Stuart Lawrence, head of European equities trading at UBS Asset Management was voted industry person of the year last night at The TRADE’s Leaders in Trading awards gala.  The Industry Person of the Year Award was decided by a live industry vote by more than 300 attendees throughout the night and later announced on stage as the final award.  Now in its third year, the recognition is designed to celebrate individuals across the industry who have made a significant impact on their own organisation as well as the industry externally, with a commitment to making the markets better for years to come. After a competitive vote, Lawrence was announced as the winner before collecting his crystal and delivering an insightful speech, reflecting on his career in the industry, highlighting how times have changed for the better across the financial markets, and recognising the importance of mental health and supporting younger generations in their trading careers.  Lawrence is a well-known figure in the industry and has worked across financial markets for almost 25 years, in roles spanning both the buy-side and sell-side. Over the course of his career, he has become renowned for supporting the continued evolution of the broader market and collaboration between peers. He is also passionate about nurturing junior talent across the market and can often be spotted sharing insights and expertise at conferences and events. Lawrence currently serves as head of European equities trading at UBS Asset Management, where he has worked for more than six years. During his time there, he has served an integral role in the firm’s development, navigating complexities such as the merging and integration of the Credit Suisse Asset Management trading desk into the European trading desk, as well as the centralisation of all European trading within London.  Before joining UBS Asset Management, Lawrence worked at Kepler Cheuvreux, now known as KCx as a high touch equity sales trader. He has also served at firms including Principal Global Investors, Instinet, Ennismore Fund Management and ABN AMRO, where he began his industry career as a European market maker.  Other nominees for the award included: Alex Dalley, head of European cash equities, Cboe, Laetitia Visconti, head of market structure, Aquis Exchange and Mark Montgomery, chief commercial officer, xyt.  The TRADE would like to extend its congratulations once again to Lawrence for his award! The post UBS AM’s Stuart Lawrence takes home the Industry Person of the Year Award 2025 appeared first on The TRADE.

The European Central Bank (ECB) is set to expand its post-trade offering by joining both LCH RepoClear SA and Eurex’s centrally cleared repo market in Q1 2026.  Imène Rahmouni-RousseauThe moves mark a diversification of the ECB’s securities lending infrastructure, and will see the bank transferring part of its securities lending activities on its monetary policy portfolios to centrally cleared repo transactions.  Additionally, as part of the offering, the ECB will become a direct member of RepoClear, through the Special Clearing Membership model, which facilitates the onboarding of a central clearing counterparty (CCP) for central banks, supranationals and agencies.  Imène Rahmouni-Rousseau, director general of market operations at the ECB, said: “The trend towards central clearing for repo transactions supports the smooth functioning and the resilience of euro area repo markets. These markets play a crucial role for the transmission of our monetary policy and the redistribution of liquidity in the financial system.  “Central clearing will diversify our securities lending channels for monetary policy portfolios and will also contribute to broadening our existing market intelligence in this core segment.” The addition of ECB also makes it the sixth central bank to connect to Eurex’s repo ecosystem, joining more than 160 other participants from 21 different countries.  “We are honoured to welcome the European Central Bank to our repo market,” said Matthias Graulich, chief commercial officer and global head of products and markets at Eurex.  “The ECB’s decision underscores the growing importance of centrally cleared repo for the stability and integrity of European financial markets and is a strong testament to the market’s trust in our resilient and efficient infrastructure.” The post European Central Bank to join LCH RepoClear and Eurex’s repo market appeared first on The TRADE.

