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The West Coast Trading View

Aug 1, 2008 @ 11:28 AM By Cristina McEachern,

I recently got back from a great trip to the West Coast. I traveled out west specifically to visit three trading floors, three very different trading floors that are great examples of operations both big and small on the opposite side of the country.

While New York City may be the center of financial trading activity, the West Coast is not a bad spot to set up shop. Although traders typically start their days much earlier, they are done earlier in the afternoon. Many traders I spoke with enjoyed being able to spend time at with their families, on the golf course or even at the beach while it’s still sunny and nice outside.

Having grown up in Southern California I had a soft spot for the first trading floor I visited out West – JonesTrading. A family business started more than 30 years ago, JonesTrading epitomizes West Coast cool. The Westlake Village offices look over a man-made lake where kids are learning to sail and the upstairs offices have balconies where meetings often take place.

As for the trading floor, there are surfboards hung on the walls and the busy floor could easily be in a New York City office building, except for the lake outside and the distinctly West Coast vibe.

Next I headed south to San Diego to check out Nicholas Applegate Capital Management. Again, the views were spectacular. The firm is located on a top floor in downtown San Diego with an elevated row of traders that look directly over the bay. Not a bad place to have to start your day at 5 in the morning.

Then I hopped a quick flight up to Tacoma, Washington to visit Russell Investments. I’m sure the weather is not always as picture-perfect as the day of my visit, but the views of Mt. Rainier from just outside the office were spectacular.

Maybe I was in awe of the views because I’ve been in the concrete jungle of New York City for too long, but these trading floors were definitely great examples of the advantage of being away from the big city.

Russell is a larger operation with a big trading floor and a very open office plan with traders and portfolio managers, analysts and IT all sitting together for better communication and interaction.

All three trading floors were unique to the firm’s goals and trading style and I think that’s why Advanced Trading readers enjoy hearing about and viewing other trading floors in our Anatomy of a Trading floor section both online and in print.

So not to worry these three trading floors will be featured in upcoming months in the Anatomy of a Trading floor section. Hopefully the photos have captured the views as well as the range of trading technology and applications that each trading floor relies on.

If you’re interesting in having your trading floor featured in Anatomy of a Trading floor please email me at cmceachern@techweb.com.

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A Rare Look Inside Morgan Stanley Investment Management

Apr 16, 2008 @ 03:23 PM By Cristina McEachern,

It’s very rare that a big buy side firm wants to talk about their trading technology projects, let alone grant full access to an entire team of people working on a large-scale trading renovation.

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Empire Financial to Donate Day's Profits to Cancer Center

Dec 12, 2007 @ 09:15 PM By Kerry Massaro,

We might all think that one day we’ll make a difference. One day after this or that, we will put aside our personal needs and do something that will be a step---big or small--toward making the world a better place. Most of us never do it, but Gerry Mastrianni, head of trading at Empire Financial Group, a Longwood, Florida-based firm is an exception.

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Rumors Fly on Nybot Closing Trading Floor

Oct 23, 2007 @ 05:53 PM By Ivy Schmerken,

One more trading floor is turning into an endangered species if the rumors in yesterday’s New York Post are true. Yesterday, The New York Post reported (on Page Six) that New York Board of Trade (Nybot) is planning to officially shut down its futures pits in the next six months as electronic trading takes over the soft commodities marketplace.

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Bank Julius Baer Implements BT Turrets

Oct 3, 2007 @ 02:57 PM By Cristina McEachern,

BT announced that Bank Julius Baer, a Swiss dedicated wealth manager, has implemented 200 of its ITS.Netrix trading turrets and ITS Management Suite across locations in Zurich, Geneva and Singapore. Going forward the firm plans to implement an additional 50 turrets in its New York City office.

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Check out UBS's Trading Floor: Photos of the World's Largest Trading Floor

Jul 25, 2007 @ 02:52 PM By Kerry Massaro,

Everyone wants to be privy to the inner workings of a trading floor. We were fortunate enough to be invited (ok, we did some begging) to Stamford, Conn to take photos of UBS's floor, the largest trading floor in the world. We're featuring these photos in Anatomy of a Trading Floor, one of Advanced Trading's newest features. Our photographer took phenomenal shots that show the grand scale of the 1,400 seat floor and offer close ups of various trader's desks, now accompanied by detailed captions describing the technology being used.

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