I graduated university in 2021 with a degree in modern languages and started on a graduate scheme that gave me a great overview of the various aspects of a trading role. Starting out, especially coming into the industry without a more typical degree in say economics or finance, I didn’t necessarily know what role would suit me best. What drew me further into my current role as a trader at Liontrust was the more technical and hands-on nature of the role.

We are fully involved in the investment process across multiple investment strategies and asset classes.  This means that there is always something different and interesting to get involved in, and endless people to speak to and learn from. The opportunity to learn how to trade nearly every asset class so early on in my career was something that really appealed.  It has helped give me a great overview of how different asset classes react to economic changes and world events, which I’m sure will help me in my future career.

What makes a successful multi-asset trader?

Versatility and prioritisation are key. You need to be able to adapt quickly between asset classes and often multi-task trading across assets at the same time. Every trade needs your full attention, regardless of what you might already be doing in another asset class, and ensuring you prioritise correctly is essential.  You need to know the likely price impact of certain economic events and the ever-changing demand and supply picture on each order. Learning similarities in how certain instruments trade and affect each other helps a lot from an execution point of view.

Something equally as important as versatility is the ability to condense and cherry pick the best information, colour and flows, not just for our fund managers, but for ourselves too. Multi-asset traders are lucky enough to receive a wealth of information from endless IBs, emails and calls from counterparties in each asset class. It would be impossible to read and take in every bit of information available to us, but making the most of the access and condensing it down to take in the best bits is an important skill to have.

Why do you think diversity of thought on the trading desk and beyond is important?

Diversity of thought lends itself to better decision making. By incorporating multiple viewpoints and challenging what might be the consensus, you tend to make better decisions overall. Coming into my role with a fresh pair of eyes and less experience than the rest of the team, there have been times when I have questioned why things are done a certain way. We have an open and inclusive culture within the team and Liontrust in general, where we aim for constant improvement and challenge is welcomed.  This has aligned with my own style as I feel it is important to always be thinking about how processes can be updated and to adapt with the times, instead of staying static. In our team, we approach problems and trades from different angles given our differing levels of experience, and in turn this leads to more innovative ideas and stronger decision making.

As traders we sit among the investment teams on the floor and are constantly interacting with them. Between the various teams and roles, you inevitably get diversity of thought. Sometimes, the way in which a trader or a PM approaches a trade can differ. The interaction and sharing of ideas when trading ultimately leads to better outcomes – for not just us as traders, but importantly the end client too.

How do you think about liquidity and how do you go about trying to source it in the current environment?

Liquidity is in the forefront of investors’ minds and sourcing it efficiently is vital.  We always strive to stay up to date with the latest global market structure trends and developments to achieve this. Given this is continually changing, we are constantly speaking with our counterparties, liquidity providers and exchanges to discuss the changing venue and order type environment. We work with our brokers to customise our algos and smart order routers to better suit our flow type and make sure we are capturing liquidity from the right variety of venues at the right time in the lifecycle of our orders.

Beyond using all the tools and venues that all our peers also have access to, we place a lot of value on interaction with our high touch counterparts. With our involvement in the investment process, we are well placed to decide whether liquidity opportunities make sense for our funds or not.  Often, we will suggest to fund managers that they raise orders to benefit from large block crossing opportunities when we do not have live orders on the desk.  This enables the funds to obtain advantageous prices, solve liquidity issues before they even arise and helps our fund managers to implement their investment decisions efficiently.  Not every investment strategy lends itself to taking full advantage of this, but we aim to add value wherever possible and this has been particularly successful in small- and mid-cap equities.

We put emphasis on this being a two-way relationship between us and the sales trader and we try to give them colour where we can, so they know where we care going forward. They often know where the bodies are buried in certain names, so without having these reciprocal partnerships, we would miss out on potential liquidity opportunities.

How are you as a new trader to the industry leveraging data and TCA to influence execution decisions?

I know that in recent years the way in which trading desks are utilising data has evolved a lot and it is now a starting point to most execution conversations. We have so much data and TCA at our disposal and as a new joiner to the industry there are so many insights that I can take and learn from.

I think it’s important to ensure we take actionable insights from the data and make it digestible both internally and for our end clients. I’m a fan of Power BI and have taught myself how to make TCA more visually appealing by using it. It is our responsibility to know how to use all the tools available to us to help us influence our execution decisions. Recently, I have made a dashboard looking at the performance and liquidity data on our past credit program trades and we can use this for smarter counterparty selection. This helps us in our quest for continuous improvement.

