TY - JOUR T1 - The Genesis of the Multi-Asset Trading Platform JF - Trading SP - 20 LP - 30 VL - 2008 IS - 1 AU - Tony Huck Y1 - 2008/09/21 UR - http://guides.pm-research.com/content/2008/1/20.abstract N2 - As Charles Darwin stated, β€œIt is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” Just as nature demands continuous adaptation, and industrial societies gradually became defined by their mastery of mechanical technologies, institutional investing and trading increasingly is defined by the seamless adaptation of computer and network technologies. Where we are in this process is different for the asset classes of equities, exchange-traded derivatives, and foreign exchange (FX). Despite the differences, numerous parallels between each market's evolutionary path and current state of development can be drawn. Technology, of course, is the common thread. Just as nature exhibits convergent evolution where form and structure adapt to function constrained by environmental conditions, so, too, does market technology. The lines between asset classes are increasingly blurring. As such, systems must provide for consolidated, enterprise-level trading, risk, and compliance capabilities. How much of the credit crunch of 2007–2008 can be traced back to the tactical inability of senior management to view their firm's integrated risk profile? Quite a bit, as evidenced by the number of global banks that engaged in repeated write-downs of assets after they thought they had done so fully and finally. As these recent events demonstrate, the adoption of an entirely new type of multi-asset trading paradigm is not an option for institutional investors; it is a necessity. ER -