Create a trading floor

i

Creating a
Trading Floor

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ii

This book is dedicated to my fantastic wife and family, who patiently endured
the long hours and absences when I was working away gaining the experience to
be able to write it.

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iii

Creating a
Trading Floor
The Project Manager’s Guide to the Design, Construction
and Launch of Trading Floors and Data Centres

Charles Smith

London and Philadelphia

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iv
Publisher’s note
Every possible effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this book is

accurate at the time of going to press, and the publishers and author cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions, however caused. No responsibility for loss or damage occasioned to any person acting, or refraining from action, as a result of the material in this
publication can be accepted by the editor, the publisher or the author.
First published in Great Britain and the United States in 2007 by Kogan Page Limited
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or
review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication
may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior
permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms and licences issued by the CLA. Enquiries concerning reproduction
outside these terms should be sent to the publishers at the undermentioned addresses:
120 Pentonville Road
London N1 9JN
United Kingdom
www.kogan-page.co.uk

525 South 4th Street, #241
Philadelphia PA 19147
USA

© Charles Smith, 2007
The right of Charles Smith to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
ISBN-10 0 7494 4838 5
ISBN-13 978 0 7494 4838 7

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Smith,Charles, 1951–
Creating a trading floor : the project manager’s guide to the design, construction and launch
of trading floors and data centres / Charles Smith.

p. cm.
ISBN 0–7494–4838–5
1. Trading rooms (Finance)––Design and construction. 2. Trading rooms
(Finance)––Technological innovations. 3. Project management. 4. Stock exchanges. I. Title.
HG4551.S569 2007
725’.25––dc22
2006023958
Typeset by Saxon Graphics Ltd, Derby
Printed and bound in in Great Britain by Cambridge University Press

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v

Contents

Acknowledgements

xiv

Introduction

1

1

The starting point: business requirements
Number of people 10; Hours of business 11; Business deadlines 11;
Types of business teams 13; Nature of business 14; Structure
volatility 14; Colocation of teams 15; Build and environment

quality 16; Resilience and business continuity 17; Security
concerns 18; Publicity and marketing 19

9

2

Preparation
A clear plan is essential 20; Research 21; Cost constraints 21;
Headcount to be accommodated 24; Desk plan 24; Chinese
walls 25; Line of sight needs 25; Equipment and technology
services to be housed 25; Space needed 28; Power needs 32;
Heat needs 35; Cooling needs 35; Weight analysis 40; Noise
analysis 41; Electromagnetic field (EMF) risks 42

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20


vi ❙ Contents

3

Building the project team
Building the team 43; The project leader 45; The experts 47;
Procurement and project admin officer 48; The steering group 49;
Accountants 50; Lawyers 50; The workers 51; Trade unions 51;
The landlord 52; Outsourced teams 53; Operational staff 54;
Compliance and audit 54; Regulatory authorities 54; Insurers 55;
Facilitation and training 55; Social activities 56; Team resilience 56

43

4

Communication planning
Formal meetings 57; Informal meetings 58; Walk the floor 59;
Plans and drawings 60; Project Gantt chart 61; Feedback 61;
Photographs 62; Central register 62; Software standards 63; Secure
e-mail 65; Website 66; Change requests 66; Issues database 67;
Social behaviour in foreign locations 67; Handling bad news 68;
Handling the press and publicity 69

57

5

Contracts
Understanding the contract 70; Arriving at a contract document 72;
Areas of contractual coverage 73; Constraints 73; Contract
document change control 74; Evaluating contracts 74;
Legal assistance 75; Warranties and insurances 75; Regulatory
licensing 76; Publicity constraints 76

70

6

Initial planning
The main contractor 78; Outline schedule of events 79; Initial plan

document 82; Union briefing 87; Management briefing 88

78

7

The project team equipment and facilities
Project area 89; Project site network 90; Laptop PCs 90;
Voice telecoms 91; Meeting room 92; Toolkit 92; Whiteboard 94;
Large-scale printer 94; Digital camera 94; Server 95; Software
tools 95; Refreshments 98; Stationery supplies 99; Black n’ Reds 99;
First-aid kit 100; Safety equipment 100; Transport, shipping and
collection 101; Storage 101; Residential accommodation 102;
Foreign site assistance 102; Training 103; Build area 105;
Test area 105; Test network 106

