Asia Pacific Electronic Trading Conferences 

The India FIX Conference 2012 resembles the trading world it represents; fast growing and energetic. Both domestic and international delegates converged in Mumbai to discuss the latest issues of electronic trading in India.

As pointed out by the FPL Co-Chairs during the welcome remarks, FPL has gone a long way from hosting the first meeting in India a few years back with attendance of only around 20, to a record turnout this year of over 300. Another remarkable achievement is the growing attendance from the regulatory body and the buyside community. In fact, many regional head of desk from both buy and sell side attended the event.

There was no lack of talking points throughout the day as discussion moved from regulatory issues, to exchange business, then to high frequency trading in the morning. The discussion of the usage of FIX for low latency trading also generated a lot of interest, especially to those technologists in the audience. Another crowd drawer was the afternoon keynote speaker, Mr. Nick Leeson who shared his story and how he sees risk and transparency in the modern trading world.

The event ended with the buyside trading panel discussion at which the topic of TCA, Algo usage, smart order routing sparked a lot of discussions from the panelists as well as their peers in the audience. It was a very interactive day with questions from the floor dominated some of the sessions. The expanded exhibition area also proved to be very popular with a record number of exhibitors this year.

The conference not only covered the most pressing issues facing the institutional trading community in India but also acted as a catalyst for industry action and dialogue to help solving industry challenges. However, this inclusive and proactive industry involvement does not finish with the successful hosting of the conference. FPL lends itself to ongoing engagement and liaison with market stake holders regarding market structure, regulatory and technical issues via the FPL members in India, spanning across buyside, sellside, technology providers and exchanges. Follow up meetings and cooperation initiatives will be carried out in the coming months to move the industry debates forward and to continue our efforts, as a neutral industry body, in building knowledge and awareness.

Delegates were amazed by the great turnout of the event, the great selection of speakers, the design of the conference programme and more importantly being free of charge and contains no sales pitch. The India trading community definitely deserves the credit as the event was created by the industry, for the industry.