What's the Next Step for Electronic Order Routing Systems? The ranks of the independent software vendors have thinned out, but profitability remains elusive. FI takes a look at current trends in the order routing business and asks leading ISVs and FCMs to talk about the challenges ahead.

A listing of the major independent software vendors serving the futures industry, with details on the exchanges they are linked to and the key features of their order rouitng systems.

A year ago, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission created a new division in charge of clearing and intermediary oversight as part of an overall effort to modernize the agency's approach to regulation. What has the division accomplished in those 12 months and where is it going next?

Hurt by falling returns from long-only investment strategies, a growing number of pension funds and other institutional investors are taking a look at synthetic indexing as a way to improve their returns and increase their allocations to alternative investment strategies. To illustrate this investment strategy, two portfolio strategists discuss how stock index futures can be used to match the performance of the MSCI EAFE index, the most widely used benchmark for investing outside of the U.S.