89

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8

The budget and initial design
Initial budget 108; Budget control 108; Budget scope 109; Business
continuity budget issues 109; The technology budget versus the
building structure budget 110; The technology infrastructure
budget versus the administration budget 111; New and old 112;
Typical items for the IT infrastructure budget 112; Boundary IT
infrastructure budget items 155; Capital versus revenue 174;
Taxes, tariffs and duties 175; Sustainable development 175;
Contingency issues 176; Asset register 178; Budget reduction 178;
Approval process 179; Cost of delay 180; Cost of programme
acceleration 181

107

9

Control
Project accountant 183; Purchase orders 184; Work orders 184;
Delivery notes 184; Timesheets 185; Expenses 185; Desk database 186;
Milestones 186; Project management methodology 187; Project
calendar 187; Permit to work 187; Sign-off and certification 188;
Standards 188; Phased payment 189; Asset register 189;
Returns process 190; Security control 191; Change requests 191;
Crisis control 192

183

10

The data centre layout

Cabinets 195; Racking 198; Earthquake zones 199; Cable
containment and routes 199; Racking for telecoms equipment 200;
UPS cabinets 201; AHU cabinets and pipework 202; Floor tile
arrangement 203; Lighting 204; Corridors 204; Expansion 205;
Doorways and service hatches 205; Ramps and steps 205;
Storage 206; Power breaker cabinets 206; Emergency power off
(EPO) 206; Water handling 207; Business access needs – secure
areas 207; Building structure (columns) 208; Windows 208;
Overhead services 209; Floor loading 211; Cooling 212; Fire
suppressant system 215; Safety 215; Security 217; Cabling rooms,
cupboards and risers 222

193

11

Cabling
Containment and protection 226; Routes 227; Kopex and other
cable protection 228; Underfloor power distribution 229; Floor
boxes 230; High-level power 231; Riser power 232; Common
earth/grounding bonding 232; Data cabling 233; Abandoned
cabling 237; Intelligent patches 238; Lightning protection 238

224

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Trading desks
Selection and planning process 240; Desktop 241; Cable
management 244; PC storage and access 245; Cooling 245; Screen
mounting 246; PDU and power 247; Structured cabling 248; Earth
bonding 249; Line of sight 249; Moving 249; Grommets or floor
boxes 250; Spares 250; Desktop services 250

240

13

Office desks
Size and height 252; Power arrangements 253; Electrical safety 253;
Cable management 253; Telephone provision 254; PC installation
and screen mounting 255; Chairs 255; Access routes 256; Personal
storage 256

252

14

Meeting rooms
The boardroom 259; Shielded rooms 260; Acoustics 261;

Windows 262; Lighting 263; Utility wall space 263; Data cables 264;
Boardroom table 264; Voice/video conferencing 265; Projectors
and displays 267; Whiteboard 267; Podium 268; Meeting
rooms 268

258

15

Miscellaneous rooms and areas
Reception area 269; Hot bed offices 271; Print room 272; Post room
272; Recreation areas 273; First aid 274; Toilets, washing and
shower facilities 274; Kitchen 274; Storage 275; Precious
documents 275; Build rooms 276; Help desk or service desk 277

269

16

Telecoms
Advice 280; Vendors 280; Services 282; Trader voice equipment 288;
Implementation planning 295; Deployment 296; Training 297;
Remote administration 297; DECT 298; Receptionist/operator
facilities 298; Fax 299; Telex 299; Time clock 299; Public
announcement system 299; Television, cable TV and satellite
services 300; Video switching 300; Overhead display screens and
speakers 300; Desktop video screens and speakers 301;
Surveillance facilities 301; Voice and video conference facilities 304;
Conference rooms 305; VCR and videotape recorders and players 305;
Pager service 305; Telephone recorded messages 306; Telecoms

database 306; Telecoms billing 307; Telecoms circuit ordering 308;
Alternate PTT trunks 309; Corporate voice and data network 310;
Business continuity management 311; Equipment maintenance 311;
Disposals 311; Spares inventory 312; Asset recording 313; Moves,
additions and changes to the system 314