Coming off the back of recent market volatility, particularly noted since the US’ April tariffs and levy changes, risk management has emerged as the main pain point for many European equities traders, according to a recent Bloomberg Intelligence report. More than half (55%) of the traders surveyed predict volatility to persist for one to three years, leading to a shift in priorities for institutional desks. Addressing the current state of play, 39% of traders at large funds cited risk management, spanning real-time portfolio adjustments, hedging, timing trades and managing exposure, as the most significant challenge they face. When it came to small firms, 45% agreed that this is their biggest obstacle, while medium-sized funds were more evenly divided on what was the greatest challenge, differing between risk, liquidity, and procedural and operational hurdles.  As highlighted by the report, the recent bouts of market turbulence is a key driver behind this consensus – such as intraday swings and price fluctuations. Bloomberg estimated that the volatility would continue throughout the remainder of Trump’s administration as ‘the new normal’.  This was reiterated by an economic bulletin forecast produced by the European Central Bank in September, which confirmed that the trade tariffs and economic fluctuations experienced in the first half of 2025 would continue to impact the second half of the year, producing further volatility and impacting the European market.  Liquidity no longer a primary concern In contrast to previous periods of market volatility, during the most recent turbulence, liquidity was not viewed as a key challenge, with 91% of the traders surveyed at large funds stating that liquidity was not a primary concern.  Instead, the greater challenge related to this lay with accessing the right sources of liquidity and timing trades precisely in line with each desk’s investment philosophy. Read more – Buy-side traders expect tariff-led volatility to drive European equities investment, report finds  Despite this, only 9% of large funds and 18% of medium funds encountered issues accessing liquidity during this period, while no small fund surveyed experienced these problems.  These findings draw a sharp contrast to previous years, most notably the COVID-19 pandemic, where volatility contributed to a sharp decline in liquidity, indicating a shift in European market infrastructure and resilience, and traders’ priorities. Read more – The pandemic has shaped a new normal in the trading space Bloomberg’s ‘European institutional equity trading study 2025’ report was conducted between April 2025 to June 2025, surveying 103 European head and senior buy-side traders from firms managing more than £25 trillion in assets.  The post Risk management taking priority over liquidity as key buy-side concern during periods of volatility, finds report appeared first on The TRADE.

The countdown is over! Tonight marks the return of Leaders in Trading to the ballroom of London’s Savoy for a night of celebration and recognition.  We are excited to be welcoming our shortlisted nominees and guests for the long-awaited Leaders in Trading awards night 2025.  As you read this, crystals are being laid out, silverware polished, and the TRADE team are brushing up on speeches as we prepare to welcome you for an amazing night of celebration! Tonight’s proceedings include prestigious awards across the buy-side, sell-side, service providers, technology firms and venues. Awards include our Algorithmic Trading and Execution Management Systems Awards, Editor’s Choice, Innovation Awards, Lifetime Achievement, Buy-Side Awards and the coveted Industry Person of the Year Award, as well as an exciting new recognition for 2025, The TRADE Legacy Award.  To all of our nominees and guests joining us later, we can’t wait to celebrate the year you’ve had. For those of you that can’t attend, keep an eye out for the photos and a summary of the winners in tomorrow’s newsletter! We would also like to extend a special thanks to our sponsors: SIX Swiss Exchange, xyt and Saphyre, as well as our charity partner, Help for Children, we look forward to welcoming you.  See you soon! Tonight’s agenda: 5:30pm Leaders in Trading welcome drinks reception (River Room) 7pm Leaders in Trading gala awards dinner (Lancaster Ballroom)9:30pm After-dinner cocktail reception and entertainment (River Room)  The post Tonight’s the night… Leaders in Trading 2025 appeared first on The TRADE.

