The TRADE Asia held its annual awards event at the Conrad Hotel in Hong Kong on 13 November, presenting trophies to sell-side and buy-side winners that recognised their excellence in trading and execution.
The awards presented were as follows:-
Electronic trading awards.
- Reducing Market Impact: ITG
- Price Improvement: Liquidnet
- Anonymity: Bloomberg Tradebook
- Trader Productivity: J.P. Morgan
- Customer Support: BNP Paribas
- Costs and Commissions: Bloomberg Tradebook
- Execution Consulting and Analytics: UBS
- Hedge Fund Clients: Goldman Sachs
- Long Only Clients: Macquarie
Best local brokerages for trading and execution
- Australia Macquarie
- China Citic Securities
- Hong Kong CLSA
- India Motilal Oswal
- Indonesia CIMB Securities
- Malaysia CIMB Securities
- Philippines CLSA
- Sri Lanka CT Smith
- Thailand Thanachart Securities
Execution management systems
- Customer satisfaction: Tora
Buy-side trader awards
- Buy-side implementation project
Will Psomadelis, Schroders Investment Management
- Buy-side trader of the year
Richard Coulstock, Eastspring Investments
A panel discussion took place featuring Richard Coulstock, Will Psomadelis, Andrew Freyre-Sanders of CIMB Securities and Phil Hulse of Bloomberg Tradebook. The subject of the debate was “Carving a trading identity in Asia”.
Phil Hulse said. “As Asia has become a more significant part of our global business, it really needs to be treated as such. We have moved into the region some of the management structure previously organised out of New York so that we could localise the product here. That has given us a greater autonomy on some of the decisions concerning our product. We’ve been building algos from the bottom up in Asia that reflect the individual nuances of each of the markets.”
CIMB is currently taking steps to expand its products in the USA and Europe, beyond its traditional regional Asian focus.
“When you look at execution, you have to prove to a client that you can build something that works and can outperform your peers,” said Andrew Freyre-Sanders. “This deployment into new global markets is a very focused plan for us.”
A charity auction at the event raised nearly HK$15,000 for the Lamma Animal Welfare Centre and the Rainbow Project in Sai Ying Pun. The lots included an autographed book donated by Occupy Central co-leader and Hong Kong university professor, Benny Tai, a bracelet made from Peter Frampton’s guitar string, donated by Steve Bernstein and a dinosaur egg donated by the TRADE Asia.
Steve Bernstein also provided the evening’s entertainment, accompanied by his band STACS. Magician Sean McFarlane brought his close-up magic tricks to the dining tables. Quiz prizes of champagne and book tokens were awarded to a dozen attendees across several tables.
The TRADE Asia would like to thank all event sponsors, auction donors and bidders. We also congratulate all award recipients, which we look forward to writing about in print and online in the forthcoming year.