[ C O V E R
S T O R Y
|
M AT T
draws the energy to keep moving
forward.
“Gone is the day when traders
could show up, execute their
trades and then go home happy,”
he explains. “I ask what we can do
better and some of those changes
may be small, but it’s about being
more efficient, reducing risk – I
love reducing risk – and improving
performance.
“I think the fund managers at the
firm are now understanding a lot of
this as well. Now we can demon-
strate the real, tangible value that
we add and, now more than ever,
that is really important to recog-
nise.”
Wider horizons
Having joined the firm in Septem-
ber 2015, McLoughlin took on the
head of trading role a year later and
has seen Liontrust evolve rapidly
during that short period. One of the
most significant changes was the
firm’s pivot from an equities-only
operation to a fully multi-asset
trading desk, covering equities,
credit, foreign exchange and deriv-
atives, as a result of its acquisition
of Alliance Trust Investments
(ATI) in April 2017.
The integration of ATI saw Lion-
trust add £2.5 billion spread across
11 sustainable investment funds,
primarily in equities and fixed
income, to its portfolio, and Mc-
Loughlin views the integration and
expansion of the firm’s activities
as very successful, particularly for
staying ahead of the trend curve.
“Sustainable investment has be-
come very important for all inves-
tors, but the firm and the team we
brought in have been doing this for
years now,” he says. “A lot of people
are jumping on the bandwagon a
bit late.
“One of the challenges of going
from equities to multi-asset was
that we had a centralised trading
26 // TheTrade // Fall 2019
M C L O U G H L I N ]
desk in London but fixed income fund managers in
Edinburgh, so building that communication and trust
was a key challenge. Quite quickly, through numerous
conversations and visits, explaining who we were and
building up a process, it became easier to manage.”
Like most multi-asset trading desks, Liontrust is
able to leverage asset-specific expertise to augment its
daily operations, should the need arise. McLoughlin
details that the traders on the desk are able to execute
trades regardless of product type, but the team is also
able to rely on his own past experiences as a credit
fund manager while traders Matt Orchard and Martin
Hendry bring previous expertise in foreign exchange
and equities respectively.
“We can all trade everything, which I think really
helps with key man risk and if somebody is off the
desk, for whatever reason, the execution quality the
fund managers receive doesn’t drop,” McLoughlin
explains. “If you’ve got somebody siloed or the fixed
income guy is off, you’re in trouble. Somebody might
be able to just about it cover and get it done, but ‘just
getting it done’ is not what we are aiming to do. It
also makes the role more interesting for people, and
improves efficiency and cost as well.”
When McLoughlin started with the firm it managed
around £4 billion; that figure will have inflated to £17
billion once Liontrust completes its acquisition of
Neptune Investment Management. The £40 million
Sustainable
investment has
become very
important for all
investors, but the
firm and the team
we brought in have
been doing this for
years now.