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industry leaders, as summed up by Joe Bellman, head of dealing at Arbuthnot Latham who said during an automation panel:“ AI won’ t replace traders, but traders who understand AI will replace those who don’ t.”
System consolidation System harmonisation and consolidation has also become increasingly central to buy-side discussion at industry forums as firms look to eradicate hidden costs arising from the proliferation of multiple systems and platforms.
Speaking to The TRADE on this, Pranav Malhotra, Man Group’ s head of algo execution technology, emphasised the importance of consolidation to support business growth and reduce risk, by bolstering asset class expansion and different trading styles.
He explained:“ Consolidation focuses efforts on strategic goals and makes best use of our engineering talent. The strong business case for consolidation is driving two large projects across our trading technology teams – the unification of various investment management specific order management systems and execution management systems functions into a centralised Man OMS and a centralised Man EMS.”
Enforcing system harmonisation is not always straightforward, but for Ashwin Venkatraman, head of asset management trading technology at JP Morgan Asset Management, a focus on team dynamics and communication is key to success in this field.
He said:“ In today’ s world, where teams are often overloaded and ambiguous, clarity is crucial
and agreeing on common, granular capability-level terminology can lay a strong foundation.
“ This clarity simplifies technology decisions, helping to define what the target state technology stack should look like and why.”
Both Malhotra and Venkatraman also agreed that analytics consolidation across asset classes is feasible, through using centralised teams and deep expertise.
While TradeTech 2025 has come to a close, discussions around many of the key themes and initiatives on the minds of buy-siders will no doubt continue. Despite uncertainties around many of the topics, particularly regarding extended trading hours and AI, we seem to be at the tip of the iceberg, with more developments across the board likely to follow as these trends begin to take shape in the coming months and years.
50 // TheTRADE // Q2 2025