The TCA that we generate ourselves and receive from our brokers is insightful.  I take advantage of the opportunity to discuss it with the experts, as I find that people are always willing to give time to those wanting to learn. There’s a clear benefit of coming into the world of TCA fresh without any longstanding trading habits – you are open-minded to tweaking decisions and processes based on the numbers you are presented with, and can make more data-backed decisions and reduce the effects of cognitive biases.

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Mark Hawtin

Hawtin – who spent 15 years with the business – will leave his role as head of global growth equity, along with his team, in May. The team – made up of David Goodman, Kevin Kruczynski and Pieran Maru currently manage the GAM Star Disruptive Growth and GAM Star Alpha Technology funds.

Roberts is set to join Liontrust earlier, in April, having most recently served as global head of distribution at GAM. In his new role he will be responsible for growing global distribution outside the UK specifically, focused on: Germany, Switzerland, Italy, the Nordics, Iberia and Latin America, Benelux and France. Prior to GAM, Roberts was co-head of EMEA retail sales and head of UK retail business at BlackRock.

Speaking in an announcement, Liontrust asserted that the appointments will “enable Liontrust to expand its fund offering, international distribution and client base”.

“Mark Hawtin and his team are an important addition to Liontrust given the importance of global equities across the client base. Mark has a strong track record in managing long only and long/short equity funds at Marshall Wace and then GAM and further enhances our global capabilities,” said John Ions, chief executive of Liontrust.

He added: “Jeremy has successfully built global distribution and will be responsible for expanding our client relationships and partnerships in continental Europe and South America.”

The move follows last year’s conditional agreement between the two firms, which saw Liontrust conditionally agree to acquire its Swiss competitor GAM Holding for £96 million back in May, following murmurs of the deal in April. 

The deal, once completed, was set to create a global asset manager with £53 billion in assets under management and administration. However, the board of GAM Holding subsequently declared Liontrust Asset Management’s offer for the business unsuccessful and in August, an agreement was instead made with Rock Investment SAS and Newgame to finance the business’ liquidity needs.

Read more: GAM shares turnaround plan to return to profitability

Following Hawtin’s departure, Newton Investment Management Group’s Paul Markham is set to take over as head of global growth equities at GAM from next month, with Hawtin remaining for the time being to ensure a smooth handover. 

Speaking to his appointment, Paul Markham enthused: “This is an exciting time to join GAM’s highly regarded global growth and disruptive equities team. I share GAM’s belief in building concentrated long-only portfolios with high active share and diversified risk in order to deliver long-term outperformance for clients.

“I am looking forward to working with the team to deepen and expand the firm’s expertise across the considerable market opportunity set in global equities.”

Markham is set to join as an investment director and leaves Newton after more than 25 years. He will report to Elmar Zumbuehl, chief executive of GAM and lead a team of five, The TRADE understands.

He was most recently head of global equities at Newton, playing a key role in the growth of the firm’s global equity franchise and overseeing assets of around £7 billion.

Since October, GAM has seen a swathe of appointments in a bid to grow the business and increase profits following last year’s acquisition saga. 

Speaking to Markham’s appointment, Zumbuehl , said: “I am delighted to welcome Paul to GAM, his experience and track record will help us grow our global equity franchise as part of our strategy which is focused on creating long-term value for all our clients, shareholders, and employees.

“I would also like to thank Mark for his contribution to GAM over many years and I am pleased that he will remain with the firm for the next few months to ensure a smooth handover to Paul.”

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As we peer into the crystal ball for 2024 trading, a notable shift is anticipated with the adoption of T+1 settlement for US equity transactions. This transition is poised to reshape the pace and efficiency of equity trading, promoting quicker settlement cycles. It’s fully expected that the spotlight will turn towards the foreign exchange element, often deemed the least loved asset class. 

Asset managers and traders are expected to re-evaluate FX markets, seeking evolution from the industry to source liquidity later in the trading day around the US close. Concurrently, the need for market participants to embrace technology becomes increasingly apparent. Automation, artificial intelligence, and data analytics are anticipated to play pivotal roles in refining trading strategies and navigating the complexities of across asset classes in this tech-driven financial landscape of 2024.

