Apr 18, 2012
Traders need broader asset management nous to survive
Buy-side traders need a greater appreciation of the
investment process if they are to survive and thrive in modern investment
houses, according to a leading CIO.
Richard Lacaille, global chief investment officer, State
Street Global Advisors (SSgA), said the asset management business was becoming
more and more complex with the bar being raised by clients demanding on the one
hand greater indexing products and on the other, increased alpha. And traders
needed to respond.
“Asset management is becoming more complex. If you want to
continue your career as a trader, you need to better understand asset
management,” said Lacaille, who is due to speak at the TradeTech Europe conference in
London next week.
He said the challenge will be for asset management to
reinvent itself in a world where funds are migrating away from equities into liability-driven
investment strategies as the investor’s focus turns increasingly to risk
management.
“This move is not just an issue for asset managers,” said Lacaille,
who will speak Tuesday morning on how the economic environment and investor sentiment
is changing buy-side strategies and priorities. “It is causing pressure on the
markets and traders need to think through their own strategies.”
And these strategies need to stretch beyond equities. At SSgA,
Lacaille said the firm took the decision to move its fixed income trading into
the central trading desk, not because there was any great crossover in
specialisation, but because fixed income is changing more rapidly towards
electronic trading and the knowledge transfer from equities – such as
technology and algo trading – would be beneficial.
“There is always a healthy degree of communication between
our desk heads and portfolio managers. At SSgA, trading has a much higher
status than at many other places, with the global head of trading reporting
straight to me,” said Lacaille. “It is not seen as a back office function.
Trading is a risky business which affects performance. A firm’s attitude to
trading is a cultural issue.”
But Lacaille warns buy-side firms against going down the
path of making traders responsible for alpha.
“All CIOs should be cautious of setting up their trading
desk as a generator of alpha as there is a law of unintended consequences,” he
said.
Bruce Love
+44 (0)20 7397 3818
bruce.love@thetrade.ltd.uk