[ M A R K E T
R E V I E W
|
F I X E D
I N C O M E ]
The
fixed income
desk in 2019
Chris Hall talks to four leading fixed income heads of trading desks around the world to
gauge the state of the fixed income markets in 2019, covering the biggest opportunities and
challenges for asset managers, how the relationship with the sell-side and vendors has evolved,
and what new skills are required on a successful desk.
What are your biggest priorities and
challenges in fixed income trading,
and how are you addressing them?
Dan Veiner, global head of fixed
income trading at BlackRock: At
BlackRock, we’re focused on
achieving efficient and safe sourc-
ing of liquidity at scale in a growing
AUM environment, maximising the
information value that trading con-
tributes to the investment process
and utilising technology and data
to continually evolve.
Our traders are partnering with
trading research and data sci-
ence teams on various projects
to evolve the platform in many of
these areas. Increasingly, our fixed
income traders are partnering
with portfolio management and
research teams early on in the in-
68 // TheTrade // Summer 2019
vestment process, and we’re
experimenting with trading
technology and trading
protocols. I think it’s
important to constantly
question the status quo,
and envision how we
would design a function
or technology if we were
starting from scratch.
Lee Sanders, head of execution
FX and UK & Asia fixed income trad-
ing at AXA Investment Managers: We’ve
done a lot of work recently on our use of high- and
low-touch execution channels. We’ve long recognised
that traders do not need to take the same degree of
ownership over certain orders to guarantee the best
outcome for the client. We will start in the FX and list-
ed markets and will follow with cash bonds. We have
been exploring opportunities to route trades from our