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“ In the end , the efficiency that we hoped to reach with having one desk was not realised and therefore we said we want to focus on one specific asset class with dedicated equity traders , fixed income traders and FX traders ,” says head of equity trading and operational portfolio management at Robeco , Robbert Wijgerse . “ We now have the same focus on the asset class as the underlying portfolio managers have .”
Algo wheels and more Robeco claims to be an early innovator when it comes to electronification and has a large refit in quant-based and program trading out of its central location in Rotterdam . Among the innovations the institution suggests it was quick to adopt is algo wheels , claiming to have used them for cash equities since as early as 2016 . Making up the firm ’ s Rotterdam-based low touch duo are senior equity trader Bastiaan Berendsen and equity trader Tomaz Mota .
“ There was more demand [ on the trading desk ] for people that were smart with systems , keen to use algos , and who also have more of a research-focused idea of trading and less on gut feeling ,” says Berendsen , who joined Robeco in 2006 as a data and application manager .
Berendsen recently travelled to Robeco ’ s Asia offices to explore launching more algo wheels for equities in the region . “ More than 50 % of all of our equities orders globally are executed via an algo wheel , and we are using algo wheels for index futures but is not yet at the same level of flow .”
Berendsen ’ s experience proved essential when Robeco made the decision to implement FlexTrade as its execution management system , having previously used Charles River for both order and execution management .
Like Berendsen , Tomaz Mota has had a similar journey to the trading desk . Until joining Robeco around two and a half years ago due to a desire to feel more connected to the action , he had always been in roles relating to trading but never in the front-office .
“[ 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 ,” he says . “ Executing the trades is much more exciting .”
Among the projects the low touch team is working on via its EMS provider is the merging of orders for index futures , as well as feeding trading and order information via APIs directly into the trading system to enhance execution .
“ We are not immediately going to trade on the signal - there will always be human oversight at least
“ These days a lot of things are going by IB chat to deal . The only sad thing about that is you don ' t hear the tension in somebody or the room on the other side .”
DENNIS GRASHOFF
in the foreseeable future - but these solutions can really lead to being one of the best trading desks in the future ,” explains Berendsen .
“ We are working together with FlexTrade to see how we can trade these [ index futures ] via algo wheels . We want our brokers to be able to accept receiving pre-allocations for these orders . If we ' re trading for multiple accounts , we need to pass on the accounts numbers to them via FIX . That ’ s one of the big improvements of having FlexTrade - making sure that we are not going to cross for accounts that do not allow crossing for instance .”
Much of the innovation opted for by Robeco ’ s low touch trading offering is fuelled by its in-house
18 // TheTRADE // Q1 2024