Caplin Cable Spring 2010
News, views and opinions on real-time data and single-dealer platforms in the capital markets
Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank offers live Fixed Income trading with Caplin Trader and Caplin Xaqua
On May 25th we were pleased to announce that Crédit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank (Crédit Agricole CIB) has gone live with its new online single-dealer portal for Fixed Income and Structured Notes trading. This was developed using Caplin Xaqua and Caplin Trader.
This announcement received substantial coverage in the specialist online press, but you may have missed it. The release itself is here: Crédit Agricole CIB press release (PDF 44kB), and the summary of coverage so far (some of which requires registration or subscription) is here: Crédit Agricole CIB press coverage
Caplin white paper: Platform Wars - What's happening to the Web?
The Web is replacing the PC as the place where we communicate, work and play. 
With Microsoft's previously impregnable empire under threat, an epic battle is underway over who will control this new platform. Managers, particularly those responsible for or deploying single-dealer platforms using Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) running in browsers, need to understand the dynamics of this battle if they are to make the right choices when developing web-based business applications.
The first of two related whitepapers, Caplin's new document covers the history of the Web as a platform. It identifies the key players, discusses the strategic as well as the technical issues involved and identifies the factors to be considered in making a choice of technology.
The second whitepaper of the series, to be published shortly, will be entitled, "Which Web?" It will focus on the pros and cons of each RIA technology and the situations and circumstances where one may be more suitable than another. Read More
SerenDiPity: blog/news feed on the business aspects of single-dealer platforms
The technology involved in building single-dealer platforms (SDPs) is often discussed, and there are many forums for doing this across the web, not least of which is our own tech blog, Platformability. But we wanted a venue that we, and others, could use to discuss the business issues surrounding SDPs. Unfortunately so often (as on Finextra for example) SDPs simply get lumped in with all other aspects of trading and trading room technology.
Unable to find a suitable venue, we decided to set one up ourselves. It's called SerenDiPity, and it's available as a resource for anyone interested in the business aspects, implications and influences surrounding SDPs. Of course we post our own opinions there, but we also post anything else we find around the web that's useful and relevant. Read more.
Silverlight 4: is it what banks want?
Where is Microsoft going with Silverlight? There is no ambiguity in Microsoft's intentions to contend with Ajax and Adobe Flash in the Rich Internet Application (RIA space); the recent release of Silverlight 4 includes me-too features such as enhanced video streaming capabilities aimed at Internet broadcasters, better device handling including web-cam, microphone, mouse wheel and right-click support, together with enhanced animation capabilities such as hardware accelerated transforms and rotations.
Yet the capital markets want more than a Microsoft version of Flash, and fulfilling their additional business requirements is where Silverlight 4 looks to shine...
Mike Poston, Caplin's Technical Sales Consultant assesses Microsoft's recent release of Silverlight 4 and considers how useful Silverlight now is as an RIA technology in which to develop SDPs.
Read the full article on Silverlight 4 as an SDP RIA technology.