279

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17

Air conditioning
Advice 315; Cooling method considerations 317; Needs 318;
Self-contained environment 320; Dust control 321; Resilience 321;
Space 322; Air flows 323; Hot and cold aisles 324; Office areas 325;
Trading desks 325; Commissioning the system 326

315

18

Cabinets and racking
Racking 328; Floor-standing cabinets 330; Wall-mounted cabinets
335; Patch panels 335; Serial data cable patches and servers 337;
Cable management in racking and cabinets 338; Optical fibre 342;
Labelling scheme and database 344; Service vendors’ cabinets 344;
Tidiness 345; Testing and supervision 345; Power control and
connectors 347; Weight budgets and positioning 348; Security and
lockboxes 349; Monitoring 350

328

19

Servers
Server mounting 354; Cabinet server positioning 355; Server
cooling 356; Server power supply 357; Server remote access and
KVM 357; Server network and HBAs 358; Server configuration
359; SAN and network-attached storage 360; Server virtualization
and consolidation 362

352

20

Network equipment
Switches and routers 364; Firewalls 368; xDSL 370; Wireless LAN
371; Modems 373; Maintenance and support 374; Network
topology and WAN 375; Supplier reliability and resilience 375; ISP
services 376; KVM 376

363

21

Financial data services
Trading systems and settlement systems 385; Market data feeds
387; Permissioning 388; Resilience 388

382

22

Desktop PCs
Requirements 390; Power 391; Software builds 392;
PC deployment 393; Identification 396; Security 396; Supplier
agreements 397; Licensing 398; Service agreements 399

390

23

Clocks and time stamps
Time servers 401; Clocks 402; Back office and front office time
stamps 402; Acceptance testing for time systems 403

400

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Contents ❙ xiii

24

The programme
The ‘kick off’ meetings 404; Establishing a site office 405; Meeting
facilities 406; Deliveries 407; Site storage 408; Trolley, cherry picker
and pallet lift 409; Lifts (elevators) 410; Vehicle parking 410;
Ladders and platforms 411; Rubbish 411; Protection 412; Noise 412;
Power, heat and water 413; Lighting 413; Sanitary provisions and
comfort 414; Landlord 414; Hours of construction 415; Working
around construction workers 415; Working around IT people 416;
Supervision 419; Site inspections 420; Budget 424; Method
statements 424; Insurance 425; Project records 426; Access control
427; Communication 427; Progress monitoring 428; Project
construction steering group 430; Project calendar 430; Out of hours
contact 430; Project directory 432

404

25

Testing during rollout
Electrical power testing 435; Equipment room testing 439;
Air conditioning testing 440; Pressure test 441; Network and
cabling testing 442; Penetration and security scanning 444; Voice
testing 445; Voice recording tests 445; Line of sight testing 446;
Server testing 446; Market data services testing 447; PC testing 450;
Peripheral devices 453; Access control testing 453; Security policy
audit 454; Building management system 454; Business continuity
management 455; Support desk testing 455; User acceptance

testing 456; Fault logging 460

433

26

Handover
Pre-handover meeting 464; Documentation 464; New staff 465;
Floor walkers and training 466; Snag list 466; Personal devices 467;
Location corrections 467; Spares 467; Service cutover 468; Launch
party 468

463

27

Project wind-down
Contribution acknowledgements 470; Issues list 470; Variations
and change requests 470; Retentions 471; Expenses 472; Returns
and undelivered services 472; Budget closure 473; Disposals and
lease terminations 475; Property release 476; Documentation 476;
Post-project review 477

469

Glossary
Index
Index of advertisers

479

483
498

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xiv

Acknowledgements

I am grateful for and acknowledge the help of my patient publishers in dealing
with this novice author. Many professional colleagues have helped with suggestions and information, but I must particularly mention Ashley Davies, Mark
Spurgeon, Alan Brace and Simon Venters.

