Co-Founder The Buy-side Trading Community

One thing that no one had ever imagined before 2020 was that major events and activities would all have to take place online when a global pandemic hits. Working from home had always remained a discussion item on the agenda of achieving work-life balance, but it was never carried out to the extent that we have seen this year.

Head of trading desk & overlay management at Groupama Asset Management

Financial Markets have been quite resilient. Beyond of turnover increase, the widening of bid/offer spread, the spike of volatility has impacted the implicit cost, the role of the trading desk has been crucial to educate, advise PM’s to navigate in the new landscape. Helping them in term of investment implementation, market timing etc ...

Global Head of Alternatives Trading at Invesco

One of the key advantages for the Global Multi Asset Derivatives Desk was our ability to transition to a home set up in a seamless fashion. This was aided by our Business Continuity Program (BCP) which had already rolled out home setup capabilities for traders across our global investment centres, which was part of our BAU offering. The smooth transition enabled the team to experience zero disruption on our trading coverage model.

Fixed Income Dealing Manager, Jupiter Asset Management

I think from the outset, any answer to this question must acknowledge the work done by our firm’s IT dept and broader operational resilience. The efforts to get parts of the business that “can’t” work from home, to being fully operational remotely, effectively overnight, shouldn’t be forgotten 6 months on. We must ensure we aren’t complacent in this new environment and continue to seek out efficiencies and develop lines of communication that enable us to add as much value out of the office, as we did in.

Head of Fixed Income Dealing at State Street Global Advisors

What I love about being a Buyside Trader is that no 2 days are ever the same.  Thank goodness, because I’ve been doing this job for 25 years! Imagine a job where you start each day by trying to make sense of what has happened overnight to Financial markets, in politics, both national international and what, if any, news events are having an impact on markets.

Help your buy-side peers and colleagues

This campaign’s sole aim is to help our community  and get them up realise that this is a huge issue - which has been highlighted even more in 2020. 

​October 2020: Market Structure Partners undertook “The Study on the Creation of an an EU Consolidated Tape” for the European Commission. 

This study analyses the demand for consolidated European financial market data in equities and bonds. It examines the benefits that would arise from such data, the challenges to creating it and recommends an architecture for future data consolidation. The study is based on the input of 200 data stakeholders and research into North American consolidation frameworks. 

Lynn Strongin Dodds assesses the progress that has been made, the long lasting impact of COVID-19 and the many gaps still needed to be filled.  As Anita Karppi, Co-founder of K&K Global Consulting and the Buy-side Trading Community, notes, “one of the biggest challenges is how do you attract the next generation into a career in the financial markets. The employers require diversity of thought and need to look at individuals. 

How Cboe Europe is bringing innovation and cost-efficient competition to European markets.

David Howson was promoted to President of Cboe Europe on January 1 2020, taking the reins at Europe’s largest pan-European stock exchange. David provides his views on the radical proposals to reform European equity market structure, the industry’s reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic and updates us on the group’s expansion plans into clearing.

Whether you are a male or female, being a strong leader and having a strong team is what matters. I don’t feel disadvantaged because I’m a woman, and I certainly don’t really think about being a woman in a business context.

We caught up with Tina Bach, chief dealer at Nordea Asset Management who is a

valued member of our  Buy-side Trading Community and regular attendee to the

Alpha Trader Forums.  Tina gives us  an in-depth view and shares her experiences

about her role at Nordea and  the Fixed Income markets. 

Alex Clark, Senior Multi-Asset Execution Trader at Aspect Capital, gives us an insight in to life as an execution trader at a systematic hedge fund. As a specialist in Fixed income, FX and commodities, Alex shares his thoughts on how he sees technology innovation changing the buy side trading landscape over the next 5 years as well as his thoughts on algorithms. 

Richard Worrell is the Head of EMEA Equity Trading for Janus Henderson Investors, the Chairman of the Investment Association’s Buyside Trading Committee and a Plato Partnership board member. 
 

Here at the forefront of the Buy-side Trading Community,  we pride ourselves on focussing our buy-side trading research on the key themes that the buy side tell us are most important to them. We are the only buy-side trading consultancy firm to use the research  in our regional Alpha Trader Forums across London, Paris, Frankfurt and Stockholm.

