Conference Dailys TRADETech FX Daily 2019: Wrap-up | Page 8
THETRADETECHFX DA I LY
in-depth
FX automation a gradual
refinement of processes; now
making headway into execution
PANELISTS AT TRADETECH FX EUROPE EXTOL VIRTUES OF AUTOMATION FOR FX TRADING AND HOW
TRADING PROCESSES WILL HAVE TO ADAPT TO KEEP UP.
T
he automation of the foreign exchange
trading markets is continuing apace and
focus is now starting to shift towards how it
affects trading decision-making.
Panelists at this year’s TradeTech FX Europe
conference said that while automation is now
widespread in the industry for the benefits of
cost reduction and increased efficiency, it is
also becoming a more viable tool for optimis-
ing execution.
“There are various ways that we can think
about automation; there is rule-based execu-
tion or straight-through processing, building
that low-touch execution desk,” said David
Shack, VP, FX technology at Fidelity Invest-
ments.
“Another aspect that thinking about how
we can take a more complicated approach to
deciding how and when to trade, looking for
better trading outcomes by being able to take
a more complicated process and run that more
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THETRADETECHFX DAILY
Wrap-up
consistently across the desk, whether it is by
picking the right time to trade or the right
strategy to trade.”
This sentiment was echoed by Jil Sigelbaum,
head of FXall at Refinitiv, who said that while
the majority of automation is focused on
the pre- and post-trade side, citing workflow
management and order structuring to achieve
best execution, it is “at-trade that is evolving
most these days.”
“That’s where the majority of validation is
coming into play, because we have more re-
al-time data to use to come up with intelligent
ways to trade,” she said.
Sigelbaum also raised the issue of the role of
the human on the trading desk where automa-
tion taking hold, saying that there needs to be
a level of trust from traders towards the auto-
mated systems they are using, particularly for
execution, and that will take time to develop.
“Over time there will be less traders and
machines will take over some of those tasks,
but it won’t be complete, there will always be
exceptions. We see it happening at the banks
first; they have already been moving a lot of
their trading to machines and I think that in
five or ten years from now we will see that in
every aspect,” she commented.
There was a common consensus among the
panel that the role of the FX trader will have to
evolve in the future alongside increasing levels
of automation, with Ruben Costa-Santos,
head of multi-asset class analytics at Virtu
Financial, saying that traders will be given
opportunities to spend more time with data
and analytics to optimise their trading strat-
egies as a result, while global head of foreign
exchange electronic trading at Bloomberg,
said that automation presented opportunities
for improving scalability and optimisation of
all trading processes, including the human
element.