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[ C O V E R and should be lobbying their own regulators and state bodies.” Wicks says that it has become an essential part of the trading role to ameliorate what regulation might look like going forward and that it has become a key element of his own role with LGIM. He says he spends significant time in dialogue with industry bodies such as the Investment Association and Plato Partnership, as well as LGIM’s internal compliance and legal departments, trying to help regulators understand the impact of changes to existing and future regulation on the markets. While MiFID II brought in a swathe of changes for the buy-side to contend with, LGIM were already handling much of these changes in the daily trad- ing process anyway according to Wicks, such as the expanded reporting requirements and moving towards more electronic trading. Possibly the biggest change for LGIM has been handling the new best execution arrangements, for which the firm finalised its new policies and sub-policies alongside establishing a best execution committee in April 2017. Wicks says that the original idea for the committee was to meet on a monthly basis initially before moving to a quarterly model, however the meetings – which incorporate le- gal and compliance, portfolio management, operations and investment teams – have proved so valuable that LGIM has stuck with a monthly schedule. Positive mental attitude While there has been more time dedicated to regulato- ry affairs, Wicks believes this is something that is hap- pening throughout the asset management industry and part of the continuing evolution of the head of trading role. He states that this is not just “paying lip service” to the regulators in terms of compliance, reiterating his view that buy-side firms should be influencing the future of regulation to the benefit of the industry. On a more fundamental level, although still related to greater complexity of market structures and regula- tion, Wicks views the increasing level of interaction with LGIM’s clients as one of the biggest changes to how the head of trading role is evolving. “It is our job to help clients navigate those markets and explain to them, in easily understandable terms, what’s going on and how it is going to impact both their specific funds and the market structure as a whole,” he explains. “I spend a lot of time with clients now, for example. Every week I am probably spending time with at least two or three clients in various roles, talking to them about market structure, explaining various S T O R Y | E D W I C K S ] aspects of the impact of regulation on markets, and I think that is an interesting part of the job.” Wicks also highlights the on- going importance of technology and governance – both in terms of optimising electronic trading processes and the overarching framework that supports those operations – but it all comes back to an approach of incremental im- provements that a head of trading should embrace. Having only joined LGIM less than three years ago, it speaks vol- umes about his approach regarding the changes to the firm’s trading processes and global model he has been able to effect; clearly it is “The trading protocols are coming together, the market structure of equity and FX is converging, which are both high volume and macro products for us and we have seen real success with that.” bearing fruit for the firm and will form the basis of its trading strat- egies going forward under Wicks’ leadership. “To be successful in any trading role, be it on the sell-side or the buy- side, you have to have the mindset or attitude to want to come into the office every day and incrementally improve the trading process,” Wicks states. “That, to me, is what stands a very good trader from an average trader. It might be small changes on a daily basis, or on some days no change at all, but you have the attitude to always want to make things better, you will eventually see tangible results that will be recognised. I think certainly in my experience that is how I have been recognised.” Issue 58 // TheTradeNews.com // 57