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1

Introduction

I have been involved in financial market trading floor and data centre projects
across the world. When you work on these projects, it soon becomes clear that
many of the issues facing businesses and project leaders during the construction of
trading floors are the same the world over. It is necessary to factor in the language
differences, different work regulations and construction practices in different
countries, but in essence many of the problems and opportunities are the same.
During one recent project I realized that many of the people involved do not
have a comprehensive and detailed understanding of all the stages involved.
That realization led to the writing of this book.
Running a trading floor construction project for technology infrastructure is
not simply about applying formal project management methods. These techniques are useful, but the project leader also has to understand and apply the

technology, construction methods, contractual issues and business needs. The
project leader also has to be able to influence the delivery by other professionals
of a wide range of technologies and disciplines. Vendors of project management
software and project management training suggest that between 40 and 70 per
cent of IT projects fail to meet their objectives. In the case of trading floor
construction projects such a rate of failure cannot be contemplated: the aim must
be an 0 per cent failure rate. The project leader has to work that extra bit harder
and smarter to ensure the project delivery exceeds expectations.
Constructing a trading floor and the associated infrastructure requires careful
engineering design to create an entity that is efficient to use and flexible enough

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2 ❙ Creating a Trading Floor

to adjust to rapidly changing business practices. The trading floor should be
engineered to be extremely robust and resilient in protecting the business from
equipment or service failure. Creating a reliable and cost-effective trading floor
infrastructure and environment does not happen by accident or without cost.
During the process of planning and construction, many decisions will affect the
cost of building, the cost of ongoing operations and the cost of business risk.
Negotiation skills will be needed, as will effective handling of supplier contracts.
An important design factor is to create an environment where the investment
and operational costs are acceptable to the business.
It has been assumed that the technology project team will also be involved in the
design, construction works planning and implementation of the technology room
or data centre that is inevitably required for the trading room and back-office areas.
An integral part of the process is to build into the design and construction the
features necessary to comply with industry standards, such as the data security
standards of the BS 7799, ISO 17799, ISO 27000 series. If the standards are taken

into account at the early planning stages, this will be a straightforward process.
To retrofit at a later stage in the operational life, particularly after a negative
compliance audit, can be a lengthy and costly process. Compliance to these standards is, in effect, becoming a regulatory business governance issue for the
directors of any business involved in trading financial instruments. Throughout
the project the project team will encounter many other standards relevant to the
construction of the IT infrastructure.
A vitally important part of the project process is the ability of the project leader
to communicate effectively with business managers, team members, contractors
and client users. The requirement for clear and unambiguous instructions
becomes greatly magnified for those supervising the construction of a trading
floor in another country. The barrier of language difficulties, different time zones
and different working practices can lead to all kinds of problems and opportunities. Even when both sides speak (more or less) the same language, for
example US English and British English, misunderstandings can arise. Once
again there is no substitute for having an experienced person on site to direct the
operations. With smaller trading floor projects the role of the technology project
leader will often have to extend into other disciplines than just information and
communications technology (ICT).
The effective delegation of tasks is essential. It is highly unlikely that the project
leader will have detailed experience in all the technologies involved in a modern
trading floor infrastructure. Constructing a trading floor is a highly complex job,
and is usually performed under tight deadlines. The role of the project leader is to
coordinate the efforts of the team and to help them communicate.
This book highlights many of the factors that must be considered in
constructing a trading floor, but in no way can it guarantee to cover all potential

