Conference Dailys TRADETech Daily 2019 - Wrap-Up Issue | Page 2

June 18 - 20, 2019 THETRADETECH DAILY THE OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF TRADETECH 2019 Philadelphia 201 Philadelphia The Fastest Growing Fixed Income Community 900+ Attendees Lead Sponsor 400+ Fixed Income Leaders 150+ Speakers Principal Sponsors 15+ Networking Hours The missing piece T here was something bugging me throughout this year’s TradeTech conference, something missing, but I just couldn’t put my finger on it. Had I missed a particularly important panel or interview somewhere along the line? No, The TRADE’s editorial team had witnessed the BlackRock and Virtu keynotes, among other all-star panels, despite industrial action on the Eurostar and reports of four-hour queues at Gare du Nord. Had I seen the quintessential French man wearing a well-cut suit and hat, baguette in hand? Check, within two hours of arriving in Par- is actually. Had I forgotten to have lunch? Yes, but nothing new there. But then, once the conference was done and our team was taking stock en route back to London, dissecting our experiences of Trade- Tech 2019, the answer came to me. The missing piece this year was disagreement. In a marked difference from previous years, where the impending arrival of the MiFID II regime meant that everyone wanted to say their piece on what was wrong with the regulation, almost all of this year’s speakers from the main stage panels to the more intimate break- out stream interviews seemed to be reading from the same script on matters technological, regulatory and execution. Depending on where you sit in the market, this can be a good or bad thing. Obviously, for us journalists, those of us that thrive on contro- versy, conflict and contention, such harmony isn’t ideal, but for the wider industry, it’s most likely a good thing that people have moved on from regulatory bickering to focus on optimisation and what really matters when it comes down to brass tacks – improving execution. While the underlying competitive nature between banks, brokers and exchanges still exists, there was an air of consensus around the conference which saw the replacing of on-stage fireworks for conclu- sive and informative takeaways for the audience. Plentiful were the panels, keynotes, interviews and debates, and the use of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and data featured heavily throughout, as buy-side firms go back to the business of find- ing liquidity amid shifting market structures. To a certain extent, AI does hold a great deal of potential for im- proving buy-side trading outcomes and internal processes, but from a personal viewpoint (having done my time in the trenches of FinTech journalism and survived the bombardments of Blockchain Hypefest 2016™), it was pleasing to see industry experts touting the importance of patience and due diligence when it came to the practical applica- tion of this technology. Now, let me be clear (to borrow Theresa May’s more ironic catch- phrase), that’s not to say that there weren’t exceptions to this rule. As you’ll see from our coverage of the conference, there are still those prepared to stick their heads above the parapet to voice a contentious opinion or take a bold stance. Perhaps we’ll see some more clashes of the titans when the Brexit shambles finally has some form of resolution, but for now the industry seems to be enjoying this period of stability. Just don’t expect too much from AI just yet. In this issue: 6 TradeTech 2019: The key takeaways 8 Invesco’s head of trading rules out outsourcing equities trading, saying ‘nobody can do it better than us’ 9 Diverse trading skill sets essential for the buy- side desk, says BlackRock’s VedBrat 10 Demand for single-broker TCA dropping despite sell-side investment, says Citi market structure head 11 ELP SIs opening access to liquidity despite industry transparency issues 12 Buy-side need to invest in alternative date to gain an informational edge 13 ‘Get away from the index’ Mark Mobius tells active managers in emerging markets 14 Industry slams regulatory ploy to shift trading volumes to lit venues 15 Patience is a virtue when it comes to machine learning say experts 16 ‘We can’t do what we did 20 years ago’: AXA’s trading head sees need for AI and predictive analytics due to information overload 17 Global asset managers require ‘global backbone’ to address organisational complexity 18 John Brazier Editor The TRADE GET YOUR TICKETS: fi xedincomeus.wbresearch.com SAVE 15% WITH CODE TRADE19 TradeTech 2019: The highlights Register for TradeTech Europe 2020 using the code THETRADETECH2020 to gain a discount of 15% for sell- side/vendors. Tickets complimentary for all buy side. Issue 2 TheTradeNews.com 3