Therapiddevelopmentandadoptionoftechnology-basedinformation,commu- cationandproductdeliverysystemshavefacilitatedglobalizationofthe?nancial services industry and removed the barriers between its vertical segments. New business and market models require the adaptation of existing IT infrastr- tures as well as the development of innovative solutions for both experimental and operational systems. In this context, several aspects are creating a highly innovative and at the same time competitive setup in the ?nancial industry. In the workshop series on enterprise applications and services in the ?nance industry (FinanceCom), we try to capture this development. Here, service-oriented computing concepts and architecturesplayamajorrole.Whenapplyingthesenovelconceptsintheba- ing and?nancesector,thebusiness valueofsucharchitectureshasto beassessed quantitatively. Also, the heterogeneous and evolving service-oriented modeling methodologies have to be evaluated. Pulling these novel modeling methodo- gies up to a larger picture, the technology-driventransformation of the ?nancial industry is emphasized, where a highly fragmented and heterogeneous situation is currently developing towards banking value networks. In this ?eld, ?nancial business standardization and the introduction of st- dardized service modules play a core role. Applying standardized services c- tainly allows one to utilize economies of scale in a better way and hence fosters outsourcing and o?shoring tendencies in the sector of banking information s- tems. While addressing this aspect, of course novel technologies that are being developedin other ?elds also entering the banking and ?nance domain.Web s- vicesandgridcomputing aretwo importantexamples.However,thesestandards can only be utilized when being applied homogeneously in ?nancial systems. As an example, international standards such as the "markets and ?nancial inst- ments directive (MiFID)" of the European Union are of key interest.

Patterns and Skeletons for Parallel and Distributed Computing is a unique survey of research work in high-level parallel and distributed computing over the past ten years. Comprising contributions from the leading researchers in Europe and the US, it looks at interaction patterns and their role in parallel and distributed processing, and demonstrates for the first time the link between skeletons and design patterns. It focuses on computation and communication structures that are beyond simple message-passing or remote procedure calling, and also on pragmatic approaches that lead to practical design and programming methodologies with their associated compilers and tools. The book is divided into two parts which cover: skeletons-related material such as expressing and composing skeletons, formal transformation, cost modelling and languages, compilers and run-time systems for skeleton-based programming.- design patterns and other related concepts, applied to other areas such as real-time, embedded and distributed systems. It will be an essential reference for researchers undertaking new projects in this area, and will also provide useful background reading for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate courses on parallel or distributed system design.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 6th International Workshop on Enterprise Applications and Services in the Finance Industry, FinanceCom 2012, held in Barcelona, Spain, on June 10, 2012.

The workshop spans multiple disciplines, including technical, service, economic, sociological, and behavioral sciences. It reflects on technologically enabled opportunities, implications, and changes due to the introduction of new business models or regulations related to the financial services industry and the financial markets.

The seven papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions. The topics covered are: news and text analysis; algorithmic and high-frequency trading; and the role and impact of technology.