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Qantas’ decision to split its international and domestic operations sent shockwaves around the airline in July, but one team was already preparing for the job of splitting IT systems.

The restructure complicated an already nuanced technology operation whose tentacles touch every part of the airline – from freight to frequent flyers. It was also a catalyst for improvement as it exposed weaknesses in outsourcing, enabled the relocation of IT people to where they were needed most and, ultimately, saved $30 million.

It all began when the airline looked to outsource parts of the project, exposing gaps and weaknesses in the technology operations.

”We had many sources of truth and this old state created complexities,” said Qantas IT financial controller Larry Morrissey.

”We had multiple sources of data, which led to lots of reconciliation, and also lack of consistency in what we were reporting to the business.”

So the airline made an early decision to install a project management application in October 2011 that would provide visibility of all legacy systems as well as help with the difficult task of prioritising projects along domestic and international lines, explained Qantas chief information officer Paul Jones.

The CA Clarity PPM system would also ”liberate” the knowledge locked away in spreadsheets and silos.

”By having this single source of truth it allowed us to have a look at the entire portfolio and relating that to which projects make sense in an international and domestic sense,” Jones said.

Qantas now more accurately aligns IT spending with commercial goals, according to Jones, because the project management application centrally stores technology project information such as where it is installed, phases of implementation, and upcoming projects.

”That means it’s easier to take a portfolio view across the entire airline rather than everyone having their own pots of technology,” he said.

The new system also gives visibility to the distributed technology operations where seven outsourcers – IBM, Fujitsu, Telstra, Optus, TCS, Satyam and Amadeus – manage 80 per cent of the carrier’s technology systems and support.

The remaining 20 per cent is provided in-house where, from August 1, IT staff were relocated inside the various divisions – from catering, freight, engineering, international, domestic and loyalty – assembled into mini businesses, each with its own chief executive.

”The airline is very complicated so you need IT people with the customers,” Jones said. ”Every sub-part of the airline [needs] tech people working day-by-day.”

He said five technology strategies added value to the airline: IT staff located within divisions, technology modernisation programs, single project view, employee engagement and IT cost reduction.

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Behind this pile of predictions is a paperless office.NBN Co predicts the country’s new high-speed broadband network will transform the economy by sprouting paperless offices across the country. But, for the immediate future at least, paper is here to stay.

Real estate agency Dougmal Harcourts, on the New South Wales south coast, is counting on becoming a paperless office on the back of its early national broadband network (NBN) adoption. It recently invested in iPads and remotely hosted storage applications, and shifted its offices out of the Kiama CBD – so staff can work from anywhere.

It had previously accumulated 20 filing cabinets of documents to satisfy its licence obligations as it needs to keep records of every transaction for five years.

”The possibility of being able to hold all that data in a safe and secure place with cloud backup is one of the things the NBN enhances,” said Sue Spence, the realtor’s managing director. ”It’s not our main consideration but it’s certainly one of several that led us down this path.”

NBN Co says its high-speed broadband fibre can now support multiple telephone lines, which will allow small businesses to provide more reliable services.

”Ours is still definitely a face-to-face industry but more and more we can run services online that traditionally a real estate agent is doing face-to-face,” Spence said.

But it is the iPad, not the NBN, that is hastening print’s decline, according to Kyocera managing director David Finn.

”Before the iPad erupted onto the scene, the industry pundits were saying the paperless office or reduction will occur in 20 years’ time,” said Finn, whose company continues to sell printing machines. ”Who knows how much that is going to accelerate?”

Increased viewing quality on the iPad and other mobile devices meant people were definitely printing less, he said, but businesses would use paper for at least the next 15 years.

”[NBN Co] has this vision that everyone will be connected, but there will still be people with more devices at home just to receive information and print documents.”

The paperless toilet will arrive before the fully digital office, he predicted. ”The paperless office is a myth.”

