[ M E E T T H E D E S K | M & G I N V E S T M E N T S ]
crowned Trader of the Year, following an industry vote.
While the London-based equities team champions several electronic strategies, it has opted not to use an algo wheel. Instead, the team treats every order as idiosyncratic and assesses how it should be handled on a caseby-case basis, preferring a more mindful approach to execution instead of too much automation.
“ We believe that the dealer should have a decision tree to follow when they receive an order and that they should have the right tools available to them to achieve the best possible outcome for our clients,” explains Daniel Riches, global head of equities trading at M & G Investments.
Riches joined M & G in 2001 as an equities and derivatives dealer from asset manager Robert Fleming & Co where he had been operating in a similar role for six and half years. He assumed responsibility for the equities trading desk in 2011.
“ We ' ve never had a wheel. We feel as though they don’ t work for the nature of our business. We get the best outcomes by being careful about who we onboard. Our journey ' s been from having just a few [ algo ] providers 10 years ago to having around seven or eight providers per region. It ' s not static, but we make sure
“ Some of our best relationships are with firms where we have hybrid electronic and sales trading coverage.”
LAURA MOULD
we ' ve got the right partners from an algorithmic trading point of view,” he adds.
“ Every order has an appropriate home. That can be an algo, crossing networks or cash sales traders. It’ s a continued process of evolution of who we ' ve got on the desk and knowing what ' s out there on the street. It’ s not just staying in contact with our current providers but making sure we ' re in contact with everybody on the street and making sure we’ re alive to anything interesting.”
Asking the right questions Mould, Trader of the Year 2024, concurs. She has one of the shorter tenures on the desk, joining in 2017. Her role at M & G is her first on the buy-side, having previously served at Haitong and Merrill Lynch in sales trading positions.
36 // TheTRADE // Q2 2025