A New Match

So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye. My tenure as editor of Waters magazine ends with this issue, and it has flown by too quickly. Relishing the present is not so easy on a monthly publication where talk is already turning to fall deadlines and summer has just hit in a dead heat. It's like living in fast forward all the time, which sums up most of the industry, too.

Of course, lines are blurring once again, so it's not really a surprise that a dark pool for real-time information has sprung up in a new offering, InfoEx. This comes from two guys who know smart routers and crossing engines-Joe Cammarata, co-founder of Sonic Trading, later bought by BNY ConvergEx; and Dean Stamos, who started Nyfix Millennium, the first listed alternative trading system (ATS), in 1998. Eliminating inefficiencies in the market was their mantra then, but now "everybody has algos, a crossing engine, an ECN, an ATS. Everybody's got an exchange," says Stamos "One of the inefficiencies in the market now is this deluge of information, most of it irrelevant."

InfoEx is a black box for information. Content providers, like sell-side and independent researchers, populate the box with symbol feeds. Buy-side traders and portfolio managers are the clients. When they enter an order into their order management system (OMS), the OMS automatically sends a drop copy of the order to InfoEx, which immediately scans its databases to find relevant information about that stock and sends an alert to the client. That appears as an instant message or e-mail alert hyperlink to the content. No extra installed software or desktop real estate required.

"Nobody currently links real-time trading activity and availability of research among different firms," says Cammarata. "For instance, if you send an order to Morgan Stanley, you wouldn't know that Credit Suisse might have something important on that particular stock: research, an IPO or downgrade." Firms, which pay a nominal monthly seat fee, can get an edge by receiving relevant information in real time, he adds.

"We are a hyperlink provider, not a content storage provider," says Stamos. "Users do not have to search for information they need; the information they need finds them." The content providers can reach a very targeted audience, and pay only when their info is matched to a buy-side user, much like paying a click fee to advertise on Google. And they aren't allowed to see who is consuming their data for 90 days to prevent information leakage. "It's a blind box like Nyfix Millennium," says Stamos.

Clients also get a morning e-mail alert with news personalized to their profile. What a client clicks on and doesn't click on provides further filters. "We put information in front of you; if you don't like it, we clean it off," says Cammarata. Road shows and IPOs related to a particular sector and conferences in a client's geography may be included, and the client can augment his or her profile by requesting specific information be sent. Video segments could also be edited together to produce an "Indicast" for an individual instead of a broadcast, says Stamos. "It's custom news with a matching engine," they say.

I will really miss this bunch, though I'm not straying too far afield. Adieu.

Editor, Donna Miskin