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ST KILDA veteran Justin Koschitzke will remain at St Kilda for at least another season.

Koschitzke, 30 this month, is an unrestricted free agent and could have joined the club of his choice.

But his manager James Pitcher, of Strategic Management Solutions, told The Age the ruckman-forward would remain with the Saints.

“He will remain at St Kilda for at least another year,” Pitcher said.

“I will finalise the paper work hopefully next week.

“I will catch up with the Saints and knock it over. He will be staying a Saint.”

Koschitzke played 19 matches this season but was dropped for last weekend’s final round against Carlton.

He needs only five more matches to reach the 200 milestone.

Earlier, Saints coach Scott Watters said Koschitzke was a required player.

“He offers really good leadership,” Watters said on SEN.

“We’ve got some young key forwards – Rhys Stanley and Jay Lever – who are coming through, and the work that ‘Kosi’ has done behind the scenes with Rhys this year … he won’t get a lot of plaudits for that from the outside, but internally he’s done a great job.

“He’s in a challenge for his spot going forward, as is Adam Schneider, who had some injuries this year.

“But they’re quality players, and it needs to be a challenging environment.

“So I would expect ‘Kosi’ to back up with a really strong pre-season and challenge for a spot.”

Watters said her also expects Brendon Goddard, also off contract, to remain at the club.

“He has been offered a strong and reasonable offer. Ultimately he must make a choice. He is a passionate Saints person with leadership ambitions,” he said.

However, it’s understood Goddard, a restricted free agent, is unhappy with the offer the Saints have made.

This story Administrator ready to work first appeared on Nanjing Night Net.

DEFIANT Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley refuses to spend this week defending his team’s recent form in the face of ”condescension” from the media, and will instead set out to prove the doubters wrong by upstaging Hawthorn in Friday night’s qualifying final.

It was Buckley himself who fuelled talk of the Pies going into the MCG blockbuster as significant underdogs, saying after his team’s final-round win against Essendon that this weekend’s challenge against the Hawks was looming as a David-versus-Goliath battle.

But the extent to which Collingwood has been questioned has not been lost on Buckley, either.

”We are very bullish about our prospects, unlike the wider community, so we are looking forward to it,” Buckley said. ”Quite frankly, there’s a bit of condescension going on around Collingwood, around our players, around our coaches, around our club in general. We don’t mind being in that position.

”There are a lot of questions about our form, and rightly there should be, about our personnel, about our game plan, about the way we play. ”We can talk until we are blue in the face about it, but it matters little. All that matters is what we do on Friday night.”

Buckley was also quick to shoot down suggestions that Dale Thomas was carrying an injury – raised after he did not train with the main group yesterday – with the coach declaring his midfield star would definitely play against the Hawks.

The Pies are $3.60 to beat Hawthorn ($1.30).

The fact Chris Dawes was dropped last round and that fellow forward Travis Cloke has endured conjecture about his contract status all season has only added fuel to the fire for critics.

Captain Nick Maxwell admitted yesterday that some players had been looking forward to the challenge of finals for a long time.

”A lot of our group has been around for three or four years now playing finals, and quite often players who play finals regularly start to expect it and just think that it is going to happen all the time,” he said. ”And I think at times our players have thought that. Even last year, going through different parts of the season, they were sort of looking forward to finals already.

”Once you know you are close to [finals], players start thinking … and we are no different. And, at times, that means you are not focused on what you should be doing right here and now. So our players are definitely ready to go Friday night.”

This story Administrator ready to work first appeared on Nanjing Night Net.

THE Hunter is one unique region that is part of an integrated national network of regions that need our successes just as we need theirs.

There have been enough wish-lists and stand-alone plans. Now there must be a unified voice spelling out how infrastructure and planning are significant to the region regardless of local boundaries. This is the message that Regional Development Australia Hunter is sending to the NSW and federal governments. It is a message that local government can help advance.

