This year, The TRADE is proud to be celebrating its twentieth anniversary and to mark the momentous occasion we are excited to be launching the first North American iteration of our famous Leaders in Trading awards. 

The shortlists for the Leaders in Trading New York Buy-Side Awards have been produced following a slew of nominations from key industry players across North America, recognising whom amongst their peers stand out as the most deserving of these recognitions. 

Congratulations to all those nominated across the five categories! The winners will be announced at the Leaders in Trading New York glittering awards night to be held at Chelsea Piers in New York City on 19 November.

“The Buy-Side Awards are the highlight of Leaders in Trading,” said The TRADE’s editor Annabel Smith. “We couldn’t be more excited to be bringing the magic of Leaders in Trading over to the US for the first time in The TRADE’s 20-year history.” 

The categories for the Buy-Side Awards include the coveted Trader of the Year – Long Only, Trader of the Year – Hedge Fund,  the Trading Desk of the Year Awards, and Buy-Side Market Structure Expert of the Year. 

Also set to be recognised on the night are this year’s Rising Stars of Trading and Execution, North America – to be announced in due course. 

Many congratulations to all the shortlisted individuals and teams, it will be a night to remember! 

Trader of the Year – Long Only 

Megan Davidson, BlackRock

Chris Fiorito, River Road Asset Management

Stephanie Fraser, Baillie Gifford 

Jay Peters, Artisan Partners 

Jason Siegendorf, Harris Associates

Trader of the Year – Hedge Fund

David Alfred, Conversant Capital

Adam Nemser, Southpoint Capital

Keith Roscoe, Jericho Capital Asset Management

Craig Tscherne, Verition Fund Management

Renato Zimberknopf, Fourth Sail Capital

Trading Desk of the Year

Balyasny Asset Management 

BlackRock 

Millennium

Thompson, Siegel & Walmsley LLC

Wellington Management  

Fixed Income Trading Desk of the Year 

Invesco

Janus Henderson

Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM)

PIMCO 

T. Rowe Price

Buy-Side Market Structure Expert of the Year

Simon Cohen, Morgan Stanley Investment Management

Dan Eisemann, MFS Investment Management

Melissa Hinmon, Glenmede Investment Management

Mett Kinack, T. Rowe Price

Ed McBride, Centiva Management

Key contacts at The TRADE 

Please contact Patrick Wright at patrick.wright@thetradenews.com for sponsorship opportunities or to book a table for Leaders in Trading New York.

If you are a member of the buy-side community and would like information on attending please contact Karen Delahoy at karen.delahoy@thetradenews.com or Annabel Smith at annabel.smith@thetradenews.com.

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Mazen Najjar

The builds on the firm’s existing presence in the region as Marex looks to enhance its offering to institutional clients across MENA. 

Shahab Hashemi, chief executive (MENA) at Marex, said: “This strategic move strengthens our current operations and better positions us meet the evolving needs of our clients in the region. Incorporating prime services to our offering allows us to deliver more tailored and localised solutions to hedge funds, family offices and other institutional clients.”

As part of this push, Mazen Najjar has been appointed in an institutional sales role in the prime services team, the first hire for the team in the jurisdiction. Prior to joining Marex, Dubai-based Najjar spent six years at IG Prime.

Mazen is set to focus on developing the prime services team’s regional sales strategy, bolstering its presence in the region and forging partnerships. 

“We welcome Mazen Najjar to our Dubai office. His extensive experience in prime brokerage and client-led approach will be invaluable in delivering localised support to our growing hedge fund and family office client base,” said Jack Seibald, global co-head of prime services and outsourced trading at Marex.

“This development builds on Marex’s momentum in the region and reinforces our commitment to providing enhanced support and tailored solutions to institutional clients.”

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The development will be used to support the commercial bank’s RMB cash bond market-making under Bond Connect and its USD interest rate swap (IRS) market-making in Hong Kong.

Read more: Bloomberg and HKEX enhance Swap Connect solutions to facilitate global investments for IRS market

Bloomberg’s sell-side solutions – which include TOMS and ETOMS – will allow the bank to optimise its trading services for international investors; automate the workflows of bond pricing, sales and trade execution; and electronify USD IRS market-making.

“As China’s financial markets continue to open up, China Minsheng Bank is committed to strengthening ties and communications with foreign investors and enhancing our market-making capabilities,” said Qingyu Wang, head of financial markets department at China Minsheng Bank.

“Our collaboration with Bloomberg provides automated workflows for better operational efficiency, a transparent price display channel to facilitate informed decision-making and a means to reach out to global investors.”

