It’s incredible to hear the broad range of discussions today. Some interesting comments and thoughts from the traders around the tables:

• There’s a clear need from the buy side to ensure fluid, compliant and secure communication channels when communicating with both internal teams and external counterparties.
• The move to working from home, and lack of oversight led to a lapse in ensuring communication channels remained secure, with many traders using social media apps to chat. This is now being addressed through comprehensive, integrated workflow and communication tools.
• There’s a growing desire from the Equities community to begin the interoperability journey and use containerisation tools to help drive internal efficiencies and multi-asset initiatives. Additionally, the Equity desks could be the pioneers in the interoperability space due to their technological advantage.
• It’s important to remember that increased automation and efficiencies within firms shouldn’t be a cause for concern amongst traders – these enhancements should rather be seen as a way to free up traders time for more valuable work, allowing them to up and cross scale trades, and focus on illiquid products.

Almost time for a well deserved drink!

#TheFinanceHiveEquities