Daniel Chambers, head of data and analytics, BidFX (an SGX company)

This year has seen investors hanging on every word uttered by central banks around interest rates. Changes in interest rates inevitably drive FX markets. Depending on how markets react to monetary policy next year, and whether volatility returns to FX, there will be an even greater need to actively assess liquidity in a much more granular way. That said, even if FX markets are more benign in the New Year, this will not put a stop to the general trend of hedge funds and asset managers seeking more precise insights from their liquidity providers. 2024 will see investment managers ask why their FX flow has been directed to certain counterparties, rather than passively accepting the liquidity provider’s perspective.

Rather than simply looking at FX flow distribution, investment managers will be demanding insight into the exact rationale behind a certain bid/offer price being offered up at 11:55am just prior to the Bank of England’s rate decision. They will also want to know who is providing the tightest spreads at that exact time, in addition to identifying those at the top of the order book and those displaying a price skew.

Basu Choudhury, head of partnerships and strategic initiatives, OSTTRA

One of the big challenges for 2024, assuming the successful operational migration over to T+1 for US securities in May, is how will the FX markets (execution venues, makers and takers, intermediaries) react to the compression of execution times in the context of constrained settlement relationships? What will this imply for post-trade processing (matching and settlement) and provisioning of credit, the life blood in FX markets? The shortening of the settlement cycle for US equities and bonds brings settlement risk into sharp focus for FX participants. What challenges will Asian and European asset managers face with their FX overlay process? It is likely that currency risks and costs will increase for the end customer.

When buying US stocks, from an FX perspective, in order to fund the purchase of the stocks, the investment manager will need to convert their Singapore dollars into US dollars within a compressed timeframe. Therefore, to mitigate the risk of failing to settle due to not having enough dollars to pay for the stocks, some key questions will need to be addressed. For instance, at the time they need to execute FX transactions which liquidity pool and how many counterparties can they execute with in order to acquire the USD in time for DvP settlement?

Vikas Srivastava, chief revenue officer, Integral

The introduction of T+1 in North America in May 2024 understandably occupies the thinking of technology officers and heads of desks for their FX trading activities. The challenge primarily sits with those asset managers in Europe and APAC trading in US markets who will have a matter of hours to match and settle both the equities and FX leg of the trade in order to settle T+1.

The only real solution to this issue is automation of trading workflows. Banks should see this as an opportunity to better serve their clients in their hour of need by directly embedding their services into their buy-side clients’ workflows. Banks should be looking to partner with technology firms that enable them to embed their FX services via API in their clients’ processes.

The post The TRADE predictions series 2024: Foreign exchange, the regulatory impact appeared first on The TRADE.

Now in its second year, this award is designed to celebrate those individuals who have made a significant impact on their own organisation and, equally, the industry externally, with a commitment to bettering and future proofing the markets for years to come.

Shortlisted individuals are repeated contributors to discussion whether that be through panels, associations or schemes to support the next generation joining the financial services industry.

The winner will be decided by a live industry vote at The TRADE’s Leaders in Trading gala awards night on 8 November. Congratulations to this year’s shortlisted nominees!

Industry Person of the Year 2023 shortlist:

Seema Arora, managing director, head of execution sales, Instinet Europe  

Champion of The TRADE’s Rising Stars of Trading and Execution award scheme, Instinet Europe’s Seema Arora needs little introduction with an extensive financial career spanning more than 25 years.

Beginning her career at Dresdner Kleinwort Benson as director and head of portfolio sales trading in 1997, she later went on to spend six years at JP Morgan, initially as an executive director and head of execution sales responsible for electronic and portfolio trading and ETFs. She later took on a role at the bank as executive director of investor flow sales responsible for the introduction of its derivative product to its UK client base.

Prior to joining Instinet Europe, Arora spent several years at Kepler Cheuvreux also in senior execution sales, program and portfolio trading focused roles. She joined Instinet Europe in 2019 as managing director and head of execution sales, her current role where she is responsible for the growth of new and existing client revenue. 

Alongside her role within the markets, Arora is vocal in her support of the next generation of individuals entering the financial services industry through participation in intern programs and the Rising Stars initiative, in partnership with The TRADE. 

Eleanor Beasley, chief operating officer for EMEA equity execution services, Goldman Sachs 

Chief operating officer of EMEA equity execution services, Eleanor Beasley, joined Goldman Sachs to manage its new-look market structure team in 2019. She assumed the role at the bank after a 15-year stint with Morgan Stanley where she held several roles, most recently head of market structure for clients.