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Introduction ❙ 3

problem areas. The experience and advice of many different professionals and

technical experts will be needed to achieve the end result. Project leaders have to
make sure all these people give due consideration to their areas of responsibility,
and do not assume someone else will deal with problems. They need to ensure
that appropriate technical standards are followed by their teams and suppliers.
Care has been taken to pitch the information at the level needed by project
leaders. In writing the book I was often tempted to stray into the detailed technical
issues, but to do this would have made the book much larger. Rather, I have concentrated on highlighting the many issues the project leader will need to monitor or
delegate, to ensure they are considered by the appropriate experts and technicians.
Throughout the life of the project, you will find circumstances conspiring to
prove Murphy’s Law: ‘If something can go wrong it will do so, at the worst
possible time and to the worst possible effect.’ It will require flexibility, leadership
and vision on the part of the project leader to find a way through these problems.
At some point (or many points), someone will have made a wrong planning
assumption, will have forgotten something, or a supplier will not be performing
as expected. In this book I have tried to highlight the typical issues teams face.
At times the project leader will have to force the team to be realistic about the
actual level of achievements when things are not progressing as planned. At that
point he or she will have to provide leadership to help the team meet the objectives. The project leader must take a proactive approach, seeking out problem
areas and not just waiting for them to become evident before reacting.
Project leaders must cultivate an environment of ownership and joint team spirit
among the many members of the project team. When they detect gaps in that belief
structure, they must react and deal with the situation. That might involve hard decisions. Project leaders need an approach that is a mixture of charm, caring, realism,
technical expertise and ruthlessness. Above all there has to be a personal touch: the
project leader will have to spend a substantial amount of time on site, dealing
directly with people and using the reliable Mark 1 eyeball to check actual progress.
If substantial mistakes are made in the initial planning and sequencing, the
project is likely to go wrong in a big way and explode, damaging the company
and the careers of those involved. If the project is successful it can have a longterm impact on the success of the company. Above all, running a project of this
kind is exciting and satisfying work.

OUTLINE
The book outlines and discusses the various stages of constructing a trading
floor and its associated technology rooms, from the viewpoint of a technology
project manager.

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4 ❙ Creating a Trading Floor

During the initial stages, the management of the business will want to know
how much it will cost and how long the work will take to complete. Based on
that information they will make a commercial decision on whether to go ahead
with the project. To make reasonably accurate projections on budgetary cost and
timescale, the project manager will have to undertake a complete design and cost
all of the elements involved in the project. This requires a reasonably good
understanding of the technologies involved, both IT and construction.
Project managers need to collate the views of many experts, and to distinguish
between business needs and ‘good to haves’ in collating the cost and resource
requirements. They need to allocate costs to the construction and technology
budgets. They must ensure appropriate technology choices are made, so the
installation does not quickly become outdated, and a reliable and cost-effective
business environment is provided.
Once the budgets have been approved, project managers face the difficult tasks
of forming a reliable project team, providing suitable resources for the team, and
managing deliveries and installation. During the fit-out process many unanticipated challenges will arise. It is down to the project team to resolve those issues.
Throughout the process the project manager must control costs and progress.
Finally, the project team must arrange appropriate testing and remediation of
the new facilities before they are handed over to the business. It must help the
business to plan its migration to the new environment, and arrange to dispose of
redundant facilities. At the handover stage the project team must ensure the

operational staff are provided with good documentation and appropriate skills
transfer to continue the operation of the trading floor when the highly skilled
members of the project team disperse to other projects.
One consequence of writing on the basis of project stages is that references to
technology are repeated at different sections of the book. I have tried to adjust
the level of detail so that it is appropriate to each stage.
One thing that surprised me in writing the book was the amount of detailed
consideration needed in the early budgetary stages. Some quite minor technological points can have a considerable impact on the project costs, project schedule
and subsequent operational costs. To resolve these, it is necessary to develop a
good ability to visualize the infrastructure and how it relates to both the
construction process and the business operation. As a consequence, I have given
due reference to the communication process and organizational control structures.

AUDIENCE
This book is intended for anyone who might become involved in the
construction and operation of a trading floor and its associated technology room.

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Introduction ❙ 5

I have taken this to be an electronic trading floor rather than the older-style ‘open
outcry’ floor. It would be possible to write an entire book about many of the individual technical and constructional issues, and inevitably in this one book I
cannot cover them all in any depth. This book is intended as a ‘wake-up call’, and
provides checklists for use by those about to embark on the complex and difficult
mission of managing a trading floor project.
Many different job titles are used for the core role of managing this type of
project: project director, project manager and programme director are among
them. Here I use the phrase ‘technology project leader’. In essence this person
leads other technical people and suppliers in the delivery of IT infrastructure, and

also communicates with business management and other engineering disciplines. I write in the book as if to a person in that role, although its contents should
also be useful to those in other roles. Readers who should find it helpful include:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

technology managers with a partial role in the project, or for whom the
project is a small part of their overall responsibilities;
building contractors with some responsibility for interfacing with ‘techno
geeks’ and ensuring they do nothing to adversely impact the building schedule;
premises managers who will have responsibility for the buildings after the
project goes live, and who want to make sure that what is implemented will
be easy to operate;
trading floor managers with the responsibility of sitting on steering groups
to control the builders, architects and technology experts;
consultants about to take part in a dealing floor project, and with limited or
partial experience in this field;
accountants called on to keep track of the project expenses;
recruitment consultants commissioned to select a project leader or other
team members of a dealing floor project: the book should help them
formulate a whole range of questions;
lecturers and students seeking material to boost their studies into IT in the
financial sector.

