June 18 - 20, 2019
THETRADETECH DAILY
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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
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