In her current role for Goldman Sachs, she is responsible for ensuring the operational efficiency of the business, managing relationships with exchanges and ensuring the business and its clients are well-positioned for developments within the European market structure. She began her career as an analyst at the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) in 2002.

Beasley is a committed expert and thought leader in market structure – an essential tool for any institution amid the many regulatory shifts taking place in the market as of late – and alongside her role at Goldman Sachs she is also chair of the AFME Securities Trading Committee, as well as sitting on the board of Cboe Europe and participating in several exchange and industry advisory groups.

Chris Jackson, global head of equities strategy and head of equities, EMEA, Liquidnet

Global head of equities strategy and head of EMEA equities for Liquidnet, Chris Jackson has an extensive equity trading career spanning over 25 years. He began his career in program trading sales at London-based investment bank SG Warburg.

Jackson later spent 12 years at Merrill Lynch where he held a number of roles in both London and New York, most recently as head of sales across programme, transitions and electronic trading for the EMEA region. Jackson left Merrill Lynch in 2009 to join Citi as its head of execution sales for EMEA before joining Liquidnet in 2015. He served in a variety of senior equities roles until his most recent one as global head of equity strategy and head of equities for EMEA. He is also responsible for Liquidnet’s equity product strategy. Jackson played a pivotal role during the acquisition of Liquidnet by TP ICAP Group, ensuring a smooth transition during the integration process.

Alongside his various equities roles within the market, Jackson has previously been co-chair of the FIX committee for EMEA, an advisor to the UK Government office for science on the future of computer trading in financial markets and a founding member of the OpenTCA initiative to promote transparency and standards in transaction cost analysis (TCA). In April, he took part in a charity bike ride home from the TradeTech Europe 2023 conference in Paris in aid of Farms for City Children.

Stéphane Marie-Françoise, director, multi-asset trader, Unigestion

Senior vice president and multi-asset trader at Unigestion, Stéphane Marie-Françoise, has an extensive financial markets career spanning more than 20 years. Beginning his career at Dexia Securities as a financial analyst assistant in 2002 he has since gone on to serve at CPR Asset Management, Amundi and Unigestion.

After joining CPR Asset Management in 2002 in a middle-office role, Marie-Françoise rose through the ranks, joining the dealing desk in 2005 in an equities program trading and derivatives position. He later took responsibility for the dealing desk in 2007, managing a team of three traders. Marie-Françoise moved to Amundi as a senior execution trader in 2012 before eventually joining Unigestion in 2013 in a multi-asset capability as a vice president and multi-asset trader. He was promoted to senior vice president in 2018, later taking on his current role as director and multi asset trader.

Marie-Françoise was recognised as one of The TRADE’s Rising Stars of Trading and Execution in 2017. He is a continued thought leader in the industry, particularly in the multi-asset sphere, and was subsequently awarded the Buy-side Market Structure Expert of the Year award at Leaders in Trading 2022 by The TRADE after an industry vote.

Matt Mcloughlin, chief commercial officer and partner, Liontrust Asset Management

Former TRADE Rising Star of Trading Execution, Matt McLoughlin has nearly two decades of financial markets experience, including the last eight years he has spent at Liontrust Asset Management. He began his career at the UK’s HM Treasury, before moving to AIG Investments to manage fixed income funds.

He subsequently spent six years as a senior trader at hedge fund RAB Capital before moving to Legal & General Investment Management to trade global equities and derivatives. Following this, in 2015, he shifted to Liontrust to run the trading desk. He assumed the role of chief commercial officer at Liontrust in April, now overseeing the development and commercial strategies of the Group as well as maintaining oversight of the trading desk. Under his stewardship, Liontrust was awarded the Multi-Asset Trading Desk of the Year and Mid-Cap Trading Desk of the Year by The TRADE in 2022 and 2017 respectively.

McLoughlin is a committed contributor to industry discussion and to the development of new talent in the markets. Alongside his core roles, McLoughlin is a director and board member of The Plato Partnership, a member of the Liontrust Investment Partners LLP Management Committee and a member of Liontrust Product & Distribution Committee, as well as having numerous committee memberships at the UK Investment Association.

The post Leaders in Trading 2023: Industry Person of the Year shortlist revealed appeared first on The TRADE.