And the good part is that both state and federal governments tell us that this is what they want and expect to hear if we are to win the support and funding for major infrastructure in our region.

Quite rightly there are a number of groups with planning obligations for much of our land use, our local infrastructure and our social structures. While they recognise that the specific interests of their constituents and responsibilities can appear to fly in the face of regional needs, the result has been that confused messages reach funding decision makers. No more confusion!

In our paper, Urban Planning for the Hunter’s Future, being launched at today’s CEDA (Committee of Economic Development of Australia) conference in Newcastle, we present a number of recommendations to take the Hunter forward with great success.

RDA Hunter maintains that while this is a region of unique qualities and makes a unique contribution to the prosperity of the nation, it does not stand alone. It is an integrated region whose connectivity to metropolitan Sydney and surrounding regions is the key to ensuring that sustainable and productive growth occurs across the region to the benefit of the state, the nation and local communities.

Major decisions by governments on infrastructure planning and investment over the next 12 to 18 months will have a significant impact on the future lifestyles, employment options and well-being of people living in the region. Therefore RDA Hunter recommends that regional planning agencies adopt a collaborative approach to address government urban policy and consider the regional relationships.

It is vital to get the balance right between population, land use and housing supply; for employment and economically and socially significant infrastructure; and delivery of services.

The Upper Hunter Strategic Regional Land Use Plan and the revised Lower Hunter Regional Strategy must be brought together to present a single and interconnected Hunter Regional Strategy.

Future regional planning efforts must have regard to the planning hierarchy in the national planning criteria for Australia’s cities, and provide appropriate levels of detail for near, medium and long-term plans and projects.

As Australia’s seventh largest urban area, the Hunter Region must have a plan for the future.

The importance of retaining sectoral diversity, linking infrastructure to promote economic development and improving our connectivity with markets beyond our boundaries is crucial for the region’s prosperity.

A plan for the future of our urban area is even more important when it is understood that all major infrastructure funding decisions will be based on having a plan.

A metropolitan/urban plan for the Hunter is critical for the region’s future. Effectively connecting populations, ideas, goods, freight and communities is essential to be able to best leverage much-needed infrastructure.

Regional-scale planning documents must contain significantly greater detail about future infrastructure and its relationship to land use to allow public and private sector co-ordination of investment over time.

We are confident these messages will be heard by Australian governments, which are demonstrating a renewed interest in cities including major regional cities.

While at a local level we have a number of cities defined by local government boundaries, the whole Lower Hunter region is regarded as a city in terms of the Australian government’s planning criteria for Australia’s major cities.

The purpose of this approach, and one well understood in this region, is to ensure cities are globally competitive, productive, sustainable, liveable, socially inclusive and well placed to meet future challenges and growth.

The Hunter intends to be a vital part of this new era.

This work to develop an integrated plan will overcome the enormous cost and disadvantage to the region of too many overlapping but unrelated regional plans and assist in positioning the Hunter nationally and internationally as one of Australia’s most sustainable, productive and significant economies.

VISION: A balance must be struck between population and infrastructure. Picture: Dean Osland

Nestled between Newcastle and the Hunter Valley, Maitland is increasingly making its mark on the foodie map. Its first wine bar has opened in recent weeks, adding to the bursting stable of dining and drinking options in the city.

There is the old: The Old George and Dragon in East Maitland has operated on a site that has fed hungry travellers since the early 1830s.

Then there’s the new: Fox Bar opened in recent weeks and is said to be the city’s first small bar.

That’s not to mention the new eatery and function centre to open in October in High Street’s Mansfield House under the direction of 305 Restaurant and Le Fleuve Brasserie’s Dan Kibble and Christine Harrison.

Fox Bar was opened a few weeks ago after well-known hospitality stalwart Will Creedon (of Rustica and many other ventures), Jennifer Nichols, owner of The Old George and Dragon, and designer Stephen Troy teamed up.

