[ M E E T T H E D E S K | R O B E C O ]
Global asset manager Robeco leverages a low touch and high touch trading team that spans across three continents . And , like most asset managers across the street , its global equity trading desk plays host to a variety of characters , each bringing their own individual string to the wider team ’ s bow .
The firm claims to be an early innovator on several counts . Namely , onboarding algo wheels before they became mainstream and incorporating trading researchers into their trading desk long before many had budget to do so .
“ Most asset managers do not have the scale to hire data scientists specialised in trading research . In terms of the number of companies that have a
“[ As a trader ] you ' re in contact with the decisionmaking from the portfolio managers and you get more of a view of the market instead of just being in the pipes and fixing how things settle and how the transfers are done .”
TOMAZ MOTA
Edwin Scheffers
Lars ter Braak ( left ) and Martin van der Schans ( right ) dedicated trading research team , we might be one of the top players ,” explains Lars ter Braak , one of the institution ’ s two trading researchers based in Rotterdam . Robeco formerly had a central multiasset trading desk across equities , foreign exchange and fixed income , headed up by Robbert Wijgerse . However , unlike the many buy-side desks looking to achieve synergies by merging asset classes , Robeco chose to separate its trading desks by asset class in 2017 in the pursuit of greater efficiency . The asset manager now has its core desks for equities , fixed income and foreign exchange in Rotterdam . Making up its global equities refit are two low touch and two high touch traders based in the city , with another two high touch traders in Hong Kong and two based in the US .
Tomaz Mota
16 // TheTRADE // Q1 2024