The trading of blocks in the European equity market has never been more prevalent, with the large in scale market (LIS) now accounting for 37% of the on exchange dark activity and on average 1.59bn Euros being traded above LIS every day. 

As the FX marketplace matures in the accessibility and transparency of currency pricing, the need to redefine and simplify workflows becomes paramount.  The quality of electronic trading improvements has led to a bifurcation of trading requirements. 

As already discussed at the 7th annual ATF Global Summit on the 6th and 7th February in London, K&KGC under took the responsibility to investigate how the buy-side community could cultivate greater gender diversity at the buy-side trading desk...

I am Sydney-based Global Co-Head of Equity Trading for AllianceBernstein (AB), with my co-head, Frank Loughlin, who is based in New York. My direct responsibility area is everything outside of the US however we run the trading desk as a truly global platform...

I started at Vanguard about 17 years ago answering telephones and gradually worked my way through the organisation. I also held a position as a financial planner advising clients about retirement plans...

I am the responsible Head of Trading running the trading desk as well as the overlay management for Groupama Asset Management. We are trading equities, fixed income, foreign exchange and both listed and OTC derivatives... 

I have two responsibility areas within my trading role at Candriam. I am both a generalist on global FICC & Equity derivatives as well as a specialist trading Emerging Markets Fixed Income (Credit, Rate, FX, derivatives)...

My role at Insight Investment has changed dramatically over the past 3-4years. I’m part of an FX Execution team which trades all currency requirements for Insight Investment...

With the launch of #buysidewomen at the recent 7th annual Alpha Trader Forum (ATF) Global Summit in February, Eden Simmer, head of global equity trading at Pimco was one of five senior women buy-side traders who took centre stage to share their experiences on “A head trader’s perspective - organising the trading desk and managing staff careers”.

Adrian was one of the influential advisory board members ahead of planning for the 7th annual Alpha Trader Forum Global Summit 2019. With a career working both on the buy- and sell-side trading multiple asset classes, Adrian shares his expertise about buy-side fixed income and foreign exchange trading.

The Buy-side Perspectives caught up with Danièle Chekroun, head of European equity execution at AXA Investment Managers, who shares her thoughts on this within her role as head of equity trading at one of the leading global asset management firms.

The fixed income and foreign exchange OTC markets are undergoing a rapid transformation with higher regulatory scrutiny and increased electronification of trading. The Buy-side Perspectives caught up with Ravi Sawhney, Global Head of Trade Automation (OTC) at Bloomberg LP to get his views on how technology can support the trading desk to increase their productivity.

​We caught up with Vincent Dessard, Senior Regulatory Policy Advisor at EFAMA for further comments to our findings.

As a full-time FX trader and a mother to 3 young children, Jenny tells us how she manages to keep a work life balance with the support of Schroders and reflects over the last 17 years of FX trading compared to the challenges faced in today’s markets. 

​The Global Foreign Exchange Committee’s1 (”GFXC”) newly created buy-side outreach working group is working to facilitate buy-side adoption of the FX Global Code (Global Code).

Martin shares a refreshing and candid view on his trading experiences and challenges at Liontrust and gives an insight on his personal interests outside of his trading role to achieve a work-life balance.

Kevin shares his personal story of how he started his career on the sell side and the reasons why he moved across to the buy side in 2016, together with the challenges he faces in the world of fixed income buy-side trading.

Joseph tells us about his experiences and challenges as head of trading at Comgest, sharing his thoughts on present-day trading and how markets have changed over the years.

With a diverse career spanning three decades within buy-side trading, Richard shares his personal experiences and views having worked in trading rooms around the world.

K&K Global Consulting Ltd. met with Christophe Roupie on 23rd May 2018 to hear about his journey over the past year at MarketAxess. This is his story:

Sailing into a new and exciting market structure with more data and closer sell-side relationships.

K&KGC caught up with Derek McCole, to get his perspectives, after he spent just over a year in his new global co-head trader role in Edinburgh transitioning from Singapore as the previous “Head of Equity Dealing ‐ Asia Pacific” at Aberdeen Standard Investments. As expected, Derek gave us interesting insights into the transition of roles between the vastly different regions and a clear perspective of the challenges ahead.  READ THE ARTICLE

As the competitive landscape shifts, new regulations take effect and technology capabilities advance, buy-side firms look to open platform solutions to customize and enhance trading workflows.  READ THE ARTICLE