NJJ Holding-owned Rock is part of an investor group, also consisting of companies Newgame and Bruellan, which controls 9.6% of GAM Holding.

The agreement specifically relates to an extension of the previously proposed immediate short-term financing of CHF 20 million in order to cover GAM, which would remain until replaced by the CHF 25 million convertible bond proposed by Rock Investments last week.

Initially, the financing option was declared lacking by GAM in a statement made on Monday 21 August, which claimed the amount represented around a quarter of the necessary input.

However, the business will now move to finalise the proposed financing with GAM shareholders at an extraordinary general meeting held on or around 27 September.

The outcome follows significant back and forth around the Liontrust and GAM deal over the last three months – which saw significant mudslinging between the Newgame group and GAM.

UK asset manager Liontrust conditionally agreed to acquire its Swiss competitor GAM Holding for £96 million back in May, following murmurs of the deal in April.

Speaking at the time the offer was announced, John Ions, chief executive of Liontrust, said: “We have made a good and fair offer for GAM and believe it is in the best interests of the shareholders of both companies, as well as clients and employees, by providing a great platform for growth along with corporate and financial stability for GAM.”

Supporting this, David Jacob, chair of GAM, at the time expressed the board’s recommendation that it be accepted by all shareholders. However, there was immediate backlash from some stakeholders.

Following the announcement of the proposed takeover in May, the Newgame and Bruellan investor group stated that it was considering rejecting the offer and believed there were better options which could turn the business around. 

At the time, the investor group stated that it believed the offer undervalued the GAM business, highlighting the fact that it was not a cash offer as a key drawback: “The fact that Liontrust only offers its own shares […] implies that GAM shareholders will be subject to the volatility of Liontrust shares without any firm price for a business that has significant intrinsic value.”

In addition, the group expressed concern related to the execution contingencies of the proposed deal – “the risk of an unsuccessful exit of GAM’s fund management services business in Luxembourg and Switzerland (on which almost no information is being provided) is being shifted to GAM shareholders,” said the investor group.

In recent months, the group has made various statements aimed at preventing the Liontrust takeover and has previously filed two official objections to the Swiss Takeover Board (TOB) concerning the Liontrust offer in the last two months.

In addition, the group also considered a partial public offer to purchase “up to” 28 million GAM shares – equating to around 17.5% of the issued share capital of GAM for CHF0.55 per share in a bid to halt the offer.

This latest development following the rejection of the Liontrust offer, will also see the current GAM board stand down at the upcoming EGM, with new directors proposed by Rock.

The investor group has confirmed to the current board “their intention to secure sufficient financial resources to fund GAM’s operations as a going concern”. In response to this, the board has stated a recommendation to shareholders to approve the proposed candidates.

Speaking to this latest development, Jacob, said: “I am pleased that we have successfully concluded our discussions with NewGAMe and entered into financing arrangements. This provides a clear path forward for GAM and stability for our clients, employees and all other shareholders. I would like to thank clients, employees and shareholders for their patience during the process of securing a strategic outcome for GAM.”

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Rock Investments has proposed a short-term bridge financing in the form of a CHF25 million convertible bond, to be used in the event that Liontrust’s offer for GAM Holding is not accepted.
 
The short-term bridge financing from Rock is planned to be presented at a future EGM and would reportedly replace their previously proposed bridge financing.

However, the financing option has been declared lacking by GAM in a statement made on Monday 21 August, which made clear that this amount represents around a quarter of the necessary input.

In response to the communication sent by Rock to the GAM board on 17 August, GAM has stated that “the proposed convertible bond is insufficient to maintain GAM”, explaining that a capital injection for the immediate foreseeable future would need to be in excess of CHF 100 million.

“Against this background, the proposed convertible bond is insufficient to maintain GAM […] in the short term let alone over the next 12 months as required by law and regulators,” said the business.

UK asset manager Liontrust conditionally agreed to acquire its Swiss competitor GAM Holding for £96 million in May, following murmurs of the deal in April.

If the transaction is successful, the new global asset management entity would hold £53 billion in assets under management (AUM) and administration, expanding Liontrust’s product range into fixed income, thematic equities and alternatives, as well as its overall presence across Europe. 

Following announcement of the proposed takeover, an investor group, made up of companies Newgame – controlled by Rock Investment – and Bruellan, which together control 9.6% of GAM Holding, stated that it was contemplating rejecting the offer.