CAVEATS

To repeat: this is a broad but general guide. It does not recommend any one technology over another. That type of detail is best left to sector experts with a good
current knowledge of a particular sector. If the project team does not possess such
an expert and is called on to make such decisions, it would be well advised to seek
out a consultant with good industry knowledge and contacts, and spend some
time discussing the options.

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6 ❙ Creating a Trading Floor

However the project leader retains an important role in any such technical
decision, since he or she has to inject a level of reality into any such decision.
Technology personnel might want to deploy the latest technology for perfectly
valid reasons, but there could still be broader business reasons for the project
leader to steer the technology choice to lower-risk options.
While construction, mechanical and electrical issues are mentioned, this book
does not attempt to take the place of experienced qualified professionals. However
it does try to identify the points that should be discussed with those professionals.

EXPERIENCE
This book covers a lot of topics, but it is not a complete guide. It describes the
typical sequence of events in a project, and also provides detailed checklists. If
you study this book, other similar texts and also project management methodologies there is no doubt that you will be able to produce a project plan
document that will look very impressive to inexperienced technical personnel
and general business users. However there is no substitute for actual experience
of having implemented trading floors. If you get something wrong at the
planning stage or do not monitor progress issues properly during the project life
cycle, it is almost inevitable that delays and additional expenditure will arise.
This is not to suggest the project leader should abrogate responsibility for
leading the project to another person: it is the project leader who is primarily

responsible for making decisions and dealing with the consequences of those
decisions. The project leader should sensibly expect the individual technology
leaders and construction leaders in the project team to deliver on their part of the
project. However, project leaders who are not already experienced on trading
floor implementation should have independent mentors with whom they can
discuss the plans and the problems. The important part of leadership is to
develop a high-level oversight of all of the component parts of the project, and to
realize how things are progressing overall. An experienced mentor will help spot
when things are going wrong, when a wrong decision has been made or when
important details have been omitted. The mentor will help suggest options that
project leaders can discuss with their team and suppliers.

DOUBLE CHECK
This book will help you formulate a plan. It is a comprehensive document that
should guide you in considering most of the important factors. However, it
cannot show you how to check the calculations or assumptions that apply to

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Introduction ❙ 7

your project site. It is quite likely that factors not covered by this book will
influence the project.
During the approach to the project, and its planning and the execution, you
and your representatives will be called on to make many calculations and
planning assumptions. Simple mistakes in those calculations and assumptions
can have substantial knock-on effects for the project and the subsequent operational capability of the trading floor or data centre. For example, you might be
asked to calculate the power consumption of technology equipment required for
operational purposes. A mistake or wrong assumption on this can have an
enormous impact later in the project and during subsequent operations.

When you perform a calculation, be sure to document the calculation and the
assumptions made. Use version control, so that if you repeat the calculation
using different factors you can always go back to explain the change.
Check calculations by introducing variations and seeing if the results match
your broad expectations. Try to produce the same result using a different calculation method or high-level approach. When you are confident in the calculation, or if you get stuck, take the time to explain the workings to a third
person. If he or she cannot understand your results, it might be that you have
done something wrong.
If a supplier or one of your team members makes such a calculation on your
behalf, you should expect that individual to document and be able to explain the
calculations and assumptions to your own standards.