TOMS was previously adopted by China Minsheng Bank to book multiple asset class exposures, enabling real-time profit and loss and risk analysis, as well as integration with back-office settlement systems.

The addition of ETOMS will enable the commercial bank to send customised quotes to clients, provide pre-trade quotes and axes into aggregation tools, and display real-time quotes on a designated page of the bank on the Bloomberg Terminal, bolstering communication and trading efficiency among investors overseas.

“We are pleased to strengthen our partnership with China Minsheng Bank and support its international business development with our industry-leading sell-side solutions,” said Dahai Wang, head of Greater China at Bloomberg.

“Electronic trading and automated workflows are important trends in global finance, enhancing competitiveness through more accurate pricing, smoother trade execution, and efficient risk management.”

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Announced on social media, the move was described as marking “a significant milestone in Millennium Advisors’ growth, reinforcing [its] commitment to the APAC region”. 

The strategic development is set to pave the way for enhanced global operations for the firm, as well as signalling Millennium Advisors’ commitment to its counterparties. 

Read more: Millennium Advisors hires from within for new head of EMEA sales

Earlier this year, Millennium Advisors partnered with fixed income software solutions provider Investortools to streamline workflows for municipal bond investment managers through digitisation. 

Through the partnership, Millennium is set to be fully featured as an electronic trading package for straight-through-processing, enabling users to lift, bid, counter and receive allocation details electronically directly within Investortools’ software.

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Rohit Verma

The platform, aimed at the global FX market, combines the benefits of an NDF CLOB with clearing.

Rohit Verma, head of post-trade Asia Pacific at LSEG, said: “As a leader in the Asian NDF market and Singapore’s first LCH ForexClear member, we look forward to supporting their clearing activity on the platform.”

LSEG’s fully cleared non-deliverable forwards (NDF) matching platform went live in November 2023 following the initial announcement in May. 

The Singapore-based platform has the backing of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and represented the first stage of LSEG re-platforming its FX venues to its core technology. 

Kelvin Ng, group head of global markets, at UOB, said: “Through this service, we are able to benefit from enhanced execution and access to cleared liquidity in addition to the operational efficiencies that LSEG’s end to-end-solution provides.”

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Steven Sanders

Through this new alliance, HSBC clients will have access to WorldTrader – powered by Interactive Brokers – a new digital investment platform allowing customers in the UAE to trade equities, ETFs, and bonds in 25 markets across 77 exchanges.

Clients can trade via both a mobile app or online platform, with additional markets expected to be added. 

Read more: Interactive Brokers enhances APAC reach with extended Korean derivatives trading hours

Steven Sanders, EVP of marketing and product development at Interactive Brokers, said: “We are pleased that HSBC has chosen Interactive Brokers, a premier provider of white branded solutions for introducing brokers and banks. 

“Our suite of services includes powerful technology and trading tools, competitive pricing, and access to global markets. Institutions worldwide continue to select our platform to streamline their businesses and meet the needs of their clients efficiently.”

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Aleksey Larichev

This development comes as Avelacom becomes an RCB (Rede de Comunicação B3 – B3 Communications Network) provider. 

Through RCB’s connectivity method, Avelacom has gained access to all of B3’s markets, including equities, derivatives, digital assets, and OTC. It also opens the door to the exchange’s post-trade and testing environments. 

The move facilitates low latency access to B3 for all trading participants and extends the exchange’s services to numerous additional global markets. 

Aleksey Larichev, chief executive of Avelacom, said: “Becoming an RCB authorised party allows us to provide more flexible and cost-effective solutions with various capacity options, helping financial firms operate more efficiently.”

Read more: Avelacom unveils new latency routes connecting to South Korea

Avelacom’s network allows clients to test and trade B3 by receiving market data feeds and trading remotely as well as on-site without needing to be collocated in B3’s data centre. 

Marcos Guimaraes, Managing Director of Avelacom, LATAM, asserted the importance of this step for the business: “With this development, B3 markets becomes available at all markets on Avelacom´s global network. It also lowers the barrier of entering B3’s market from abroad by facilitating access to the trading floor and lowering costs for local brokers and trading participants.”

The move comes at a key time for Brazil, a market which has received more and more attention in recent times as global clients turn their heads towards its capital markets. 

An Acuiti report from March found that almost 68% of proprietary trading firms are planning to trade on new exchanges in 2024, with Brazil touted as a main area of focus, along with Asia-Pacific. 