MarketAxess is set to launch the first opening and closing auctions for fixed income, as part of an effort to enhance price discovery and liquidity for trading US credit.  Chris ConcannonThe new offering will mark the first standardised market-wide auction protocol designed for this market and was developed in consultation with a variety of buy-side and sell-side participants, including AllianceBernstein, BlackRock, DWS and State Street Investment Management.  The launch is expected to enhance volume and liquidity for fixed income market structure, to reduce the impacts of volatility and increase efficiency and transparency for participants in this segment of the market.  Chris Concannon, chief executive of MarketAxess, said: “With the growth of fixed income ETFs, credit derivatives, and portfolio trading, the fixed income market’s needs are rapidly changing. We felt it was important to build a protocol to support price formation and liquidity at the most critical times of the day.” The new auction protocol is expected to be made available to clients and dealers over the next few weeks. Read more – MarketAxess to launch Mid-X protocol in US credit Specifically, clients will be able to access this new offering at the beginning and end of the trading day for US high-grade and high-yield bonds, through MarketAxess’ X-Pro trading platform.  Previously, opening and closing auctions have been available in equities and derivatives markets, with closing auctions able to account for up to 20% of daily volume on index rebalance days in equities. “Today’s fixed income markets are evolving quickly and there is a clear need for a market-wide auction protocol where price can be formed and liquidity can be unlocked,” said Kat Sweeney, global head of data and ETF solutions at MarketAxess. “Auctions in derivatives and equity markets have proven to reduce volatility, increase transparency and concentrate liquidity.” The post MarketAxess to launch first fixed income opening and closing auctions appeared first on The TRADE.

Cboe Global Markets is set to sell its Australian and Canadian markets businesses, Cboe Australia and Cboe Canada, as the firm looks to bolster its core derivatives offering globally.  Chris IsaacsonThe move will see Cboe offloading its equities and listings businesses in both regions, spanning both corporate and ETF offerings, to reflect the firm’s “global strategic shift” and a realignment of its portfolio of businesses.  “Our Australian and Canadian equities businesses have consistently performed well and earned a reputation for innovation, reliability, and customer service. We believe these businesses are well positioned for future growth under new ownership,” said Chris Isaacson, Cboe Global Markets executive vice president and chief operating officer.  “Cboe Australia and Cboe Canada have benefited greatly from a supportive regulatory environment, and we’re grateful to these regulators for fostering competition.” Cboe has also said that the decision does not reflect the performance of Cboe Australia, and the firm will work closely with regulators and customers in Australia and Canada to ensure the successful transition of the businesses. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) will also work alongside Cboe to find a suitable buyer for transaction.  Currently, Cboe Australia’s operations are scheduled to continue running as usual.  The firm’s Australian business spans a suite of trading, ETF and corporate listings and data services, and received regulatory approval on 7 October 2025 from ASIC to operate a corporate listings market, lining the business up to become a full-service exchange.  Craig Donohue, Cboe Global Markets chief executive, said: “This strategic realignment of our business portfolio and human capital ensures Cboe is well positioned to succeed in a dynamic and evolving market and supports our long-term vision to be a global derivatives leader.” Cboe acquired the Australian business, known at the time as Chi-X, in June 2021, to further expand its reach into Asia-Pacific and provide a single point of access into the Australian equity markets.  Currently, Cboe Australia is responsible for 20% of the region’s cash equities market, as well as more than 30% of ETF trading.  The transition also follows news in August that Cboe had disbanded its Japanese equities business and suspended the operations of its Cboe Japan proprietary trading system and Cboe BIDS Japan block trading platform.  The exchange said that it will maintain its global derivatives and Cboe data vantage businesses in Japan, and the removal of its Japanese equities business will not have a significant impact on growth and expenses.   The post Cboe to offload Australian and Canadian markets businesses appeared first on The TRADE.

LSEG has partnered with cloud-native data and investment management platform, FINBOURNE Technology, as part of a combined effort to deliver integrated fixed income analytics to the industry.  Emily PrinceSpecifically, the integration will incorporate LSEG’s Yield Book fixed income data and analytics into FINBOURNE’s SaaS investment data management platform, LUSID, allowing asset managers to make use of this data to perform real-time complex prepayment modelling, loss severity modelling and analytics within their existing LUSID portfolio management system.  Currently, Yield Book’s fixed income analytics span government and corporate bonds, US municipal bonds, mortgages, asset-backed securities, and derivatives.  Emily Prince, group head of analytics and AI at LSEG, said: “This integration builds on our existing collaboration with FINBOURNE and marks a significant step forward for LUSID users. With Yield Book, clients will have access to LSEG’s sophisticated analytics capabilities and extensive market-leading data offering them a key advantage in navigating today’s financial markets.” Read more – Fireside Friday with… LSEG’s Emily Prince Additionally, the offering’s first client is already scheduled to go live, with launch expected in Q2 2026.  The integration also marks an expansion of the two firms’ existing partnership, following LSEG’s adoption of LUSID as a digital data component for its wealth and investment solutions businesses in 2021. Paul Carr, global head of partners at FINBOURNE Technology, said: “This development allows our clients to combine LSEG’s high-quality data and analytics with the flexibility of our LUSID platform, enhancing speed, accuracy, and transparency across their investment processes.” The post LSEG and FINBOURNE partner on fixed income analytics offering appeared first on The TRADE.

