Additionally, there is the mental health
aspect of the trading environment.
The industry is working very long
hours and this is not just the case for
traders. It might be the analyst who is
in at 6am to assess a Swiss corporate
earnings release, the support team
which is in before 7am or the ECM
Deputy, Gregg Dalley, for doing a
fantastic job.
Over the last month or so, I have spent
time individually meeting with as
many committee members as possible
to understand how the IA can help
them and their firms. Crucially, when
Over the last year alone, we’ve done
two things of particular note. Firstly, in
June, we announced a collaboration
with BMLL Technologies called
Platometrics to provide twelve daily T+1
market quality metrics to enable more
transparency and information across
the European trading landscape. The
hope is that this helps us all to assess
consolidated volumes across Europe
and measure addressable and non-
addressable liquidity. Secondly, we’ve
just announced a partnership with
Babelfish Analytics, a next-generation
TCA platform.
In what way is Babelfish
differentiated?
Richard at the 17 th ATF Equities London
desk that stays in the office until
10pm allocating a deal. Analysis by
employment law firm Fox & Partners
of Health and Safety Executive figures
has shown that the number of working
days per worker lost because of stress
in financial services is 31% higher than
the average between 2007 and 2010.
While market hours are only part of
this, it feels like a great place to start.
Similarly, when it comes to diversity
& inclusion, we hope it will help
attract younger talent and continue
the cultural shifts that we are
starting to see. I see this as one small
step forwards and support from
those involved with IA and AFME
demonstrate that this is a popular
opinion.
What else is the IA Buyside Trading
Committee focused on?
The first thing to do is congratulate
the previous Chair, Adam Conn, and
34
it comes to my role, it is worth noting
that while I have the glamourous title of
Chairman, my role is really coordinator,
and it is mostly about harnessing the
committee’s enthusiasm to drive real
change in the industry.
The regulatory side will always keep us
occupied, whether that be, for example,
the impact of Central Securities
Depositories Regulation (CSDR) or the
Share Trading Obligation (STO). Equally
we are keen to focus on the bigger
picture and look to future technological
developments, so that will be a priority
too.
I’m very excited by this. It definitely
feels like the next generation of TCA. We
all know how the various algorithmic
strategies that we use work but do
we really know what goes on “under
the hood”? For example, do we know
how and why Broker A route in a block
seeking algo versus Broker B? Babelfish
will look into that sequencing analysis.
TCA generally only looks at executions
but the real challenge is understanding
the orders that don’t fill. Babelfish looks
at factors such as internalisation and
the opportunity cost of that, which feels
very topical given the rapidly changing
market structure in Europe.
How has the year been for Janus
Henderson Investors?
You are a board member on the Plato
Partnership. What have they been
working for? It has been another year of change.
Mergers are always a challenge but
we are in good shape from a global
trading perspective. We are all on one
order management system (OMS) and
execution management system (EMS)
and our processes and procedures have
been reviewed and updated.
The Plato Partnership is a not-for-
profit company of asset managers and
brokers who are collaborating to bring
creative solutions and efficiencies to
today’s complex equity market place. You should notice a theme of
collaboration and teamwork
throughout this discussion and that is
key when working for a global asset
manager with three main dealing desks.
www.buysideintel.com
Winter/Spring 2020