https://www.fintechfutures.com/wp-content/themes/fintech_child/assets/images/logo/fintech-logo.png
  • Home
  • COVID-19
  • News
  • Intelligence
    • Back
    • Analysis
    • Interviews
    • Features
    • White Papers
    • Case Studies
    • Surveys, Reports & Infographics
    • Webinars
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • Library
    • Techwire
    • Browse
  • Publications
    • Back
    • Banking Technology Magazine
    • Supplements
    • Daily News at Sibos
    • Subscribe to Magazine
  • Content Hub
    • Back
    • COVID-19: industry impact & response
    • Challenger Banks Guide
    • Food For Thought
    • I’m Just Saying
    • Through a Gen Z Lens
    • Ask The Expert
  • Videos
  • WTF? Podcast
  • Awards
    • Back
    • Banking Technology Awards
    • PayTech Awards
  • Advertise
  • Jobs
  • More
    • Back
    • About us
    • Contact us
    • Advertising / Media Kit
    • Banking Technology Magazine Calendar
    • Reports Calendar
    • FinTech Futures Newsletter
    • Events
  • FinTech
  • BankingTech
  • PayTech
  • RegTech
  • WealthTech
  • LendTech
  • InsurTech
  • US Edition
    • Intl. Edition
Banking Technology
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • COVID-19
  • News
  • Intelligence
    • Back
    • Analysis
    • Interviews
    • Features
    • White Papers
    • Case Studies
    • Surveys, Reports & Infographics
    • Webinars
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • Library
    • Techwire
    • Browse
  • Publications
    • Back
    • Banking Technology Magazine
    • Supplements
    • Daily News at Sibos
    • Subscribe to Magazine
  • Content Hub
    • Back
    • COVID-19: industry impact & response
    • Challenger Banks Guide
    • Food For Thought
    • I’m Just Saying
    • Through a Gen Z Lens
    • Ask The Expert
  • Videos
  • WTF? Podcast
  • Awards
    • Back
    • Banking Technology Awards
    • PayTech Awards
  • Advertise
  • Jobs
  • More
    • Back
    • About us
    • Contact us
    • Advertising / Media Kit
    • Banking Technology Magazine Calendar
    • Reports Calendar
    • FinTech Futures Newsletter
    • Events
  • US Edition
    • Intl. Edition
  • newsletter
  • FinTech
  • BankingTech
  • PayTech
  • RegTech
  • WealthTech
  • LendTech
  • InsurTech

bankingtech.com

bankingtech.com


Algorithms create new highs (and lows) at Barclays

  • Written by FinTech Futures
  • 7th January 2013

As we’re broadly in agreement with the view of a character in Carla Lane’s 1970s sit-com The Liver Birds that opera is “just Italians arguing to music”, we’d best pass on this news with as little critical comment as possible.

Following the success of oddball opera subjects – Nixon in China, Jerry Springer: The Opera – and the growth of reality TV, it was only a matter of time before someone came up with the idea of a “reality opera” that “focused on the drama unfolding on an “open outcry” stock trading floor, the type of trading floor on which traditionally traders shout and use hand-signals”.

The culprits creative talents behind this are Alexis Kirke, a composer at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Computer Music Research at Plymouth University, and Greg Davies, head of behavioural and quantitative finance at Barclays, who “have taken reality performances to another level by partnering with Barclays to produce a reality opera”.

Melodies were “carefully crafted with evolutionary computer algorithms”. During the performance singers “sang what they wanted, when they wanted, within certain rules, just like the freedom people have in reality TV programmes.”

Davies role was to apply his behavioural finance expertise to create the market within which the singer-traders were responding, “generating the ebb and flow of emotion and money on a trading floor”.

To enable the music to express the emotional activity on the trading floor, Kirke composed what he calls “trading phrases” such that when most singers were buying, the harmonies between them were pleasant, and when most were selling, the harmonies clashed. When two performers sang ‘buy’ and ‘sell’ melodies for the same asset, the two sounded in time and harmonious.

Open Outcry featured 12 singers and a cellist, Joseph Spooner. The audience sat at tables among the “traders” (in the trading pit), and the conductor rang a bell to signify the market opening. As the cellist played, large screens displayed stock information and the conductor guided some aspects of the permissible actions of the singers. The performers sang one musical phrase to buy each asset and another to sell. The prices were largely driven by random market movements generated by a computer model, though the conductor did have some power to influence stock prices, as did the effect of the “trading” between the singers themselves.

www.multivu.com/mnr/58659-barclays-opera

Tags: Banking, Financial Services/Finserv Analysis, Industry Comment

Leave a comment Cancel reply

-or-

Log in with your FinTech Futures account

Alternatively, post a comment by completing the form below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related


  • You called me
    How a company treats you through the recruitment process tells you everything you need to know about its culture.
  • What did the GameStop saga expose about UK trading regulation?
    FinTech Futures unpacks the FCA’s published response to trading restrictions on 29 January.
  • A seven-year-old tells us what we (should) already know about banking
    Your customers aren’t seven-year-olds, but they probably want a lot of the same things.
  • The operational imperative for intraday liquidity management
    Intraday liquidity management is not a regulatory tick-box but a vital part of banks' business as usual operations.
  • Banking Tech Awards 2020 Winner: BTB – Best Use of IT in Private Banking/Wealth Management
    BTB's business model has brought annual average returns of 7% in the last seven years with low defaults.
  • The dawn of central bank digital currencies: will they take over the cash?
    The ECB plans to announce whether it will launch the project in the middle of 2021.
  • Oraan CEO: Women in finance weren’t welcomed in Pakistan
    Oraan’s research found that savings – particularly for women – just wasn’t tapped into.
  • UK Black-owned challenger Atmen to launch in March
    The start-up is now looking to raise £5 million from institutional investors.