Tracey Brown has joined RBC Capital Markets as an EMEA equity sales trader, based out of London. Brown brings more than 25 years of industry experience to her new role across Europe, working with both long-only and hedge fund clients, and will report to Luke Mackaill, head of European equity sales trading teams. She joins the global investment bank from ODDO BHF, where she spent a year as an equity sales trader.  Prior to this, she worked at Citi for more than 16 years in an equity sales trading role, and began her industry career at Deutsche Bank in 1999, serving in a similar position.  RBC Capital Markets confirmed Brown’s appointment.Read more – RBC joins ICE Clear Credit as FCM clearing participant Brown’s new role follows recent news in September that Ian Hale had been named as RBC Capital Markets’ new head of European inflation trading, while Callum Maitland had been appointed to a new dual-mandate as head of structured inflation and cross-currency basis trading.  The post RBC Capital Markets taps ODDO BHF for equity sales trader appeared first on The TRADE.

The FIX Trading Community has proposed a new set of recommendations for the European consolidated tape (CT), to address issues of data quality, transparency and the attractiveness of European markets. FIX proposes four reforms to ensure the European CT helps to resolve these obstacles and close gaps across the markets.  Specifically, these include: suppressing non-informational, technical and cross-border duplicative reports, introducing the Closing Auction flag in the EU, ensuring execution method transparency and clarifying reporting obligations. Detailed in the association’s most recent whitepaper, ‘FIXing Europe – how the European consolidated tape can radically improve the image of European capital markets,’ challenges such as non-mandated reporting of some non-price forming transactions are highlighted as key pain points impacting investor interest in Europe’s markets.  Jim Kaye, executive director of FIX, said: “Today, investors assessing the European market will completely discount up to one-third of volume because of the way trades are reported […] activity taking place off-venue, for example in systematic internalisers, is discounted, whereas in the US is it counted and accounts for almost half of the entire market.” Read more – Fireside Friday with… FIX Trading Community’s Jim Kaye Additionally, the whitepaper recommends making the proposed reforms regulatory, to implement consistency in application across market participants, as well as ensuring updated guidance documentation is provided by regulators.  The four proposals aim to be cost-effective and technically feasible, to ensure that firms are able to implement them smoothly and effectively, and also notably are supported by international precedent, said FIX. Read more – FIX Trading Community publishes updated MMT ahead of upcoming European consolidated tape Kaye further indicated that the outlined reforms will reflect long-term work from the Global Technical Committee and European CT working groups. “FIX has been working for years with participants from all segments of the market on the issues that face European markets. The introduction of the ECT is the perfect moment to fix a number of major issues once and for all and allow the EU market to show off its full potential for the first time.”   The post FIX Trading Community proposes four reforms for the European consolidated tape appeared first on The TRADE.

