As the too-brief British summer begins to fade, November might be further ahead than many of us would like to contemplate. But The TRADE’s Leaders in Trading event is already taking shape, including a wider range of opportunities to highlight buy-side trading excellence.
On 20 November at the Savoy hotel in London, The TRADE will present awards to buy-side traders across six categories, expanding from the two we launched at last year’s event.
This year, we’re looking to recognise best-in-class performance in the following categories: buy-side trader of the year; buy-side project of the year; buy-side trading desk of the year; buy-side multi-asset desk of the year; buy-side mid-cap desk/trader of the year; and buy-side post-trade project of the year.
In fact we’ve already received a number of nominations, via the website we have created to accept entries from buy-side readers wishing to nominate themselves or their peers, or from sell-side and other readers who would like to nominate clients.
As you may recall, last year November we recognised the overall contribution of Baring Asset Management’s Adam Conn, both for his work in overhauling elements of his own firm’s trading operations and his role in driving a number of initiatives at the FIX Trading Community, such as the automation and standardisation of IPO allocations.
Meanwhile, the best project award was carried off by Bill Stephenson, representing a team from Franking Templeton Investments that has implemented a number of technologies to improve trading outcomes and help traders add more value to the investment process.
No doubt, they were both worthy winners. But I expect competition to be tougher this year. Anecdotal evidence suggests more institutional investment firms are realising that ongoing innovation and development in trading and investment operations is essential to delivering results to clients.
For example, at the most interesting presentation I saw at TradeTech in Paris this April, Saurabh Srivastava, global head of electronic trading, explained how Invesco’s senior management had given the green light to in-house algo development as a key part of their efforts to drive performance.
In the most recent issue of The TRADE, Gianluca Minieri outlined a global change programme bring investment and trading closer together. And on Monday, I will travel to Frankfurt to find out about a not-dissimilar five-year initiative at Deutsche Asset and Wealth Management.
I am confident that there are many other examples out there. As such, we are putting together a panel of industry experts to judge the merits of the many nominations we are hoping to receive.
Nominations close in mid-October – so hurry, it’s not that far away. Click below to bring wider recognition to your hard work!