The Big Interview: Khursheda Fazylova

Claudia Preece sits down with Khursheda Fazylova, fixed income trader at Janus Henderson Investors, to unpack her journey to the trading desk and the important lessons learnt, how the Janus Henderson fixed income desk has handled the macro volatility so far in 2025, and what the future outlook is for traders’ day-to-day as the work-life balance conversation ramps up.

Tell us about your journey to becoming a fixed income trader at Janus Henderson

My journey to becoming a fixed income trader at Janus Henderson started about 10 years ago, when I decided to move to Europe from Tajikistan where I was born and raised to pursue a master’s degree in finance. I had always wanted to be a part of the financial markets since I was a teenager, so I knew that in some shape or form I’d be involved in it. I must admit that in the beginning I had no idea what asset class I wanted to be trading, but during my master’s I really fell in love with everything fixed income. The sheer volume and variety within the fixed income universe, the challenges and fragmentation of the market and the complexity of the bonds (interest rate risk, credit risk, inflation risk, currency risk etc.) and their deep tie to macroeconomics were some of the most appealing factors.

I initially started as a fixed income evaluator at Thomson Reuters Pricing Services where the team was responsible for pricing the bonds for the variety of indices. Then I moved into asset management by joining State Street Advisors where I worked for about six years as a fixed income portfolio management analyst and subsequently as a fixed income trader. I had a great few years at the company, where my managers and colleagues involved me in numerous interesting projects including fixed income ESG strategy building within the quant research, as well as trading a wide range of fixed income products for different mandates such as developed rates, and emerging markets, to name few.

My Janus Henderson chapter started last year in November when I joined the company in pursuit of a new challenge and exposure to active fixed income portfolio management.

What’s the most important lesson you’ve learnt so far in your career?

It’s hard to pinpoint the most important one, as all the lessons thrown at me throughout my career have brought a lot of value to my professional and personal development.

One I would highlight is adaptability. No matter how much experience one thinks they might have, there is always an element of unpredictability, especially in the line of work we do.

Markets shift, the macro environment can change in a matter of a single ‘tweet’, technology evolves and so does our role. If we don’t adapt and constantly challenge and improve the way we do things we risk being left behind or left staying inefficient which we cannot afford given our fiduciary duty to our clients. So be it picking up coding and big data analysis or partnering with new emerging fixed income platforms we always keep our finger on the pulse. Being open to change, actively listening and adjusting the course is what truly drives the long-term success.

The second lesson I would highlight is one’s attitude to hardships. It is not easy sometimes to deal with hardships and setbacks, especially early on in one’s career. It might feel soul crushing to be close to achieving a goal and fall just a bit short of succeeding. Be that a dream role or a dream project or a desired certification. The key is to see those failures as stepping stones towards the future success as each failure teaches you about your weaknesses and areas where you need to improve. That is a very valuable insight, the one some people would pay for.

This year has been one for the books in terms of macro unpredictability, how has the Janus Henderson fixed income desk handled the volatility so far this year?

It has been indeed! Our fixed income desk throughout the years has seen several volatile periods. But as we have discussed before, no matter how much market turmoil one might have lived through, nothing ever prepares you fully for the next one. One thing we always keep in mind is delivering the best outcomes to our clients.

Our desk is built around collaboration, transparency and feedback. We try to keep each other aware of important developments around the trades we are handling. It’s important to keep abreast of what is going on around you at all times, as markets tend to go into panic mode during volatility and it’s crucial to catch the moment and react very quickly. We are in the business of transferring risk in the markets and should always be extra aware and informed.

The other thing that helps us navigate such challenging times is our relationships with our counterparties. The sell-side is not only a source of liquidity for us but an important partner. To nurture these partnerships the team engages with street daily on the phone, avoiding being solely reliant on messaging services like IB chats. By cultivating trust and partnership with your counterparties in sometimes not the best and most liquid markets you can manage risk much more efficiently.

Stress resilience and reliance on each other helps a lot, we are always open to stepping in and helping out where necessary to prevent situations when one might be overwhelmed and stretched too thin and not able to handle the trade with the utmost precision and best execution.

On the whole how would you say the fixed income trading sphere is changing when it comes to traders’ day to day?

I previously discussed the electronification of the fixed income markets a while back and it still seems to be evolving in that direction. We see the rise in various protocols that are designed to streamline and systematise trading, if not for the whole fixed income market but for the most liquid segments of it. A lot of new vendors pop up here and there with the ambitions to help develop the market tape and enable electronification of the primary markets. If they were to succeed in the near future, that would significantly help the markets elevate some of the processes. Adaptability really comes in handy here, as mentioned previously being on top of the newest developments and learning quickly is essential.

The way I see the fixed income trading sphere changing is embracing data. Our desk has developed and built a range of data analysis tools to help us make decisions more efficiently. On a day-to-day basis we leverage our data analysis capabilities to detect the market sentiment, identify technical factors that affect trading in our markets and look at ad-hoc reports to evaluate our performance and efficiency. And I am sure we are not the only desk to embrace and harness data.

But it must be said that one thing that won’t change and will be a part of our day-to-day is being ready to face the situation where volatility spikes up, data becomes unreliable and the only way to trade is through the phone with the counterparties you’ve spent years developing partnerships with. In times of panic and chaos people switch off their screens and even the smallest of trades sent via the electronic platforms impact the markets in a big way.

What’s the future outlook for algos in fixed income, is it something which is on your radar?

Algos have been a great source of liquidity in fixed income markets – the rise of alternative liquidity providers has proven so. In liquid markets and smaller size trades, algos can price quite aggressively and help traders achieve best levels. A lot of sell-side banks have developed their own algos to try win and increase their market share in these small and liquid trades.

Algos are on our radar, and they are very helpful in our day to day when it comes to sourcing liquidity. Given desks now move towards a more systematic way of trading, utilising algos will be fundamental in building these processes moving forward. The trades then can be divided into low and high touch allowing traders to focus on more challenging and less liquid parts of the market. 

Where algos are not efficient is in high beta segments of the credit markets and illiquid instruments, where traders are very protective of their positions and do not post their axes, reporting data on the trades can be deferred for considerable periods depending on the regulatory regime, prices are stale and there is just not enough of the amount outstanding in the market. This is where we will always need to rely on our experience, relationships and careful risk transfer to achieve the best outcome.

Active fixed income has been less dependent on algos just because of a nature of our business, but where algos are most embraced is passive fixed income. Daily flows, smaller trade sizes and investing in benchmark names is what needed to be properly utilising the power of algos.

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