What is the main priority for traders on the desk when looking to digitise their processes?
The desk has been focused on equipping itself with advanced data analytics to enable traders to make more data-driven decisions related to pricing and risk management, and to utilise this data to make us more relevant to our clients based on client insights analysis.
With the increasing usage of eTrading and automation, the data-driven approach allows the desk to smartly allocate their resource/time, which leads to improved performance.
Is digitalisation affecting hiring processes on the trading floor and how are the skillsets of trading floor changing as the market evolves?
We are seeing the trend to have people who are data friendly and technology friendly joining the desk across all levels. The digitalisation is a learning journey for firms and individuals on the floor, it is not about hiring new skillsets to replace the old, but rather to have the right culture and support within the organisation to grow the existing teams with new skillsets and identify the areas where digitalisation could help us improve our performance.
We now have data scientists hired sitting on the trading floor next to traders, and they are working very closely with our technology team to build a data-driven trading desk.
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In your opinion, how different will trading floor look in five years’ time?
In five years’ time I would imagine an even more integrated team on the trading floor across functions – traders, sales, e-commerce, strategists, data scientists, technologists…
Technology and data would help enhance our performance, and human traders/sales would focus more on value-added actions with their SME knowledge to ensure a smooth execution for our clients – regardless of whether they come to us electronically or via voice.
I think we have observed different stages of the integration across different asset classes on our floor, from FX to Fixed Income based on the different stage they are on the digitalisation journey.