, which are the acceleration of order processing and the diversification of trading systems. Mr. Osaki then touched on the changing structure of the U.S. stock market and moved into market fragmentation and diversification. Through his informative speech, Mr. Osaki gave a clearer understanding of the changes in Europe, the May 6th Flash Crash and what brought the wild fluctuations on, wrapping up his speech with an appeal to prevent a reoccurrence of this by using the ‘circuit breaker’ system.
Keynote -Tokyo Stock Exchange, Inc.
An excellent overview of the current situation of the Japanese securities market and the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s strategy was given by Atsushi Saito, President and CEO, Tokyo Stock Exchange Inc. He enlightened the audience on the circumstances surrounding the Japanese securities market, Tokyo Stock Exchange’s approach to new measures as well as potential future improvements. Mr. Saito shared valuable insight into the current stock prices, the Yen exchange rate, property prices and market capitalization, making comparisons between the Tokyo Stock Exchange and other Asian markets. He also spoke briefly on exchanges and the PTS business model. Not surprisingly, Mr. Saito was sure to mention how liquidity has increased on almost all stocks since the launch of the arrowhead system earlier this year, and he explained how migrating the Tdex + system next year will create a dramatic improvement in system performance along with the market maker scheme to enhance market liquidity.
According to Mr. Tsuyoshi Masuda, Deputy Director, Stock Market Department, TSE,“The speech on the latest trends in the capital market, and its future direction by key figures at the forefront of the field was intriguing. There is no doubt that the summit provided all participating market-related parties an opportunity to gain insight on the topic.” Metabit CEO, Daniel Burgin said “The Tokyo FPL Electronic Trading Conference has grown beyond FIX and emerged as the major financial industry event in Japan.”
In all, the event produced many profitable discussions and connections for attendees. For more information about the conference and the presentations visit:
http://www.fixprotocol.org/Japanconference2010
FPL Japan Electronic Trading Conference 2010
