Join the Community

21,914
Expert opinions
43,954
Total members
408
New members (last 30 days)
174
New opinions (last 30 days)
28,652
Total comments

Latest expert opinions

clear
clear

8098 Results

Retired Member

Retired Member 

iPhone in a blender

If you've not heard of Blendtec, then be aware they manufacture kitchen blenders and have a truly inspired marketing team. This month on www.willitblend.com/ they are having a go at seeing if the iPhone will blend. Don't try this at home. iPhone in a blender - could be a song by The Smiths couldn't it?

Whatever...

Retired Member

Retired Member 

Phishing for dummies - installs in two seconds

The Register has an article on a plug and play phishing kit which automates the installation of a complete phishing site. Handily it's a single file (PHP script) which handles the whole tedious business of creating the relevant directories and installing the various files you would need to run a specific phishing site. In testing the RSA phishin...

/security

Retired Member

Retired Member 

What is the difference between ISO 20022 and ISO 15022 ?

That seems like a pretty fair question, since it’s hard to find someone who can give me a straight and understandable answer, and since some parties are claiming that “the industry is migrating to ISO 20022”. This feels like another one of those “Emperors’s New Clothes” situations – anybody who is anybody should know the answer, and if you don’t ...

Retired Member

Retired Member 

Voice trading and best execution

I remember seeing a study a few years back that said that buy-side firms didn’t always want immediate trading. One of the arguments was that if you’ve spent months researching and defining the investment strategy for a new fund, it would seem a bit irrational to then expect all of the constituents to be traded in milliseconds. The study graphed ...

Retired Member

Retired Member 

Service non compris

The more that you travel, the more you recognise how monopolies aren’t in the interest of customers. Anyone who flies between the UK, Germany, Scandinavia and France can probably tell you endless stories of delays, cancellations and poor customer service by the relevant national airlines, which have little or no competition and amazingly-high air...

Retired Member

Retired Member 

Expensive data?

Interesting rumbles in the market about the high cost of trading information. Some exchanges are claiming that MiFID will not only fragment liquidity but will also increase the cost of market data. Some investment firms are planning to take advantage of one of the “competition is good” principles of MiFID and intend to sell their own equities tr...

Retired Member

Retired Member 

How are your threat levels today?

Ok, not really a banking angle to this. Lewis Page was an armed forces bomb-disposal operator from 2001 to 2004. He supported the UK mainland police and he clearly knows his stuff concerning things that go bang. His take on the recent bombing attempts makes interesting reading after the over-hyped TERROR headlines of recent days. Read it here on ...

Whatever...

Retired Member

Retired Member 

When is a vertical silo not a vertical silo?

Answer: When it’s your vertical silo. It’s been interesting to watch the Silo Wars. Considering that most equities markets are predominantly domestic, it would generally sound like a good thing if the domestic exchange and domestic CSD converged to offer the most efficient possible service for domestic clearing and settlement. That was the appro...

Retired Member

Retired Member 

Smile and the poo-powered pyramid

Interesting to see banks jumping on the green bandwagon. Some have been displaying their green credentials for some years, such as Smile. Have a Google for Smile poo pyramid and you should find this page about Smile's HQ being powered entirely by digested sewage. Confusingly the power plant is in Bournemouth and their building is in Stockport...

/retail Going green

Retired Member

Retired Member 

Best Execution globally

As I’m sat in a Lufthansa plane writing this, I will try to explain this question very logically. The Germans have a useful word – “Konsequent” (pronounced “Konsekvent”). If you are being Konsequent, you are following processes through to their logical and inevitable conclusion. MiFID requires investment firms to provide their clients with “best ...

Now Hiring