Book excerpt: The financial technology environment is a dynamic, high-pressured, fast-paced world in which developing fast and efficient buy-and-sell order processing systems and order executing (clearing and settling) systems is of primary importance. The orders involved come from an ever-changing network of people (traders, brokers, market makers) and technology. To prepare people to succeed in this environment, seasoned financial technology veteran Roy Freedman presents both the technology and the finance side in this comprehensive overview of this dynamic area. He covers the broad range of topics involved in this industry--including auction theory, databases, networked computer clusters, back-office operations, derivative securities, regulation, compliance, bootstrap statistics, optimization, and risk management—in order to present an in-depth treatment of the current state-of-the-art in financial technology. Each chapter concludes with a list of exercises; a list of references; a list of websites for further information; and case studies. - With amazing clarity, Freedman explains both the technology side and the finance side of financial technology - Accessible to both finance professionals needing to upgrade their technology knowledge and technology specialists needing to upgrade their finance knowledge