Month: November 2015

A Dashboard for any Imagine Implementation

mikemoncada21

A Q&A with Michael Moncada

Imagine’s I/O Services are an indispensable command line tool that invokes Imagine’s APIs for uploading, processing, and downloading data. This tool is a critical component of virtually every client’s use of Imagine, providing nearly one hundred different services. But have you heard about the SITKA I/O Services Dashboard? Mike Moncada, Senior Implementation Specialist for Imagine, says, “I would use this with any implementation.” We sat down with Mike to ask him a few questions about the dashboard.

Hey Mike, what is the SITKA I/O Services Dashboard and why would you use it so broadly?

It is a one-stop command center for running, monitoring, and reviewing results of I/O Services jobs. It is powerful, lets you come away from viewing the long and somewhat tedious batch files, and gives you a tool for setting up jobs and monitoring them. A partner of Imagine, Sindex Financial Systems, wrote this dashboard management program for our I/O Services.

Wait, what’s the problem with batch files?

Some people (like me) like using commands like this:

“%absPath%..\..\..\Bin\IOServiceClient.exe” -f %inpFile% -o %outFile% -ios %service% -log %logFile% -d

But I understand there are people who don’t care for that, and this tool lets them avoid that entirely. Here’s a screenshot of what they would get instead:

SITKA IO Service Dashboard

Click Image to Enlarge

What else does the Dashboard offer other than an escape from batch commands?

Lots of things. For example, it:

  • helps you set up new jobs, with search-as-you-type, to find the right I/O service,
  • gives you sample templates to help get the input files right with clickable links to online support for detailed help,
  • allows you to watch the progress that jobs are making, each input that’s successfully processed, or each item that’s rejected,
  • shows you the history of each job complete with when it ran, the input, output, and log files for that job,
  • and lets you re-run jobs by copying their setup with a single click.

If Imagine clients want to learn more about the SITKA I/O Services Dashboard, they can email info@sindexsystems.com or fill out this form to be contacted by Sindex.

We Have a Stress Test App–Check It Out

jamesaconsulting Leave a comment

The Stress Test App is the latest addition to the current collection of customizable apps available in the Imagine Marketplace. Similar to the other simulation tools in Imagine, the Stress Test App uses archived data to stress current portfolios and generate robust historical simulations that estimate how a portfolio would perform under documented periods of extreme risk volatility.

The Stress Test App provides value-added features on top of regular historical stress testing abilities: advanced control over your inputs coupled with the ability to analyze your output in great detail. The App:

  • creates output that clearly explains the variables used to calculate the theoretical values
  • offers greater user-control over the logic and defaults to generate simulations

Additionally, a companion dashboard provides at-a-glance simple views that clearly identifies a portfolio’s strengths and vulnerabilities under a pre-defined stress scenarios.

A New, Flexible Stress Test Product

Murat Sen Leave a comment

The stress test app is built on Imagine’s Consulting Team’s modus operandi, “Tell us what your risk technology need is and we can tailor whatever Imagine has to offer for you.”

The idea of developing a separate product for stress testing came to life when we observed our clients and general end users of financial tech products. Both groups, when using historical stress testing for estimating how their portfolios would perform during documented periods of extreme market movements, had the same two major pain points: ease of use and transparency.

Ease of Use

Our studies showed us that end users were getting lost in complicated setups. They also wanted more control over the scenario designs and stress factors and models. We addressed this concern and created a comprehensive infrastructure on which the app runs and stresses the positions. With initial setup from Imagine Consulting team, users are able to alter the setups by modifying scenarios, risk factors, and fallback strategies depending on their asset types, investing styles, and risk management needs without having to write a single line of code. On top of this, if the user wants a completely different way of shocking positions or seeing the results – for example seeing the worst of or best of scenario for a period – this is also possible as the app is very flexible.

Transparency

Users wanted two things; transparency in their results and the ability to visualize analysis with graphs, tables, and smart dashboards. These were vital for our clients, and our product makes it easy to drill-down into complex portfolio structures and multi-layered aggregations. We designed the app so users have the ability to see results in a factor-by-factor detailed data table and a fully configurable set of data visualizations that enables the user to identify trends and discover patterns. This way, what looks like a very straightforward historical stress test will help the decision makers see the “stories” hidden behind historical data available to everyone else.

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About the Author
Murat Sen is a Consultant in Imagine’s New York office working on consulting engagements and client-facing product management projects. A native of Istanbul, Murat holds an MBA degree from Cornell University.

Murat can be contacted by email or phone: 646.827.4433