[ MEET THE DESK | RBC BLUEBAY ASSET MANAGEMENT ’ S LONDON FIXED INCOME DESK ]
is essential to breeding confidence in traders when executing .
“ That makes a big difference to how big a trade we get into ,” he says . “ The biggest thing that I ever learned when I first started trading , was that being right doesn ' t breed confidence , it breeds complacency . Learning how to be wrong breeds confidence .”
A shifting landscape At the top of the tree , Campbell ’ s focus has become ever more centralised around regulatory and market
“ The data that ' s coming to you is going to heavily influence how your day goes and whether a PM wants to make an active investment .”
structure change . In the process of being absorbed by RBC , the institution has transitioned from an Aifmd firm to a Mifid firm . It is now one of Campbell ’ s priorities to manage that transition . All the while , making sense of the plethora of regulatory changes proposed and actioned in EMEA and around the world over the last few years . The consolidated tape , the shift to T + 1 settlement , the list goes on .
However , Campbell ’ s main focus continues to be minimising risk . This , he says , is done by encouraging more electronic trading volumes either through getting electronic VCONS coming back to traders or through full straight through processing ( STP ).
“ I am trying to increase our percentage of electronic trading across the firm because it helps speed , efficiency , rebooking errors , and minimise errors ,” he explains .
One such area is the development of the firm ’ s chosen order management system ( OMS ), Charles River , and the continuous assessment of whether or not to implement an execution management system ( EMS ).
“ With the advent of Mifid II and more data in the marketplace , the use of an EMS became more appealing for fixed income . A decision a lot of people in my seat would have to make is do you want to
ANITA KAUR employ an EMS besides your OMS or can you get enough functionality out of your OMS to take advantage of new data aggregation , and smart order routing ?” he adds .
“ One current project we are working on within the OMS is to create alerts from the Neptune Axe data . As something comes close to your target , it will alert the trader so they don ' t have to sit there and go through onehundred-line items every day checking where each level is .”
Developed markets RBC BlueBay Asset Management ’ s fixed income developed markets business in London is split by its legacy roles with traders dedicated to investment grade credit and rates , FX and repo , and convertible bonds . While everyone has their specific role , collaboration is key on this team , particularly given the short window traders can have to execute in this news-driven market .
“ It ’ s handy to hear their [ PMs and analysts ] conversations and understand a theme that they ' re looking at . We can join in the conversation and from there we can do a bit of pre work for them before we get any order done ,” says Michael Silk , whose trading role spans across IG credit , rates , FX and repo . Silk joined BlueBay 16 years ago in an operations role , moving into trading six years later . “ The type of trades that we do
“ From an institutional standpoint , if I want to trade 100 million , that ' s not being done electronically .”
DANIEL GRIMSTEAD
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