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“ I genuinely just don ' t see how outsourced trading is actually going to lead to better outcomes for the investors .”
CATHY GIBSON , GLOBAL HEAD OF TRADING AT NINETY ONE ravaged The TRADE ’ s site back in 2019 . At the time , our website became the stage for a fiery back-and-forth between an anonymous buy-side trader and a provider .
In just five years however , things have moved on significantly . Covid introduced the concept of working remotely , making an outsourced trader seem less alien to those seasoned traders who couldn ’ t have previously envisioned such a setup . Meanwhile , various fees , cost and market pressures coupled with market structure changes have further opened the door to some form of co-sourcing even for some of the most reluctant .
Coalition Greenwich revealed last November that almost two thirds ( 63 %) of buy-side equity market participants believe outsourced desks would result in improved execution quality and trade performance when trading across regions .
The study addressed how , as the relationship between human and technology becomes increasingly interwoven , outsourcing could be an answer to some of the key roadblocks .
In this vein , 39 % of respondents recognised the value in complementing their current trading processes with outsourced platforms “ under limited circumstances ,” as some of those surveyed specified a desire to supplement their internal traders .
However , importantly – demonstrating how attitudes have changed in such a short space of time – this figure was up markedly from similar research in 2020 , which had the result at 5 %.
Subsequently , in August 2024 , another Coalition Greenwich study of asset managers revealed that 10 % had paid trading commissions to outsourced trading ( OT ) platforms over the past year . In an article detailing some of the conversations had around the survey , Coalition Greenwich ’ s Jesse Forster posed the question : “ Has outsourced trading reached a tipping point
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