Against the backdrop of a volatile global political and economic climate, we see technological advancement and adoption of disruptive mediums moving at an aggressive pace. Which technologies are "winners" and where should you focus your energy? Here are several outlined in this new whitepaper by Nasdaq:

Data Analytics -- Being able to mine data, normalize it, update analytics in real time and present it in a consolidated view is a source of competitive advantage. Until now systems were rules-based, but we are now seeing a seismic change in the approach which will progressively shift toward using machine learning and artificial intelligence to eliminate bias in the analysis and discover new patterns in the data. Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) -- Software runs on top of operating systems, which makes it possible to multitask. The operating system slices up the operations into small chunks that are not perceivable to the user and then executes them on that computer. In ultra-low latency environments such as stock markets, multitasking creates inherent jitter in the performance. Mobile Technology -- The proliferation of mobile technology – from smartphones to tablets and iPads – has fundamentally changed consumer behavior. Consumers are increasingly buying goods and services on their mobile devices, which is having a significant impact on brick and mortar stores. In our industry, investors enjoy access to the financial markets from anywhere. Cloud Computing -- Cloud providers are generating billions of dollars in revenue, and growth is accelerating rapidly. Nasdaq has already built a new investor relations portal and established an entire infrastructure supporting our data sandbox in the cloud. Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence -- Today there is a vast amount of data available, and computing technology has matured to the extent where we can gain significant insight from it. In the not too distant future, artificial intelligence will become ubiquitous in the financial industry. From a technical and a business perspective, it will be used to tie together different inputs so market infrastructure providers can react much more dynamically and learn from experience. Blockchain -- Blockchain has great potential across the financial services industry, particularly in the post-trade environment. As an immutable record of ownership, it could create greater efficiency and transparency in position-keeping and reconciliation. For cashsettled securities, it could accelerate the clearing and settlement time frame to T+0, significantly reducing risk in the system. Collateral could be moved around quickly and easily. On the settlement side, blockchain could enable several services including managing payments and cash, transferring securities, facilitating collateral and tri-party arrangements, and securities lending. Cybersecurity -- More information is being shared than ever before, and global regulators have become increasingly concerned about cyber security risk. As expectations are still being defined, the onus is on firms and their boards to ensure their environment is protected.

Read the entire whitepaper by downloading our 2017 Future of FinTech report to learn which seven technologies will bring promise to the exchange industry in 2017: Access the Report.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.