[ C O V E R
R
acing across the trading floor of T. Rowe
Price's London office on a drizzly Friday
morning, Jeremy Ellis, head of European
equity trading, is anticipating the impact
that the spread of coronavirus around the world was
about to have on global markets. By the end of the
day, it would be official that stock markets would had
suffered their worst week since the global financial
crisis in 2008.
“I suspect a lot of people will be reverting back to
high-touch as a means of gaining market intelligence
and market execution intelligence, in terms of how
to navigate this market,” Ellis says, noting the market
downturn. “Perhaps drawing back from their low-
touch channels.”
As he’s joined by the traders working alongside him
on the equity desk, it becomes clear quite quickly that
execution at T. Rowe Price is a team effort. Nicholas
Wilkes and Mark Muschamp, senior equity traders, as
well as Richard Pinnington, equity trader, and Evan
Canwell, equity trader and market structure analyst,
I N T E R V I E W
• From L to R:
Evan Canwell, equity
trader and market
structure analyst;
Mark Muschamp,
senior equity trader;
Jeremy Ellis, head
of European equity
trading; Nicholas
Wilkes, equity
trader and Richard
Pinnington, equity
trader
|
T.
R O W E
P R I C E ]
each have certain skillsets that
cater to the evolving needs of the
firm’s trading desk.
There’s a bit of a theme there,”
Ellis says. “Richard was the first to
join the trading desk in 2010 from
a portfolio modelling background,
but very much learning that from
a high-touch basis like the rest of
us. We reverse engineered into
electronic, low-touch and systemat-
ic trading. Mark also started out in
portfolio modelling and joined the
team around the same time I took
over the trading desk. He oversaw
our first attempt at systematic trad-
ing and our first step into electronic
execution channels. “We were early
adopters of electronic trading and
have continued to increase our un-
derstanding and engagement since.”
Ellis is a veteran of T. Rowe Price,
having been with the investment
manager since 2000. He started his
career in 1982 with defunct stock-
broker, Scrimgeour-Kemp Gee,
writing out prices on the boards
on the floor of the stock exchange.
He moved into foreign exchange
and fixed income trading at Lloyds
Investment Management, which
would soon become Hill Samuel,
several years later, before his move
to T. Rowe Price to become an
equity trader.
He and the equity trading desk
at T. Rowe Price are celebrating
their recent win at The TRADE’s
Leaders in Trading ceremony in
November. Following an indus-
try-wide vote, T. Rowe Price came
out on top to win one of the biggest
awards of the evening, the coveted
‘Trading Desk of the Year’ award,
up against BlackRock, JP Morgan
Asset Management and Legal &
General Investment Management.
“We were the lucky recipients
of The TRADE’s Trading Desk
of the Year award recently, and I
think that reflected the work that
the team is doing here day in, day
Issue 63 // thetradenews.com // 29