At 274 High Street, Maitland, the joint venture fills a gap in the Maitland entertainment scene. The building is owned by interior designer Troy, and has been granted a licence to operate as a small bar.

The front bar has been decorated in an eclectic mix of furniture, while there are cosy nooks that invite friends to get together, as well as an outside courtyard area perfect for a lazy Sunday afternoon or meeting place for a work lunch.

The bar specialises in boutique and craft beers, has a wine list focusing on Hunter Valley wines and a boutique spirit offering.

Fox Bar head chef is the enthusiastic Miami Bragg, while the executive chef is industry stalwart Gavin Forman (of The Old George and Dragon).

The hearty menu is available for lunch and dinner, and ploughman’s and cheese platters are available all day.

It includes Creedon’s pick of the menu, the lamb shank pie, which is a hearty lamb shank and winter vegetable casserole served with a flaky crust. It comes in a serve for one ($19) or two ($35).

Creedon told GT he’d had his eye on Maitland for ‘‘quite some time’’.

‘‘I’ve had the very strong feeling in the last two years that Maitland is a great centre and it services a lot of people very well, but it doesn’t necessarily service those who look for the finer things,’’ Creedon explained.

‘‘When I say look for the finer things in design, look for the finer things in garden, the finer things in beverage – be it wine, beer or spirits – and the finer things in food.’’

He said while Maitland looked after young people ‘‘really, really well’’ there was the opportunity for someone to offer something ‘‘a little bit different, a little bit deeper, hence I think the opportunity of … creating a little bar called Fox Bar was a natural thing.

‘‘Maitland over the last year and a half has had a smattering of really good restaurants and eateries open … if you think about Maitland, there’s a little bit of a revolution happening,’’ Creedon said. ‘‘It’s really good to see. I suppose Fox Bar in a way is another part in that process, another stage in that revolution.’’

Creedon said the name was a nod to Maitland’s affinity with the natural environment and agriculture. He admitted to a few nervous moments for the team behind the venture, but said already the Maitland community had embraced the concept.

‘‘People recognise we’re in need of support,’’ he said. ‘‘In the first few weeks of operation there’s no question people have given their support with their marching feet – it’s wonderful to see and they realise it’s for them and it will only be for them as long as they keep coming.’’

Nichols agrees Maitland is making its mark on the map to become a destination for eating and drinking, alongside nearby Morpeth.

‘‘For a long time we haven’t been seen as a dining destination but I think we’re all trying really hard to make that happen,’’ she said. ‘‘We’re all listening to what the public are saying in terms of wanting more experiences and we’re hoping that we’re giving it to them; we’d just really love the public to embrace it.’’

Though Nichols now splits her time between Fox Bar and The Old George and Dragon, she said the fine-dining establishment would continue to serve customers for dinner Wednesday to Saturday.

“While The Old George and Dragon will continue to delight customers with a fine-dining experience, Fox Bar is a more casual format,’’ Nichols said. “We have been offering lunch on a Friday at The George, but due to its long history as a special occasion restaurant, the lunchtime option was pretty hit and miss.

‘‘When the opportunity came up to be part of Fox Bar, it was the perfect complement to what we do at The Old George.”

Fox Bar is open from 11.30am to late Tuesday to Saturday and 11.30am to 6pm Sunday. For more information visit foxbar南京夜网.au.

Also keep an eye on the Mansfield House site at 315 High Street, Maitland, in the coming months.

305 Restaurant and Le Fleuve Brasserie’s Dan Kibble and Christine Harrison have teamed up with Chris and Tom Richards to transform and restore the beautiful heritage building.

Kibble told GT the former bank building would be relaunched in October to include a fine-dining restaurant similar to 305, a function and wedding centre, as well as an oyster bar, upscale wine bar, daytime al fresco dining and more. There are also plans to add a four-star boutique hotel next year.

305 Restaurant will shift to the new site under the name epique, Mansfield House (meaning surpassing the usual or ordinary), and Le Fleuve Brasserie will remain open as is.