Related Content

  • One size fits all
  • Three things banks must do to thrive in 2021
  • The US market: are EU-based challengers coming to rustle up some feathers?
  • Introducing "it's a matter of comms"

Dock - virtual roundtables

Dock is free to attend for banks and FIs

Click here to register

Sponsorship opportunities available at Dock

Click here for more info

Magazine

Banking Technology February issue out now

10th February 2021

Banking Technology December/January issue out now

16th December 2020
view all

Webinars

Webinar: How to stop massive mobile banking fraud with app security and risk-based authentication

9th February 2021

Webinar: Deep dive on ServiceNow’s purpose built product for finserv operations

7th January 2021

Banking Tech Awards 2020 hosted online by Tom Ward

30th November 2020
view all

Reports & Surveys

Report: The power of data analytics in fintech solutions

25th February 2021

Omdia Universe 2020-21: Temenos recognised as a leader for digital banking platforms

15th December 2020

Report: Digital KYB – a springboard to customer onboarding success

30th November 2020
view all

Content Hubs

COVID-19: industry impact & response

26th June 2020

The rise of challenger banks around the world

26th June 2020
view all

Podcast

What the Fintech? | S.2 Episode 5 | Rising to the top

25th February 2021

What the Fintech? | S.2 Episode 4 | TMRW never dies: digital banking in the ASEAN

18th February 2021

What the Fintech? | S.2 Episode 3 | Israel’s mobile lending tech scene

5th February 2021
view all

Videos

It’s a matter of comms | Episode 2 | Strategy

2nd March 2021

Video: Top fintech stories this week – 26 February 2021

26th February 2021

Video: Top fintech stories this week – 19 February 2021

19th February 2021
view all

White Papers

Embedded insurance: a $3tn market opportunity, that could also help close the protection gap

4th January 2021

White paper: The business value of ServiceNow for retail banks

12th December 2020

E-book: Migration to cloud – your guide to delivering an intuitive customer experience

8th December 2020
view all

Techwire

Dividend Finance Announces the First Governance, Risk & Compliance Solution That Intelligently Links to How Companies Operate

2nd March 2021

Carpe Data Partners with Unqork to Help P/C Insurers Improve Automation, Enhance Accuracy and Reduce Costs Across Rate-Quote-Bind and Claims Solutions

2nd March 2021

Xendit Raises US$64.6 Million Series B Led by Accel to Scale Its Digital Payments Infrastructure Ushering in a New Era of Economic Security and Reliability in Southeast Asia

2nd March 2021

Bank of New Hampshire Becomes First in State to Partner with ZSuite Technologies

2nd March 2021

Best’s Review Looks at How the Pandemic Is Transforming the Insurance Industry

2nd March 2021

ACI Worldwide and the Internal Revenue Service to Offer New Tax Payment Options for Taxpayers—Including Unbanked and Underbanked Populations—with ACI Payments, Inc.

2nd March 2021

Irish-based Fintech Firm Horizon8 Launches valid8Me, The Digital Identity Vault Solution Transforming Customer Onboarding

2nd March 2021

Prepaid Financial Services Is Now Known As EML Payments

2nd March 2021
view all

Twitter

FinTech_Futures

.@Square finally launches bank after filing first application in 2017 fintechfutures.com/2021/03/square…

3rd March 2021
FinTech_Futures

.@Piraeus_Bank extends Antelop partnership for digital payments [@AntelopSolution] fintechfutures.com/2021/03/piraeu…

3rd March 2021
FinTech_Futures

ABA Bank picks Alessa [@AlessaRCM] system to meet new AML regulations fintechfutures.com/2021/03/aba-ba…

3rd March 2021
FinTech_Futures

.@cryptocom signs deal with @AstonMartinF1 ahead of its return to Grand Prix. @astonmartin fintechfutures.com/2021/03/crypto…

3rd March 2021
FinTech_Futures

Kenyan start-up Powered by People raises $1.5m seed funding fintechfutures.com/2021/03/kenyan…

3rd March 2021
FinTech_Futures

South African paytech @Nomanini obtains debt funding fintechfutures.com/2021/03/south-…

3rd March 2021
FinTech_Futures

ImaliPay [@imali_pay] raises undisclosed amount in pre-seed funding fintechfutures.com/2021/03/imalip…

3rd March 2021
FinTech_Futures

Cameroon-based fintech Diool [@DioolApp] secures $3.5m funding fintechfutures.com/2021/03/camero…

3rd March 2021

Free webinar: How to stop massive mobile banking fraud

08 March 2021

US Challenger banks: who's who & what's their tech

Free to read

Banking Technology Magazine February 2021

Free digital edition

Banking Tech Awards 2020 Winners Supplement

Free digital edition

Fintech Futures
  • About us
  • Advertise with us
  • Contact us
  • Fintech jobs
  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookies Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2021 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.
This website uses cookies, including third party ones, to allow for analysis of how people use our website in order to improve your experience and our services. By continuing to use our website, you agree to the use of such cookies. Click here for more information on our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy.
X