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technology to make incremental gains and incremental improvements upon your existing process .
“ Not all trades are right for automation . I ’ ve never been a fan of the bifurcation of high touch and low touch . Every order should be treated on its own merits , and we don ’ t do any no-touch trading at all . The important factor is to have all the tools to achieve the best outcome on an individual trade basis .”
But not all asset classes are equal , and what works for equities might not work for fixed income . “ In the credit space , it ’ s slightly different ,” explains Poole . “ We don ’ t run any passive books , or any trackers . We don ’ t have a priceagnostic part of the business , and we don ’ t have to buy and sell things . We have no house view at Jupiter , that ’ s important – there ’ s no CIO telling the investment managers what to do . They make the decisions , and our job is to achieve their investment goal as efficiently and as cheaply as possible . If automation assists in that journey , then great . But if it doesn ’ t , then it shouldn ’ t be lauded for its own sake .”
Climbing the Poole From managing the fixed income team , which is currently up to three , in November 2022 Poole was promoted to the overall head of trading for Jupiter – and for him , it ’ s been a natural progression .
“ I ’ ve always steered away from pure specialisation ,” he says . “ I think it ’ s important to have an understanding of all markets . Heading up the fixed income team was my first time as a people manager , and I think it ’ s important to recognise the value that each person adds . Each of my
“ If automation allows us to make our workflow more efficient , which means we can focus more on those alpha generative trades where we can actively add value , then I ’ m all for it .”
traders has an area they lean towards , but I encourage them to maintain the ability to work cross-market , and I think we ’ ve built up a pretty seamless desk in that regard .
“ In addition , I think that in some firms , the trading desk can be viewed as an operational cost centre . And we offer a lot more than that . We offer the ability to be part of the investment process – I ’ m not suggesting we ’ re coming up with ideas , but I want to empower my traders to be able to go to their investment managers and say – this might not be the right thing to buy right now . The liquidity profile , the positioning in the Street … We have a huge amount of information , we ’ re at the coalface getting our hands dirty every day . We should be able to turn round to them and say , with a high degree of confidence , that we have information that can assist their investment decisions .”
When Poole was offered the head of trading role , however , he had to think about it rather more carefully . “ It was a very exciting opportunity ,” he
20 // TheTRADE // Q4 2022