Bronte Richards will be at the helm of the wedding and function centre as event and function co-ordinator of Mansfield House Events.

‘‘The building is absolutely stunning,’’ Kibble told GT. ‘‘For us it is a really great opportunity … It’s a really big project for central Maitland, we’re really, really excited about it.

‘‘For Maitland it’s amazing, you don’t see people doing things like this very often and a lot of the time they don’t have a lot of chance at success either.

‘‘This has just been a well thought-out project and the people behind it like myself and Chris and Tom have put a lot of time and effort in to make sure it’s going to be something positive.

‘‘To be sitting right on High Street, the potential is absolutely amazing for promoting Maitland and all the positive things about this area.

‘‘That’s what is fantastic about this, you see the Maitland Mall and all these terrace buildings that have been sitting there for five years … and over the next couple of years hopefully we’ll see an evolution.’’

In the meantime, before epique, Mansfield House, throws open its doors, you can visit 305 Restaurant and Le Fleuve Brasserie.

305 Restaurant is open for dinner Tuesday to Saturday.

Le Fleuve Brasserie, which offers casual dining with more than 100 wines on the list, is open daily from 11am.

Will Creedon, Miami Bragg and Gavin Forman outside Fox Bar.

Chris, Bronte and Tom Richards, with Dan Kibble and Christine Harrison in the front room of Mansfield House.

The knives are out and being sharpened for a battle which will pit the Hunter’s best chefs against their Sydney counterparts.

Hunter Chefs & Co, a not-for-profit organisation, will host the third annual Food Fight on Monday at Crowne Plaza Hunter Valley.

In the Hunter corner will be team captain Jamie Ryan, of Caves Beachside Hotel, Tim Montgomery, of Bacchus, Emerson Rodriguez, of Emerson’s at Pokolbin, and Troy Rhoades-Brown, of Muse.

“I’m looking forward to tasting what the Sydney boys will bring to the table. We’re going to give it everything we’ve got and we expect to create a serious buzz for the region on the day,” Ryan said.

The Sydney team taking on the Hunter Region is Matt Kemp, formerly of Balzac, Warren Turnbull, of Assiette, Colin Fassnidge, of Four in Hand, and leading Sydney culinary personality Justin North, who will complete the group.

The chefs will compete by creating a delectable meal using fresh Hunter region ingredients such as lamb and pork shoulder, spanner crab and calamari.

The 250 luncheon guests will be able to view the kitchen battle via a live video feed as their food is being prepared. Peter Everett, of Ready Steady Cook fame, will MC the event and the winning team will be judged by attendees on the day.

Funds raised by the event will go to the Brett Graham Scholarship, which gives an apprentice chef the opportunity to be flown to London to work alongside highly acclaimed chef Brett Graham at his renowned restaurant The Ledbury, in Notting Hill.

Tickets are $90 for Hunter Chefs & Co members and $130 for other guests. Locally brewed beer and premium Hunter Valley wine will be provided.

Book by emailing [email protected]南京夜网.au or go to hunterchefs南京夜网.au for more.

Caves Beachside Hotel chef Jamie Ryan.

One of Sydney’s underground tunnels, dug by convicts.Sydney’s transport plan long on hopeAnalysis: little change

Why doesn’t Sydney have a subway system like London or New York? According to transport experts, the city doesn’t need one. While Sydney has a tightly packed central area, it’s much less dense in its suburban areas than, say, New York or Paris, they say.

“In terms of the origin and destination profile of Sydney, it’s fairly low density,” said Professor David Hensher, the director of the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies at the University of Sydney.

“Although the Bradfield plan from years ago clearly suggested a more expansive underground network than we currently have, there are good reasons why it didn’t continue. Clearly, if money was no object, we would have done it.”

*Read more about the Bradfield Plan, which was first mooted in 1916.

