Here’s what we and all of Wall Street can say thanks for:
• The economy did not melt down. Two years ago today, incoming president Barack Obama was weighing a $700 billion economic stimulus plan, on top of the $700 billion that went to bail out Wall Street investment and insurance firms. Here’s a
• George Bush was still president. You can argue to this day whether to be thankful he was chief executive at the time or be thankful that he was the outgoing chief executive at the time. But here are some
• Markets did not melt down. For much of this year, it looked like the machinery of Wall Street was tied together with a couple strings and tin cans. The “
• Restraint is in. Traders, hedge fund managers and high-profile executives are not going to rush back to their wanton ways of
• Microsecond measurements also are in. In April, Algo Technologies introduced a matching engine for execution venues with a mean roundtrip latency of
Why be thankful for this? Pretty soon, the huzzuh over high-speed trading will be gone, because that’s the way all trades should operate. Instant execution should the expectation. So should instant clearing and settlement.
In any case, once all systems are instant all the time, everyday investors go back to doing what they do best, investing for the long-term. Which does not rely on microsecond perturbations of price.
• Regulators’ new-found religion: technology. Spending on technology in capital markets will pick up again in 2011, according to research firms such as Ovum and Gartner. A big impetus?
Give thanks.
And be appreciative that we have something to be thankful for, after all, given the wringer the world has been put through.