Hello,Does anybody know if there are any good front office applications available in the market similar to the middle office/back office applications like Calypso, Endur ? Being spent sometime in the fixed income front office environment I noticed traders only use Excel with home grown add-ins. I am thinking of building a front-office system (mainly for IR/FX/Commodity traders) which will offer at least the following basic functionalities real time: market data hookup, pricing with the choice of a model, custom entry of vol surface, spreads etc, risk numbers (greeks) and dealer quotes (entered by TAs or electronically).Thanks,KausikCQF'er June 2008Wachovia.

Most traders do have major front office applications in front of them but tend to treat them not as analytical tools but rather as books of record because they are not easy to use. What front office application keeps up with the fevered product development coming out of the major shops? The larger scale systems currently sold were probably designed 5-10 years ago but of course new stuff does appear from time to time. It is difficult to imagine someone putting together a front office application that is as intuitive and flexible as the spreadsheet/add-in. All power to you if you can pull it off.

It is very difficult to sell core commercial software in front office. Outside vendors will have very hard time to establish their credibilities. Also, it is not a profitable model for the vendor either. If you are going to offer basic functions, I bet vast majority of banks have already got them in place (otherwise how can they trade now?) If you are going to offer advanced stuffs, even if you succeed in selling sth, you will be in a situation of catching a running bus of changing requests (on daily basis? ;->)