So what could work for Sydney? A more integrated network that connects origins and destinations, with rail services in higher density areas and buses servicing lower density areas, the experts told the Herald.

A better public transport system would also have to be coupled with changing the behaviour of Sydneysiders.

“It’s all very well to build lots of public transport, but I don’t think that’s going to be enough – in terms of costs – to make a difference on congestion. All the while, the car remains a fairly attractive mode of transport,” Professor Hensher said.

“Despite the concern about traffic congestion being bad in Sydney, many people say it’s not bad enough for me to get out of my car … People will complain because it’s not as good as it used to be, but it’s not bad enough to make a difference.”

Professor Hensher said it would take only 6 per cent of car users (85 per cent of trips in Sydney are by car) to make a switch away from driving during peak hours to make a difference to congestion levels.

“If we price the use of the car in the peak where the congestion’s bad, they’d switch to the off-peak rather than use public transport, because they can do that.”

Professor Hensher is one such commuter. He works from home from 7am to 9.15am to avoid the peak and then drives to work after that.

“It’s much more enjoyable and it’s much more productive. Lots more people could do it. They don’t even bother to think they could do it,” he said.

Another way of reducing congestion in Sydney’s city centre was to minimise car parks in office buildings and tax car spaces, Sydney transport expert Dick Day said. The City of Sydney council already restricts parking, but more could be done, he said.

“The thing that dissuades people from using cars in the end is often congestion. London is a good example and Hong Kong’s the same.

“Having said that, once you get out into suburbs where the industrial areas are … a lot of people have to use cars because the places that they work at are not readily accessible by public transport and never will be.”

Further reading:The Bradfield Plan

This story Administrator ready to work first appeared on Nanjing Night Net.

The NSW Minister for Primary Industries, Katrina Hodgkinson, is to face a parliamentary inquiry into the closure of the Cronulla Fisheries Research Centre, after earlier refusing a request to appear.

She will table a cost-benefit analysis of the government decision to close and decentralise the centre next Monday, almost a year after the decision was announced.

Ms Hodgkinson initially told the inquiry chairman, the Reverand Fred Nile, she could not attend due to ministerial meetings.

Premier Barry O’Farrell appeared to criticise that decision during an interview with Alan Jones on 2GB radio last Wednesday.

“When I am invited by upper house inquiries I go,” Mr O’Farrell said.

“I expect my ministers to go.”

The Premier’s office declined to say whether he had directed Ms Hodgkinson to go to the inquiry, but a spokeswoman for Ms Hodgkinson said this was not the case.

“The reason for her appearance is to table the cost-benefit analysis of the decentralisation of the Cronulla Fisheries site,” said Ms Hodgkinson’s spokeswoman.

“The minister has not been directed by the Premier to attend the inquiry.”

The Herald revealed the decision to close the Cronulla Fisheries Research Centre, announced on September 8 last year, was made without a business case, costings or cabinet submission.

A number of staff members gave evidence at the penultimate hearing of the inquiry yesterday.

Peter Brown said more than half of the staff at the centre were classified as temporary, and were receiving severance payments up to 70 per cent less than they would have before the introduction of the government’s stricter excess employees policy, which came in to effect shortly before the decision on Cronulla was announced.

This story Administrator ready to work first appeared on Nanjing Night Net.

Kate Lee releases a captive-bred juvenile wobbegong shark into Cabbage Tree Bay Aquatic Reserve, Manly. A juvenile wobbegong shark, born in captivity at Sydney Aquarium as part of Sea Life Conservation Fund’s breeding program, is released into Cabbage Tree Bay Aquatic Reserve, Manly.

Sharks are very misunderstood animals and receive a largely undeserved reputation as vicious animals, although they have a unique “sixth sense” that allows them to locate their true, much smaller, prey.

These are some of the findings from research conducted by the Sydney Aquarium into shark behaviour.