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9

1

The starting point:
business requirements

Right from the outset of the decision to investigate the provision of a new trading
floor, you will need to establish the basic business requirements of the floor, associated equipment rooms, back office and service rooms. Those requirements will
inevitably change substantially as the project progresses, but it is a fundamental
prerequisite for success that the requirements and assumptions are agreed and

documented in the very early stages. An effective change control process will then
allow you to contain and deal with any changes to the business requirements.
This information should be established before the search for premises takes
place. This applies even if it is intended to locate the trading floor in a building
already owned or leased by the organization. If the fundamental research is not
undertaken first, it is very likely that the design of the trading floor will be
unnecessarily compromised by premature decisions on accommodation suitability. In other words, other people might choose a location that is bad news for
the technology team. For example there might not be enough power or space for
the technology infrastructure.
Many factors will affect the choice of location. Normally it will be convenient
to choose a site in, or close to, the local centre of business activity. From the technology and operational logic perspectives the premises could be almost
anywhere, but although financial market trades are now mostly executed by
telephone or electronically, the trading and sales staff will prefer to be in a

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10 ❙ Creating a Trading Floor

location that clients can easily visit, and vice versa. Similarly, the location should
be appropriate for business entertainment. This normally leads to the choice of
premises in the financial sector of the city where the business is located.
Among the other factors that will impact the decision are:
•
•
•
•
•

ease of access, in terms of commuting, international travel and hotels;
the prestige of the location: it could for example be in a famous building or

street, close to a major financial exchange, or premises with a spectacular
view to appeal to visiting clients;
subsidized rent or tax advantages;
national regulations controlling the trading of ‘domestic instruments’;
the availability of suitable building structures.

From a technology viewpoint, the factors to be considered include:
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•
•
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proximity of the location to major telecoms company data fibre networks;
availability of dual-routed electrical power supply;
plenty of space in the building for cabling and raised floors;
availability in the building of services such as chilled water and generator
backup power.

However it is highly likely that the technology aspects will come a poor second
to business needs in the selection of property. It then becomes your job as technology project team to find a solution to the technological problems. You should
ensure that business managers are kept informed of the technology cost consequences of their selection of premises.

NUMBER OF PEOPLE
At a very early stage you will need to know the number of people that are to be
accommodated in the new premises. Provision should be made for business
expansion over the next, say, one, three and five years.
You will need to know how much floor space will be allocated for each person.
Senior managers are likely to need more floor space per person than junior
clerical staff. Trading floor desk space will probably be quite closely packed to
provide proximity to other trading staff. There might also be country-specific

rules about the minimum allowable space per person and the maximum
distance allowed from a natural light source.
Information about the number of users could be very commercially sensitive,
particularly if the move to a new trading floor involves redundancies or business

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The Starting Point ❙ 11

expansion. Many other design factors, such as power and air conditioning, are
governed by the number of personnel and the business services they will need. A
substantial change in the number of personnel at a later stage of the project
might invalidate the selection of a particular building.
It could be the intention to only occupy the premises for a short period, and
then move to an alternative location. This could affect the quality of build sought.

HOURS OF BUSINESS
If the trading room is a genuine 24-hour operation, this can have a significant
impact on the design of the trading floor and environmental support services, as
most buildings do not have base building services designed and built for 24-hour
operation. Even if the hours are more restricted, they can still cause problems in
buildings where the services are designed for 9.00 am to 5.00 pm occupation.
If the hours of business coverage are 7.00 am to 8.00 pm, as is typical with
trading floor operations, you might find that the landlord’s building services are
not designed for those hours of operation. If there is weekend operation to cover
Islamic countries the problems can be heightened. You might need to negotiate a
special agreement with the building manager to extend the service hours, or to
install extra air conditioning and chilling facilities as a tenant. Often the chilled
water facilities to a shared building are switched off outside ‘normal’ business
hours to reduce energy consumption and to reduce wear on the chilling components. If the trading floor has a dense technology configuration, it could become

quite warm when the main building air conditioning is not working. This can
make working conditions uncomfortable for staff working outside the normal
working hours envelope.
With a 24-hour operation you might need to include additional catering and
rest area facilities for the staff working unsocial hours, since local shops, restaurants and other facilities might not function late at night, for example.
Usually sufficient planning and expenditure can overcome the hours of operation factor. However, if the problems are unanticipated or no planning is made
for ‘out of hours’ operations, you might not realize the impact until after the floor
goes live. Fixing such problems at that stage can be very difficult.

BUSINESS DEADLINES
During the early planning stage you will need to understand the deadlines
driving the business requirements. It might be absolutely necessary to achieve a
live date that has been set by an external factor such as the authorization of a new

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