Markets Media: Sit Down, Risk Managers

Firms wrongly blame poor decisions on their risk systems alone, but the culprit is often miscommunication between investment managers and risk managers, said risk manager and author Aaron Brown. Sybase hosted Brown for a luncheon Wednesday in Manhattan.
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January 27, 2012 at 5:00 PM by SybaseExpert in Sybase in the News

ReadWriteWeb: How Companies Use Social Media To Pick Stocks

Trading based on market sentiment amongst social media can be a hard sell for some firms, as Sybase’s Neil McGovern explains. But other firms see it as a way to tap into market rumors and help their short-term trading strategies.
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January 27, 2012 at 1:00 AM by SybaseExpert in Sybase in the News

Sybase Unwired Platform Mobile Business Objects Modeling Best Practices (2.1)

This document provides best practices for defining Mobile Business Objects that can be efficiently consumed by native applications.
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January 25, 2012 at 5:00 PM by SybaseExpert in Sybase White Papers

Sybase Unwired Platform Sizing Guide – OData, Mobile Workflow, Hybrid Web Container, and Native Object API (2.1)

This document enables service providers and enterprises to make technology and sizing decisions necessary for planning Sybase Unwired Platform deployment. Making these decisions early in the process helps ensure a successful project rollout.
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January 25, 2012 at 5:00 PM by SybaseExpert in Sybase White Papers

Developing Database Applications with SQL Anywhere and .NET

<The webcast describes and demonstrates all the .NET features included in SQL Anywhere to assist in the implementation of robust .NET applications. It also focuses on Visual Studio integration, ADO.NET, Entity Framework, and CLR stored procedures.
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January 25, 2012 at 1:00 AM by SybaseExpert in Sybase Events

Advanced Analytics for Big Data Sybase IQ 15.4, Thursday, January 26, 1:00 p.m.ET /10:00 a.m. PT

<Attend this one-hour webcast to learn how to overcome common Big Data challenges and hear about the newest features in Sybase IQ 15.4.
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January 23, 2012 at 5:00 PM by SybaseExpert in Sybase Events

Technical Webcast: Hardware for DBAs, Tuesday, January 31, 1:00 p.m. ET/ 10:00 a.m. ET

<Join Sybase Technology Evangelist, Jeff Tallman, for a look at some of the new hardware choices and how you can get the most bang for your buck.
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January 23, 2012 at 5:00 PM by SybaseExpert in Sybase Events

Webcast: Enhancing the Performance of Replication Server, Thursday, February 2, 1:00 p.m. ET / 10:00 a.m. PT

<Join us for the webcast and learn about Sybase Replication Server's Advanced Services Option (ASO).
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January 23, 2012 at 5:00 PM by SybaseExpert in Sybase Events

Big Data Analytics for Communication Service Providers – Trends and Examples, Wednesday, February 8, 2:00 p.m. ET / 11:00 a.m. PT

<Join Sybase and Fierce Markets for this panel discussion to hear from industry veterans on how their organizations are enabling the effective use of big data analytics by CSPs worldwide.
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January 23, 2012 at 5:00 PM by SybaseExpert in Sybase Events

Risk Can Be a Good Thing

Everyone has an idea of what “risk” is, and it isn’t a positive one for most.

There’s the president of a New York-based financial planning firm telling The Washington Post that U.S. stocks are too risky. And there’s Friday’s BusinessWeek headline pronouncing corporate bonds as less risky than before. Both reinforce the powerfully negative stigma that surrounds risk.

But capital markets professionals have a special understanding of “risk” that doesn’t jibe with others. Risk can be good if managed correctly, according to Aaron Brown’s dramatically-titled new book Red-Blooded Risk: The Secret History of Wall Street.

Aaron Brown Red-Blooded Risk Luncheon 01-23-12-A“Risk is something you dial up or down in order to accomplish a goal,” Brown wrote. “Risks are two-sided; you can win or you can lose.”

Brown is quick to distinguish risk from “danger,” such as an athlete suffering an injury, and from “opportunity,” such as a baseball player pitching a no-hitter.

Dial up risk when you’re behind in the game by playing more aggressively in hopes of scoring more points. But dial it down when you’re ahead because playing it safe reduces variables and improves your chances of keeping the lead.

Conventional book lovers will appreciate that Red-Blooded Risk covers the history of risk from the first rise of quants in the 1980s, and explains itself in terms of the Roman Empire, construction of Egypt’s pyramids and more. Contemporary readers will enjoy its manga illustrations (inset), and Brown’s explanations in terms of vampires and zombies.

Brown is one of those aforementioned quants, and today he is a risk manager at Greenwich, Conn.-based AQR Capital Management — and professional poker veteran. So he knows more than a thing or two about risk in many of its forms.

“It really annoys me, the number of people who talk to their kids about risk, but never actually go to places where people are taking risk or try it themselves,” Brown told trading blog MartinKronicle. “We [Brown and his band of original quants] sought wisdom from actual risk-takers,” he said in the book, “which took us to some disreputable places.”

Wall Street was one of the places they went, honing Red-Blooded Risk’s concepts from 1987 to 1992.

Brown will return to Manhattan to be the keynote speaker at the Sybase-sponsored lunch seminar “Risk Appetite and Road Feel” at the Harvard Club of New York City in midtown on Wednesday. He will explore the effects of technology’s trading-space invasion; how we lose the feel for trading the way power steering costs us a feel for the road; and how financial firms can put that feel back into risk appetite decisions.

Following Brown, Sybase will conclude with a brief discussion outlining how Complex Event Processing technology can provide continuous analysis of rapidly changing data to provide effective strategies for monitoring and mitigating risk. Click here to register.

“Risks always refer to human interactions,” Brown wrote. “Their level must be under our control.”

This is an opportunity to view risk in a new light, beyond its pessimistic connotations. Attendees will also get a free copy of Red-Blooded Risk.

Red-blooded refers to people who are excited by challenges, but not to the point of being blinded to dangers and opportunities,” Brown wrote. “Red-blooded people feel anger and fear and greed like anyone else, but understand successful risk taking is a matter of calculation, not instinct.”

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January 23, 2012 at 5:00 PM by SybaseExpert in Trading & Risk Technology