“ Essentially what you ' re trying to do is an approach of let ' s not throw AI in as the answer , let ' s try find out what the business case is and figure it out together .”
STEVEN STRANGE , HEAD OF PRODUCT , ASSET
MANAGEMENT AT ION
Optimistic market sentiment Market sentiment around the use cases of AI across asset classes is very much on the up . The opinion widely shared by every corner of the industry is that we should be looking firmly ahead and banking on the ‘ potential ’ of AI , however , there remains some well-founded trepidation .
“ Traders are optimistic people anyway and though most see the benefits of AI some of them are probably still sceptical because at the end of the day it ’ s the unknown . However , our experience talking to people on trading desks has been very positive and people can see the advantages ,” asserts Matthew Cheung , former trader at Refco and current chief executive of ipushpull .
In essence , having to consider AI in future workflows has become inescapable , no longer easily labelled as machine learning or large language models ( LLM ), it has now transformed into an entirely new entity of seemingly unlimited potential .
Steven Strange , head of product , asset management at ION confirms that sentiment is indeed changing : “ When it comes to traders ’ attitudes specifically , in the past , the point of view was that ‘ the trade is the business ’ and trading was very siloed from technology .
But as firms went through their digital transformation exercises , that group came together as less siloed and that started the conversation towards innovation [ on the desk ].
“[…] It goes back to the beginning - what are you trying to solve and what are the use cases ?”
Expect the unexpected The current state of play across capital markets is firmly in a ‘ growth ’ stage , with tentative AI innovations being touted by firms and providers , and regulators themselves in the midst of intensely educating their workforce as they look to stay ahead of artificial intelligence ’ s rapid development .
“ Every market participant and trading venue will need to access at least a machine learning library […] whoever has the bigger machine learning library and more
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