European derivatives exchange, Eurex, is set to launch a new ‘Sponsored Access’ model, to enable its members to extend market access to their own end clients through their existing memberships.  The move will broaden the accessibility of its markets to a greater variety of trading firms, allowing existing Eurex members to use their membership to act as sponsors to give their own clients direct and ultra-low latency access to Eurex’s T7 platform and full connectivity suite. Additionally, sponsoring members will be able to make use of Eurex’s integrated risk controls to manage their client activity, offering opportunities to expand client services.  Specifically, the new initiative is expected to lower entry barriers for more buy-side firms and allow other firms without a full exchange membership to trade directly on Eurex using their own systems.  Speaking at a closed Eurex roundtable on Monday, Robbert Booij, chief executive of Eurex, said: “We’re looking at simplifying the ways our clients have access to our exchange. The ‘Sponsored Access’ offering allows our clients, particularly clearing members, to provide their end clients with access using the trading membership that the clearing member has and then the clearing member being in full and sole control of the end customer flow.  “We believe this makes a lot of sense because it takes away a barrier for clients who want to have a very fast connection, but who do not want to operate a membership themselves.” Read more – OSTTRA onboards Eurex Clearing onto optimisation service The launch marks an expansion of Eurex’s current market ecosystem and is currently scheduled to go live on 10 November 2025. The service also aims to streamline the onboarding of clients, with registration set to be carried out fully electronically.  The new offering follows the launch of Eurex’s EU-bond futures, which went live on 10 September 2025, as part of the firm’s effort to address increasing demand for these contracts.  The products are also expected to strengthen liquidity in the EU bond market and bolster the EU’s position as a major issuer in the European and global capital markets.    The post Eurex unveils new access model to lower entry barriers for buy-side appeared first on The TRADE.

Stifel Stifel has expanded its execution services team in Europe, with the additions of Jack Harvey and Yannis Bouchakour, The TRADE can reveal.  In their new roles, Harvey will work out of London, while Bouchakour will be based out of Paris, both focusing on low-touch trading.   They will also come under the leadership of Seema Arora, managing director and head of execution services at Stifel.   Harvey joins the sell-side firm from Tavira, where he spent over three years, most recently as an equity execution trader.   In addition, Bouchakour most recently worked at Societe Generale in London for over six years, serving in roles spanning portfolio trading and electronic sales, equity financing, quantitative investment and fixed income.   Prior to this, he worked as a financial risk analyst at Milleis Banque.  Speaking to The TRADE, Arora said: “With growing interest in both our US and EMEA execution, we have made additional hires to service our diverse range of clients. Jack and Yannis represent the next generation of quantitative talent, bringing strong technical skills that complement our experienced team and translate into sharper insights and superior execution outcomes for clients.”  ODDO BHF European financial services group, ODDO BHF has named Roman Eisenschenk as co-head of Austrian and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) equity sales.  Vienna-based Eisenschenk brings extensive experience to his new role, and has worked in various equities-based senior positions across the industry for more than three decades.  He joins the firm from Kepler Cheuvreux, where he served as head of sales, Austria for over 13 years.  Prior to this, he worked at Deutsche Bank for more than 17 years, where he co-headed the firm’s equities division.  Previously in his career, he served at Credit Lyonnais and Chase Manhattan Bank.  Broadridge Patrick Archer has joined Broadridge Financial Solutions, to lead the firm’s buy-side segment sales for France, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.  Archer will be based in Paris in his new position, which sees him joining the firm’s international buy-side sales leadership team.  Within the role, he will focus on distributing the firm’s buy-side product portfolio across the European markets under his leadership.  He bring more than 27 years of industry experience to his new role, spanning fintechs and investment management technology, and joins Broadridge from BlackRock Solutions, where he served as co-head of business development for Continental Europe for over six years.  Prior to this, he worked in sales roles at firms including Horizon, Linedata Services, SmartCo and Murex.  The post People Moves Monday: Stifel, ODDO BHF and Broadridge appeared first on The TRADE.

