Buy-side Perspectives Issue 14 Special edition | Page 51

LONG-ONLY INVESTOR
IN LONG-TERM QUALITY
GROWTH COMPANIES
Joseph Collery
Head of Trading, Comgest Asset Management International Limited, (Comgest)
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.
Can you describe a typical day in the
office at Comgest?
I think it is fair to say that no two days are
ever the same at Comgest but essentially
the day is composed of interactions with
PM’s, Brokers and the Middle Office. There
are always live trades in different stages
of their life cycles that require specific
treatment which creates an interesting
workflow. The traders generally open the
each asset class that you trade giving
examples (if you can) of the pros and
cons of each and which areas you would
like to see further development?
Comgest is practically 100% Equity
invested, with Index futures and currency
hedging on our hedged portfolios. I
would define Equities as a buoyant
market where the advantages are gained
in finding quality liquidity. The landscape
is changing as traders
endeavour to find new ways
Our approach is to continually refine
to avoid market impact.
this post-trade information and use it to
The FX market is an RFQ
enhance our pre-trade process at the order
battleground with ever
initiation stage to ensure best execution.
tightening spreads with
This data also allows us to fulfil our MiFID II the usual FX benchmarks
transaction reporting requirements
still being used to cut
many daily NAVs across the
industry. Trading futures requires a lot of
day digesting how the US faired in the
preparatory work to evaluate the market
previous session and the knock-on effect
depth and the hedging coverage you
into the open Asian session. Earnings
wish to obtain with each future traded.
and upcoming events are digested, and
Roll cost must also be established prior to
this data is fed back to the PMs with
placing orders to avoid costly trades!
any significant market related moves
on the relevant names in the Comgest
Do you have a preferred asset class and
investment universe.
can you tell us why?
As head of trading, how would you
The Equity market would currently be my
describe the differences between
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preferred asset class as it is continually
evolving, particularly in Europe. Each
day new venues are being “turned on
or off” at different broker houses as the
results from their data crunching quant
teams persevere to evaluate toxicity. We
have concentrated portfolios and can
sometimes be a meaningful portion of
daily liquidity and therefore have invested
our time heavily in upgrading our TCA
to efficiently aggregate this data into
meaningful pre-trade indications. This
adds a tangible quant driven layer to the
broker selection process and improves
the vigour of our best execution process.
It is a fortunate fit that Comgest is a long-
only investor in long-term quality growth
companies.
Does having knowledge gained through
previous roles such as Chief Operations
Officer help you influence and steer
your trading desk so that it runs to its
maximum efficiency?
Absolutely. The skill set required to
manage the day to day operational
running of a bank forces you to see
the bigger strategic picture and
consider every aspect of management.
It has greatly aided in the extrinsic
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