There are more than 350 species of shark, but only four or five are considered to be dangerous to humans, the aquarium says.

For most sharks something as big as a human would not be considered as prey as we are too large, it says.

Instead they may think of us as a threat and prefer to stay as far away as possible.

Attacks on humans in the wild are not as common as the media would indicate, and deaths are even rarer, the aquarium says.

No shark is thought to target humans as prey.

In most cases where a person is bitten, it is a case of mistaken identity, the aquarium says.

For the most part, sharks are generally placid animals and not to be feared.

This month, the Sydney Aquarium is relaunching as the SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium following a $10 million overhaul.

The aquarium will become home to the largest variety of sharks and rays in the world.

In conjunction with its conservation arm, the Sydney Aquarium Conservation Fund, the attraction has completed research on the grey nurse and wobbegong sharks.

Among the findings:

– Sharks have a sixth sense, called electroreception. The underside of the grey nurse shark’s snout is dotted with pores. Each of these leads to an organ (ampulae of Lorenzini) that can detect electricity.

– The electroreception capabilities of sharks gives them the ability to detect and attack prey at close range without needing to see the prey as well as navigate using the earth’s magnetic field.

– The grey nurse shark’s reputation as a maneater is undeserved as they cannot eat anything as large as a human and are placid sharks that will not bite defensively unless severely provoked.

– The grey nurse’s name comes from its ability to “nurse” (or round up) small fishes into a tight school, for feeding.

The aquarium’s oldest shark is Josephine, who is estimated to be 25 years old and has been at the aquarium for almost 20 years.

– In Australia in the ’70s, grey nurse sharks were hunted almost to extinction due to fear of attack. The release of the movie Jaws in 1975 is thought to have had a huge influence on this. There are thought to be as few as 500-1000 left on the east coast of Australia.

– When the NSW government declared grey nurse sharks a protected species in 1984, they became the first protected sharks in the world.

– The freckles of a grey nurse shark are the equivalent of a human fingerprint, or the spots on a wobbegong shark.

This story Administrator ready to work first appeared on Nanjing Night Net.

Ever since the meltdown at the US firm Knight Capital last month month, the debate over high-frequency trading has exploded.

In short form, high-frequency trading is a flavour of trading that leverages computers and the speed of super-fast data connections to make lightning-quick trades, and lots of them. This means that, often, the trader’s servers are situated in the same data centre as the exchange’s servers.

While there’s no single strategy of a high-frequency trader – they might be acting like a market-maker, or playing index arbitrageur – the common thread is that they all rely on speed to succeed.

So, the billion-dollar question is: is this type of trading a major risk for markets, or closer to a non-factor?

At the end of the day, if you’re buying a piece of a company to own it for a long period of time, your primary concern should be the dynamics of the business, not the technical stockmarket action. Most readers have likely heard the Warren Buffett quote: “I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years.”

Do we want the market shut down?

Keeping in mind the fact that we’re ideally buying companies and not just tickers, we should still want a healthy, properly functioning market that allows us to transact. And there are some signs that high-frequency trading is doing a lot to gum up the markets and cause some serious problems.

The US market data-collector Nanex has been on a warpath against bad practices among high-frequency traders. Specifically, they’re concerned about the proliferation of quotes by high-frequency traders.

When you log on to a broker’s site to make a trade, what you see listed under the bid and ask are quotes – that is, somebody offering to buy or sell at a certain price.

As the high-frequency trading industry has grown, the number of quotes has exploded – and, mind you, we’re talking just quotes here, because actual trading has not grown anywhere near as much. The reason that high-frequency traders are putting out this many quotes isn’t entirely clear.

In some cases, it may simply be offering and cancelling quotes the same way any market-maker would; but in other cases, it may be programs sending out odd quotes in an effort to mislead other market participants – think Muhammad Ali pulling a rope-a-dope. In some cases, Nanex has even suggested that high-frequency traders send out a barrage of quotes to create a sort of informational fog of war that gives them a brief trading edge over other participants.