The group has continually expressed that it believes the offer from Liontrust fundamentally undervalues the GAM business. It has previously filed two official objections to the Swiss Takeover Board (TOB) concerning the Liontrust offer thus far.

The most recent announcement from GAM on Monday reiterates the board’s preference for the Liontrust takeover. 

Speaking to shareholders earlier this month, David Jacob, chair of GAM, said: “I acknowledge that this has been a challenging journey for shareholders. However, at this critical point, I urge you to tender your shares into the Liontrust Offer. By doing this, you protect your investment and have the opportunity to participate in the future value creation from the enlarged firm.”

In a statement this week, GAM once again asserted that the Liontrust offer is the only viable option and in the interests of all stakeholders.

“Liontrust have done extensive due diligence and the enlarged business will have a strong balance sheet, a broader array of excellent investment products, a global distribution footprint and the capability to deliver synergies and growth.”

The newest deadline for shareholders to tender their shares into the Liontrust offer is 23 August 2023.

In the same communication, GAM also addressed Rock directly, urging the business to accept the realities of GAM’s financial position: “If the Liontrust offer is declared unsuccessful it is essential that Rock acknowledge and accept publicly that the level of funding needed to stabilise GAM is significantly higher than the net proceeds of the Rock proposed convertible bond.

“[…] failing to do so is not reflective of GAM’s actual financial position and business performance and is misleading to GAM and its shareholders.”

The Newgame and Bruellan investor group and Liontrust Asset Managament both declined to comment when approached by The TRADE.

GAM Holdings did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The post GAM acquisition saga continues as Rock Investments proposes new alternative to Liontrust deal appeared first on The TRADE.

The deal, once completed in the fourth quarter, will create a global asset manager with £53 billion in assets under management and administration, and expand Liontrust’s product range into fixed income, thematic equities and alternatives.

It will also greatly expand the institution’s European presence, particularly in Switzerland.

Liontrust has confirmed it intends to rebrand all GAM funds as Liontrust as soon as possible after completion of the deal and for the GAM business to operate under the Liontrust brand.

“This is a significant acquisition that accelerates the growth of Liontrust through enhancing our distribution globally, product capability and investment talent,” said John Lons, chief executive of Liontrust, in a statement

“Liontrust and GAM are both client centric businesses that thrive on providing solutions and first-class service. The enlarged company will provide the platform from which to deliver this to a broader client base.”

Rumours that the Liontrust deal was on the cards began circling last month. GAM had reportedly been in the market for a buyer for some time. 

The M&A flurry

The deal follows several other major merger and acquisition announcements in the last few weeks including Redburn’s merger with Atlantic Equities to create a London-headquartered transatlantic broker. Tradeweb also confirmed it is in advanced talks to acquire Australian electronic trading platform Yieldbroker for $82.7 million.

Other big recent M&A moves include Deutsche Bank’s acquisition of Numis for £410 million and Deutsche Boerse’s acquisition of SimCorp for an eye-watering $4.3 billion. 

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Northern Trust appointed Sonia Davies as senior vice president of Integrated Trading Solutions (ITS), the firm’s outsourced trading business. Davies will serve as senior relationship manager covering ITS clients and service providers. She joined Northern Trust from Enfusion, where she served as EMEA head of partnerships and alliances. Earlier in her career, Davies spent seven years at Credit Suisse, most recently serving as director of prime services – offering consulting services within that sector. Elsewhere, she served at Jabre Capital Partners

Hedge fund Millennium appointed Utkarsh Khandelwal as an emerging market equities analyst. Khandelwal joined from Morgan Stanley, where he spent the last 13 years, most recently serving as vice president, Asia equity sales for the past four years. Prior to that, he held the position of India specialist for institutional equity sales. Elsewhere in his tenure at Morgan Stanley, Khandelwal held research associate positions in both the internet and media sector as well as in India equity strategy. Khandelwal began his career as an analyst for loan syndication at Bank of America Continuum.

Investment bank Mediobanca named former KBW equity sales trader Jason Robins as its new executive director of sales trading. Robins began his career at Fox-Pitt, Kelton where he spent seven years as an equity trader. He then joined boutique investment bank and broker-dealer KBW, where he served as an equity sales trader. Following that, Robins spent nine years at Autonomous Research, where he held an equity sales trading position. He later re-joined KBW, where he most recently served as a pan-European equity sales trader.