The TRADE is delighted to announce the Rising Stars of Trading and Execution North America 2025, celebrating the achievements of exceptional up-and-coming talent on the buy-side. This year’s Rising Stars will be recognised during the Leaders in Trading New York awards ceremony, taking place at Current, Chelsea Piers, New York City, on 18 November. The celebrations mark the second iteration of the North American Rising Stars awards, which were expanded to include the region in 2024. The Rising Stars initiative recognises key individuals on the buy-side who go above and beyond the call of duty within their positions and play a vital role on their desks through expertise, collaboration, leadership and innovation. Previously recognised individuals have gone on to head up some of the largest and most successful desks across leading asset managers and hedge funds. Leaders in Trading New York will also celebrate the biggest achievers in The TRADE’s reputable Algorithmic Trading, EMS and Outsourced Trading Surveys, as well as honouring the region’s top desks and traders in the coveted Buy-Side Awards, and standout performers in the Editors’ Choice categories. Please join The TRADE in congratulating this year’s Rising Stars of Trading and Execution North America for 2025. Rising Stars of Trading and Execution North America for 2025: Nicholas Mazurek, fixed income execution trader, Hudson River Trading Audrey Moore, equity trader, Columbia Threadneedle Investments Michael Persaud, junior equity trader, Mackenzie Investments Tyler Roldan, senior trader, Corbets Capital Noah Simandl, trading analytics associate, Harris Associates Please contact Serena Franklin at serena.franklin@thetradenews.com or Daljit Sokhi at daljit.sokhi@thetradenews.com for sponsorship opportunities or to book a table for Leaders in Trading New York. If you are a member of the buy-side community and would like information on attending, please contact Karen Delahoy at karen.delahoy@thetradenews.com.  The post The TRADE announces the Rising Stars of Trading and Execution North America for 2025 appeared first on The TRADE.

The markets saw increased activity in periodic auctions relative to dark order books in September, a trend likely linked to the new Single Volume Cap (SVP) in the EU, explained Hayley McDowell, head of European market structure, RBC on Wednesday. “There has been a notable shift from dark trading into periodic auction venues since the implementation of the new cap. Periodic auctions appear to be absorbing some of the liquidity previously seen in the dark.”Speaking at a closed market structure roundtable, McDowell further added that the additional effects of the SVP are still yet to be fully realised.Though the SVC came into effect only very recently – 14 October – and the full impact on liquidity and dark trading behaviour is still being assessed, “early indications suggest that more instruments than expected may be affected,” said McDowell.Prior to the decision from ESMA to shift how trading volume is measured, from double volume cap (DVC) to single volume cap (SVC), the entire dark pool market, and indeed no single pool, could exceed a certain limit.“The new SVC limits dark trading to 7% of total aggregated EU trading volume, replacing the previous DVC which restricted dark trading to 4% per venue and 8% market-wide. Under the SVC, stocks that breach the cap will be suspended from dark trading for three months, compared to six months under the former DVC regime,” explained McDowell.“A key change under the SVC is that ESMA is leveraging transaction reporting data rather than venue-reported data to calculate the caps. This is expected to provide a more accurate view of trading activity.”Read more: ESMA firms up rules of engagement amid market turbulenceWhen it comes to the empirical implementation of the change, across the market discussions from some participants suggest that the number of capped stocks under the SVC is significantly higher than anticipated, said McDowell. While the industry’s attention has been elsewhere, the full effects of the change and its potentially far-reaching results have perhaps flown under the radar thus far – but time is set to tell as to the practical impacts.“If these early data points are accurate, it suggests the market may have underestimated how restrictive the new single volume cap would be. This will likely remain an area of focus in the coming weeks as data settles […] We’re continuing to monitor the SVC impact closely  and should have clearer insight in the next few weeks once the data stabilises,” added McDowell.Read more: The dark trading debacle – does anyone even care?The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) unveiled its final plans for the region in April 2025, with plans aimed at boosting the resiliency of the markets, improving transparency, and simplifying reporting.The final report followed the Mifir and Mifid II revisions published in the EU’s official journal in March 2024. The post More instruments than expected could potentially be affected by new SVC in EU appeared first on The TRADE.

