BSYM Identifiers Advance Cause of Open, Automated Securities Trading

Bloomberg Open Symbology Introduces New Operational Efficiencies and Cost Reductions for the Trading Community. Chaos theory has nothing on the complexity generated everyday by the millionsâperhaps billionsâof security transactions that cross trading floors, clearinghouses and exchanges all over the world. Almost every aspect of securities management is based on closed systems that use proprietary identifiers that are privately owned and licensed. Closing each deal is as much an exercise in translation as it is in transaction processing, as traders, investors and brokers wrestle with multiple proprietary formats to determine what security is, who owns it, how much it is worth, and when the deal should be closed. It introduces a tremendous amount of friction into the trade lifecycle and creates opaqueness where clarity is sought. In addition, the use of proprietary identifiers adds significant cost and overhead when users wish to integrate data from disparate sources or migrate to a different market data system.

POSTED Mon Nov 30, 2015