New York interdealer broker GFI Group has released MarketHub, a Web-based application providing data, news, commentary and analytics that has been designed for cross-asset investment and trading.
MarketHub combines GFI's detailed credit default swaps data with exchange-traded equity and equity options data and news, commentary and analytics in a single Web-based product. The equity data comes from major exchanges worldwide, while Informa Global Markets and Dow Jones Newswires supply the commentary and news respectively.
Says Don Fewer, GFI's senior managing director, North America: "Banks are restructuring their operations, bringing together their debt and equity sales teams, realising that derivative instruments, such as credit default swaps, bridge the two areas... Investors can now take a cross-asset view where any instrument in a company's capital structure is used to express a view on the company's credit."
Michel Everaert, CIO, e-commerce, GFI, adds: "MarketHub recognises and supports this new cross-asset view of investment, providing equity, equity option and CDS data - along with analytics and relevant news and commentary. Users can then identify and analyse correlation and other relationships among financial instruments and markets leading to better investment and trading decisions."
UK banking group HSBC is also currently in the process of implementing a cross-asset trading platform. Kevin Bourne, global head of execution trading, HSBC, told delegates at the recent Finexpo conference about the bank's move to an enterprise-wide cross-asset class trading system.