The problems created by this quoting aren’t just in the abstract. Here are a few concrete potential outcomes from this flood of quotes:

Cost: Exchanges and brokers need to process, manage, and store market data, so as the volume of quoting activity rises, that increases the data-processing burden. That means costly servers, routers, switches, and storage devices. While computerised trading has done much to reduce the cost of trading, there’s a concern that this data overload threatens to reverse that trend.

Scaring away liquidity: High-frequency and many other types of traders are, understandably, reluctant to trade when they believe they’re getting a bad data feed. When a rush of quotes hits the market, it has the potential to slow everything down, create corrupted feeds, and cause liquidity providers to bow out.

Figuring out what the heck is going on: In the wake of the Flash Crash, it took US regulators months to put together the forensic trading data from just a single day. Technology is clearly a boon to the markets but, when things go wrong – and they will, regardless – it’s essential that we have a system that regulators can quickly and easily navigate.

THE DISAPPOINTING ANSWER

It would be nice if there were an easy, pat answer to this issue like “ban high-frequency trading” or “high-frequency trading is a non-issue”. Unfortunately, there’s not.

What we need is for regulators to dig into the problem, figure out what’s going on – who’s playing by the rules and who isn’t – and set rules that will allow us to take advantage of the latest technologies in the financial markets without the threat from ne’er-do-wells who abuse those technologies.

Government regulators, however, aren’t known (and lack the budgets) for swift manoeuvring. In a race between traders who work in microseconds, and regulators who work in weeks, months, and years, it seems reasonable to worry that regulators might remain a step behind.

FOOLISH TAKEAWAY

There are a couple of issues at work here. From the perspective of fairness and to ensure nothing untoward is happening, it’s vital that our regulators get a handle on what’s going on. After all, anything that tilts the game further against individual investors should be anathema to investors and ASIC alike.

Secondly, though – be Foolish. Take Buffett’s quote to heart. Trade less frequently and only buy or sell when you get the price you’re after. You don’t have to play the high-frequency traders at their own game.

You think Warren Buffett worries about high-frequency traders? Me neither. That’s a pretty good yardstick in my book.

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Scott Phillips is a Motley Fool investment analyst. You can follow Scott on Twitter @TMFGilla. The Motley Fool’s purpose is to educate, amuse and enrich investors. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691).

This story Administrator ready to work first appeared on Nanjing Night Net.

To be sold … ACP is likely to bought by Bauer Media Group.Some of Australia’s most popular magazines, including the Australian Women’s Weekly, Woman’s Day and TV Week, are set to fall into German hands with the debt-laden broadcaster, Nine Entertainment, expected to soon announce the sale of its magazine portfolio to the privately owned Bauer Media Group.

Hamburg-based Bauer, which publishes Grazia, FHM and Zoo in the UK, is expected to pay up to $600 million for Nine’s Australian Consolidated Press (ACP) and help the private equity-owned business avoid breaching its debt covenants, which would lhave left it at the mercy of its banks.

The two parties are understood to be working on the final details of an agreement, which is to be made public either later this evening or tomorrow morning.

Nine executives were not available for comment.

The magazines division featured in the popular ABC production Paper Giants, which focused on the launch of Cleo magazine by Ita Buttrose and Kerry Packer in the early 1970s.

Kerry Packer’s son, James Packer, severed the family’s long-standing links to the media assets in 2007 when he sold most of Nine and its related assets to CVC Asia Pacific. The private equity firm paid $1.46 billion cash and took on $3.6 billion worth of debt.

CVC has now lost all of the $2 billion it injected into the Nine group, which has struggled with a high debt load, bad conditions in the media industry, and Nine losing its ratings crown to Seven.

CVC must repay $2.8 billion of debt by February and a further $1 billion a year later.

This story Administrator ready to work first appeared on Nanjing Night Net.