People in radio are fond of saying hearing is seeing.
And now, a handful of Wall St. traders are saying the same thing.
They are using new technology developed by a small Hanover start-up company called Accentus.
The group has developed software that converts market data into musical sounds.
New Hampshire Public Radio's Dan Gorenstein reports.
The concept behind the Accentus software is familiar to a lot of people who program their cell phones to use different rings for different callers.
So when you hear...
Sfx: Darth Vader March
...you know it's your boss, or maybe your ex-wife.
What Accentus has done, is develop software that converts fluctuations in stocks and bonds into distinctive musical tones.
Company CEO James Perkins pulls out his laptop to demonstrate how it works.
T.10
:12 the beauty of these sounds as we are having the conversation (sound) that's a ten year treasury. (sound) that was a 30 year treasury. (sound) that was a NASDAC, it's down it's ticking up...
Think of it as a musical version of the stock ticker that crawls across the bottom of you t.v. screen.
According to Accentus executives, they are dabbling in a science that didn't even exist ten years ago.
It's called auditory display, a clunky name for an area of study that combines cognitive psychology, music composition and computer science.
Accentus designers felt their system would work for people who deal with a firehouse of information, and need to snatch particular pieces of data instantly.
So as they were developing their product for market Perkins and his colleagues went to Wall St.
T.7
5:24 ... we went to top traders, and one of those traders early on, had that exact idea, if the DOW goes down, I want ot hear a toilet flush.
Sfx: toilet bowl
...And if the DOW goes up, I want ot hear a champagne cork.
Sfx: champagne cork
....And we actually tried that, and it worked for about 5 seconds. And we realized that was not a sound people wanted to hear that often.
Today about 7 Wall St. firms are using this software.
Paul Calvetti a trader at Barclays Capital.
He is a classic case of a man delaing with information overload.
At his office, he stares at four computer screens.
And he says he tracks about 30 variables a day.
5:42 ...I see the two-sided market for the Japanese Yen. I see the two-sided market for the US Treasury 2 year note, the five year note, and the ten year note...
Calvetti needs to do more than spot changes in a particular investment.
He needs to react to the ripple effect caused by those changes.
And now, with the Accentus software even when he is eating lunch, or talking with a coworker, the bassoon, or some other instrument will sound, and his head will snap around.
11:13 what I'll do is I'll hear that. I'll stop what I am doing. And I will know SPs are falling, and if the fixed income market hasn't responded yet, I will immediately buy something.
According to Boston Globe Technology columnist Scott Kirsner, there is a wave of new devices that aim to help people sort through their information.
And the ones that succeed are the ones people latch onto right away.
In that aspect, Kirsner says he'll be interestedto see how the Accentus technology fairs.
But the bigger test for the company, says Kirsner, is convincing Wall St. traders hearing music will help them make money.
14:44 it does have a little bit of that chuckle factor. Like you want me to listen to music to help me do my job better. There is that weird scene in that movie Willy Wonka where he plays a song to open up a door, and the door had a lock that could only be opened if you played Rachmaninoff. It was a weird concept then, and it's a weird concept now of music being a useful tool in the business world.
It might be weird, but the executives at Accentus hope their musical number will be topping the charts in the financial district.
And by the way, even though Willy Wonka said it was Rachmaninoff, what he really played was the Marriage of Figaro.
For NHPR News, I’m DG.
Delicious
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
Google
Yahoo