[ I N - D E P T H
|
P E O P L E
been largely replaced by machines.
For many, this is a change that
is simply insurmountable. If you
built your career on having the gift
of the gab and the ability to read
people to find the most trustworthy
brokers around, or carefully work-
ing a large and complex order over
the course of weeks to get the best
result for your PM, you are likely
to feel quite out of your depth in
this new world. Having to invest
millions in technology platforms
and ensure the smooth running of
machines that talk to each other
thousands of times a second.
The pace of technological change
in this industry has been immense
and initially was driven by compet-
itive pressures, as exchanges, banks
and the buy-side all embraced the
benefits of trading electronically
by algorithm. While much of that
change happened more than a
decade ago, the industry is now
seeing a second technological
revolution driven partially by reg-
ulation, with a range of new tech
52
TheTrade
Winter 2016
M O V E S ]
covering reporting, data manage-
ment, analytics and more driving
major change in the skills required
to run a trading desk. There is of
course also the risk that, within the
next decade, a fully AI trading desk
may become a reality, removing
the need for humans to ever trade
again.
The tides of time
Of course not everyone is leaving
because the industry is changing,
some of this could very well be at-
tributed to demographics. Many of
the senior traders today come from
a generation that came up since the
Big Bang of banking deregulation
in the 1980s and have arguably
been the pioneers of many of the
changes to both professionalism
and complexity of securities trad-
ing over the years. Of course this
means many of them have spent 40
years or more in industry and thus
are simply thinking of retirement.
With these giants of the indus-
try stepping down, there are also
opportunities abound. A new gen-
eration of traders, some of which
may never have known anything
other than the electronic trading
era, now need to step up and fill
some very big shoes in the industry.
The TRADE’s Rising Stars event in
London in November demonstrat-
ed that there are plenty of willing
and talented candidates out there,
the goal for the wider industry is
to make sure they get there and
also look to ensure that new hires
carry the skills needed to face this
new era.
“The buy-side is increasingly
looking at candidates who have
high-level analytical skills, an
interest in technology, maybe qual-
ified in engineering, because these
are the skills that really matter to
the desk of the future,” as one head
of desk told The TRADE.
We expect 2017 to continue in
2016s footsteps, with a lot of move-
ment of people at the top of the
industry as firms start getting ready
for MiFID II and other regulations
to come into force. We may find
ourselves saying farewell to old
friends, but let’s also remember
this is an opportunity to welcome
new faces and new points of view
into the dynamic world of securi-
ties trading.