The post People Moves Monday: Updates from the trading desk appeared first on The TRADE.

Martin Hendry, who has been part of firm’s multi-asset desk for the last six and a half years, will ascend to the position of deputy head of trading.

Current lead McLoughlin is set to become chief commercial officer after spending the last seven and a half years with the asset manager, joining in 2015 as a senior trader. He will retain overall responsibility for the trading desk.

McLoughlin joined the asset manager from Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) after also previously serving at RAB Capital, AIG, and HM Treasury.

“I am excited about this new role and am very much looking forward to helping us achieve our strategic objectives,” McLoughlin told The TRADE. “Martin has proved himself to be a real asset to the Group since joining and has taken on more than his previous title suggested over the years. He thoroughly deserves his promotion and I look forward to working with him in this new capacity.”

Hendry also joined Liontrust from Legal & General Investment Management after previously spending three years at as a junior trader at Gruss Asset Management and a year at JP Morgan Chase as a corporate actions analyst.

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Daniel Morris, chief market strategist, BNP Paribas Asset Management

One can easily think of ways in which the situation could yet worsen: a breakdown in a key financial market due to the rapid rise in interest rates, a cold winter and blackouts in Europe, or a flare-up in geopolitical tensions between the US and China. Europe is facing an energy shock unlike anything the region has seen since the OPEC price increases in the 1970s. Even though gas prices have moderated of late, they are still 10 times higher than the average in 2019. Inflation is in double digits in some countries, consumer sentiment has collapsed, and demand is weakening along with disposable income. Nonetheless, we believe headline inflation has peaked and will return to the ECB’s 2% target in 2024.

Jim Kwiatkowski, CEO, LTX: The capital markets industry experienced a particularly volatile 2H 2022 as investors grappled with a looming recession and peak inflation. This year will be remembered as the year when market participants were forced to adjust to a drastically different environment due to a hawkish approach from the Fed, the war in Ukraine and persistent supply chain issues altering the trading landscape.

The US corporate bond market was not unscathed by these challenges, which will continue to have ripple effects well into 2023. We expect the Fed’s tightening of monetary policy to continue, with the process ending in the first half of 2023 and interest rates and inflation remaining relatively high throughout the year. We expect high rates and recessionary concerns to continue to hold back the new issue market. Amidst these conditions, the availability of secondary market liquidity will be a key challenge that market participants will continue to solve for in 2023. We expect to see electronic bond trading reach record levels with the employment of innovative artificial intelligence (AI) and technology that increase transparency while minimizing information leakage. We also anticipate the further adoption of advanced trading tools for more efficient e-trading of large orders.

Matt McLoughin, head of trading, LionTrust: “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.” After an interesting covid-filled, couple of years, it is fair to say that 2022 did not disappoint with the number of challenges it brought for the market.   I think that 2023 will continue to be an “interesting” trading environment, but one that will bring new opportunities.  As the guardians of investors’ financial futures, we have a duty to invest responsibly and with that in mind, I see ESG factors remaining front and centre of investors’ minds next year.  I am hopeful that the increase in global interest rates that we have experienced will achieve its aim of controlling inflation and that the cost of living crisis doesn’t last as long as expected.  I am very much looking forward to Ireland winning the Rugby World Cup on the 28th October 2023!

Jason Xavier, head of EMEA ETF capital markets, Franklin Templeton: We expect 2023 to be a bumpy year for financial markets globally. We think it will be a year for playing defence, optimising income, and tactically looking for a weakening dollar to potentially allocate to emerging markets (EM). My main prediction centres around this defensive play. As such, we believe multi-factor smart beta ETFs, especially those focused on quality and income generating strategies, will outperform their relative AUM growth from this year as the decade of “cheap” money and record low interest rates is gone. The by-product of such monetary policy over the last decade has certainly benefited ETFs and index funds and in particular market capitalisation weighted schemes, often heavily overweight growth stocks, was a good “buy and hold” strategy returning solid annualised returns.

However, the new interest rate environment calls for a more tactical approach to asset allocation and equity market exposures. Hence, ETF investors may start looking favourably on alternative weighting schemes such as multi-factor smart beta ETFs, which consider stock fundamentals in addition to just the market capitalisation of a stock. We believe this is a strong growth area next year.

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