THE PROBLEM
Quick reflexes and intuition are just two of the qualities of "front-office" exchange traders -- they also need the right software. Selected for the quality of its graphics and for the statistical functions it contains, PV-WAVE is making its entrance into this ruthless financial environment, providing support to the Chartix® software developed by Société Générale's computing teams.

On the financial markets a vast range of "instruments" are bought and sold -- energy, currencies, raw materials and bonds, to name but a few. Traders need to "stick" to the market extremely closely so that they can buy and sell to the best effect. All prices, trends and rates need to be represented as easily interpreted, high-quality curves, and this must be done reliably and quickly. A poorly designed application would lead to huge losses for the company.

Developed for Société Générale's OTC and OTA divisions, which account for around 2,500 people spread throughout the financial capitals of the world (New York, Tokyo, London, Paris and Singapore), Chartix is the only software that allows operators to grasp the full complexity of the markets.

THE SOLUTION
Société Générale wanted to standardize on a working tool suited to its requirements and at less cost than off-the-shelf software. This was the task given to Eric Weinstock. The project was wide-ranging, required more than two years of development (for the sake of reliability) and involved constant dialogue with the end users. Weinstock selected PV-WAVE for its 2D and 3D data visual display functions and the statistical capabilities that best suited his needs. Working under SunOS® on SUN SPARC® stations, Chartix has already been adopted by the Paris trading desks and is being progressively installed in New York and Tokyo.

Chartix continuously queries a central database, which feeds back Reuters or Telerate data in real time. It then integrates all the available financial data on the Stock Exchange, including volumes of transactions, buying and selling offers, opening prices, out-of-hours volumes, indices and share prices. Traders can work with "intraday" (real-time) or "extraday" (historic) data to examine the state of the market over the past days, weeks or months. Selecting a particular financial graph type such as histogram, curve, bar chart or historic volatility diagram, the trader can view up to 5,000 values in real time.

Pretty pictures are useless without mathematical and statistical analysis and interpretation. Chartix integrates a host of utility programs developed using PV-WAVE that allow the trader to realize the highest possible financial return. On the basis of their experience, traders use movement of the markets to determine whether to buy, sell or stick. Chartix gives them insight regarding the market by allowing them to view statistical and mathematical operations carried out on the market data as curves superimposed onto the original graph.

RETURN ON INVESTMENT
Chartix provides:

In addition to this, Chartix has set specific utility programs designed to meet the specific requirements of Société Générale's traders -- including the creation of composite bonds, evolving models from past data and other invaluable analysis of the market.

With Chartix, Société Générale has a powerful and reliable tool that gives them a real competitive edge.

WORLD CLASS PRODUCTS, SERVICES, AND SUPPORT
Visual Numerics has provided technical software solutions for numerical analysis and visualization for over 30 years. The company's software products help users understand complex data from a variety of sources and build business-critical applications. Visual Numerics offers two product lines: the IMSL® Numerical Libraries for powerful mathematical and statistical analysis and the PV-WAVE® visual data analysis development environment. Visual Numerics also offers customized consulting services for applications that involve mathematical, statistical, or visual data analysis to meet today’s business analytical needs.