The TRADE 61 - Q3 2019 | Page 3

[ E D I T O R I A L ] THETRADE thetradenews.com  Editor JOHN BRAZIER [phone] [email protected] Senior Reporter HAYLEY MCDOWELL [phone] [email protected] Contributors NIKKI TAVENDALE, JOE PARSONS Advertising Director MARC CAROLISSEN [phone] [email protected] Senior Account Manager MATT ALDRED [phone] [email protected] Head of Operations KAREN DELAHOY [phone] [email protected] Subscriptions [phone] [email protected] Head of Design STEPHAN SLATER [phone] [email protected] Publisher JONATHAN WATKINS [phone] [email protected] Tungsten Publishing 20 Little Britain London, UK EC1A 7DH [phone] © The Trade is owned and produced by Tungsten Publishing Ltd. ©Tungsten Publishing 2018 Although Tungsten Publishing has made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this publication, neither it nor any contributor can accept any legal responsibility whatsoever for consequences that may arise from errors or omissions or any opinions or advice given. This publication is not a substitute for professional advice on a specific transaction. No reproduction allowed without prior permission. DEAL OR NO DEAL: Déjà vu edition W e’ve been here before, haven’t we? Not just in the damp, darker days of Fall, but the setting of a seemingly never-ending and increasingly convoluted ‘Deal or No Deal’ scenario that just won’t quit. The current, but by no means definite, withdrawal deadline for the United Kingdom’s protracted departure from the European Union is once again in sight, although no-one appears to be in any position of certainty as to whether it will actually occur this time. If you’ve seen the Noel Edmonds-fronted (or Howie Mandell, depending on your location) game show, then the situation isn’t so incomparable; does Boris Johnson and his cadre of Brexiters gamble it all on telling the banker to shove off and take the mystery box, or strike a Deal to at least walk away with something to show for their efforts? The problem is that no-one knows what’s going to happen or how it will play out. Back in the capital markets the biggest story of Q3 also belonged to a similar Deal or No Deal scenario, as the Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing launched what could generously be described as an ambitious bid to acquire the London Stock Exchange. While it’s not precisely the same scenario, it is reminiscent of the failed ‘mega-merger' between LSE and Deutsche Borse in 2017 that came to nothing. We’ve taken a look at this deal among a number of other mergers and acquisitions in a feature that no-one asked for, the return of The TRADE’s (still very unofficial) M&A Awards on page 70. Elsewhere in this issue, Hayley McDowell has taken a close look at the emergence of portfolio trading in the fixed income space as two of the largest players in the market launch their platforms (page 52), and examined the recent launch of BNP Paribas’ Siri-style digital trading assistant for the foreign exchange markets (page 60). As the end of the year creeps over the horizon, we at The TRADE are also hard at work on our annual Leaders in Trading awards ceremony, which will be held on 21 November. All of this year’s shortlists have been published online and voting for the Buy-side awards will be open throughout October. Once again it promises to be a great night and we hope to see you there! l The TRADE acknowledges an error in the Algorithmic Trading Survey, as published on page 90 of Issue 60, whereby the phrase “execution consulting (up 0.84)” should have read “execution consistency (up 0.84)”. The TRADE apologises for this error. John Brazier Editor The TRADE Issue 61 // TheTradeNews.com // 3