Read more: Two thirds of prop trading firms plan to trade new exchanges this year

Expansion into the market has been predicted for some time with players keeping a close eye on its performance in recent times.

Speaking to The TRADE in October 2023, emerging markets expert Mark Mobius highlighted the significant potential of looking further afield: “We’re finding companies that are most profitable and have great growth opportunities in Brazil, Taiwan, South Korea, Turkey, South Africa.”

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Specifically, the offering enhances and aligns trading opportunities for users across the Korean, US, and European time zones, making Korean derivatives available during US and European trading hours.

Milan Galik, chief executive of Interactive Brokers highlighted exactly what time means for users: “Clients can now take advantage of extended hours to trade in one of the world’s most liquid derivatives markets. Our global client base, including APAC, European and American clients, benefit by having access to KOSPI derivatives during normal and extended trading hours, regardless of location.”

Through the expanded trading hours, products include: KOSPI 200 Options, Mini-KOSPI 200 Futures, KOSPI 200 Futures, and USD/KRW currency futures.

Speaking in an announcement, the firm confirmed that recent regulatory changes have made processes easier for foreign investments in South Korean equities.

“These changes are expected to elevate South Korea’s status from an emerging to a developed market, making it more appealing to global institutional investors,” said the company.

Read more: Interactive Brokers expands European trading through Cboe Europe Derivatives

Interactive Brokers’ clients can trade Korean derivatives along with the rest of the business’ offering from a single unified platform across various currencies, including the Korean Won.

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If authorised, Mizuho is set to leverage its presence in the region which includes several offices.

The firm will provide services and solutions across high added value funds raising and management, centring on bonds. These will be available to issuers and investors both within and outside of China.

The capital markets in China are the world’s third largest fee pool, with further investment in the region and market expansion expected across the industry, asserted Mizuho.

Read more: Celebrating International Women’s Day with… Mizuho’s Lu Fu

According to the firm, “through the new securities company in China, Mizuho will contribute to the further development of the Chinese capital markets and provide even stronger support for clients’ China and renminbi-related business”.

The post Mizuho unveils plans to establish securities business in China appeared first on The TRADE.

Regulatory burden has been a key concern for market participants since the Global Financial Crisis in 2008, with the report from Acuiti – in partnership with FIA – adding that new frameworks are ‘lengthy and complex’, requiring significant resource mobilisation to navigate current regulatory requirements.

Most respondents felt that the level of European regulation on their respective firms was disproportionate, however it’s worth noting that nearly a third of respondents were indifferent on this viewpoint.

Looking at specific EU regulations, Investment Firms Directive (IFD) and Investment Firms Regulation (IFR) were highlighted as the most challenging, with more than half of respondents expecting ‘critical’ or ‘major’ challenges associated with the implementation of these regulations.

European capital regulations, including IFD and IFR, have constituted a major compliance burden for principal trading firms, with significant implication for the prudential requirements that these firms have become subject to.

The report noted that the cost implications have pushed various principal trading firms to give up their Mifid II licences or relocate their headquarters or specific trading desks outside of the EU.

Interestingly, when looking at the risks on the horizon within the European listed derivatives markets, regulatory risk was found to be the second largest risk that respondents were most concerned about – coming in just slightly lower than cyber risk.

“Regulation is a constant of listed derivatives markets – when one framework takes effect another is usually coming down the line,” Acuiti said in its report.

“While market participants frequently support the objectives of regulation, often there are unexpected consequences from rule proposals. These then require substantial lobbying efforts to counter or moderate.”

Brexit

Elsewhere in the report, Acuiti explored the impacts of Brexit just over four years since the UK’s exist from the EU. Looking at the impact Brexit has had on London as a financial centre, most respondents (51%) believe that the city will remain a financial centre but at diminished size and influence.

Despite initial viewpoints that Brexit would lead to regulatory independence from the EU, the report suggests that appetite for this routed has shifted.

A key portion (41%) of respondents felt that the UK should pursue some divergence from the EU, however, noting this should not be done at the expense of equivalence with the bloc’s regulations. A larger proportion (45%) felt that the UK should seek convergence with EU laws to reduce regulatory fragmentation.

“While the European listed derivatives industry has faced multiple challenges during the last five years, its market participants are viewing the next five years ahead with optimism,” Acuiti said in its report.

“Challenges have not dissipated, with the effects of Brexit still playing out, cyber risk rising as a threat to systems and regulation imposing a constant and heavy burden on operations. However, confronting this multitude of challenges had also created a fortified and resilient industry.”

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