When it comes to FX what trends are at the forefront when trading on an alpha mandate?We trade FX primarily in the context of our Global Data Sentiment strategy. In this strategy, we systematically process more than 1.5 million newspaper articles every day and derive trading signals from their underlying sentiment. We do this for stock index and bond futures, but also for foreign currencies. Currently, this is only done for developed market currencies, as the number and quality of available news for emerging market currencies is rather low.However, our analysis shows that this is changing for the better, so we expect to expand our investment universe to include emerging market currencies in the coming years. In addition, we have observed that sentiment trends in currencies have become shorter in recent times. In our view, this is due to the fact that markets are currently being driven primarily by political decisions. If this trend continues, we will have no choice but to adjust both our signals and our trading frequency.Which innovations would you highlight as key for the buy-side going forward?We are currently focusing our research on the application of large language models (LLMs) to determine the sentiment of newspaper articles. The current state of the art is the use of psychological dictionaries to determine sentiment. This involves counting the positive and negative connotated words in an article and comparing them to each other. However, this approach has the disadvantage that it does not take the context of an article into account, e.g., whether the outlook is more positive or negative.Our analysis shows that LLMs can help here, as they are also able to capture the respective context. We expect to be actively using LLMs in our sentiment analyses by the end of this year.Many believe technology to be the key to unlocking FX’s full potential. Are the skillsets of traders themselves therefore changing also?We focus on generating alpha, including foreign currency trading. A lot has happened technologically in this area in recent years. For example, parallel data processing in the cloud enables us to process millions of newspaper articles every day. We believe this trend will continue, allowing us to expand our database beyond newspaper articles. The skillset of quantitative asset managers is changing in such a way that efficient data processing and data scouting are becoming increasingly important. So, the skillset is definitely getting more technical than it was in the past.Looking to the future, how are FX desks set to look different in 3, 5, 10 years’ time?In the medium term, the trend in quantitative portfolio management will continue, with more and more data being processed in ever shorter periods of time. For us, this means that we will be processing more newspaper articles or alternative data sets such as company publications.The use of LLMs will also play an increasingly important role. These are powerful tools that may one day enable us to read between the lines of articles. In the long term, I believe that artificial intelligence can relieve us of a lot of technical work. It already helps us considerably in the creation of programming code. In the long term, AI will probably be able to take over this task completely.The post Fireside Friday with… Quoniam Asset Management’s Markus Ebner appeared first on The TRADE.

As many buy-siders continue global expansion efforts and increasingly branch into non-equity asset classes, not only is the adoption of OEMS solutions increasing, but so is the way these firms are interacting with the systems.According to The TRADE’s 2025 EMS Survey, when examining the asset classes commonly traded on EMS platforms equities continues to win out, however in the 2025 study, the findings also demonstrate an increase in all other asset classes outside of cash equities. As a result, the buy-side demand to leverage more than one EMS to meet daily trading needs is on the up. While more than half of respondents (55%) confirmed that they still use just one EMS, this is a drop of 10% in the number of firms using a single system. The latest findings show that the number of firms using two EMS solutions has increased by 9%.Notably, and perhaps expectedly, firms with higher AUM were found to use a greater number of EMS solutions.The 2025 survey showed that firms with between $10 billion and $50 billion were found to have the highest average at 1.77 EMS solutions, whereas firms with between $0.5 billion and $1 billion showed the lowest average at 1.35.However, comparing to results in 2023, and 2024, this gap appears to be shrinking year-on-year.Read more – Leaders in Trading 2025: EMS Awards shortlists revealed The evolving priorities on the buy-side, and its reflection in approaches to EMS’, was also clear in respondents’ ranking of key features.When it came to feature importance, the most significant year-on-year increase for 2025 was ‘breadth of coverage’ – up 8.88%, closely followed by ‘connectivity and integration’, increasing 6.66%. Other key areas also included ‘FIX capabilities’ (up 3.90%), and integration of ‘OMS’ (up 3.77%).Demonstrably, the demand for the EMS sphere to evolve in step with buy-side ambitions remains front of mind, with continuing diversification set to drive further evolution and innovation on the provider side.The full 2025 survey can be accessed here.The post Beyond the data: Number of buy-side firms using just one EMS declining in the face of continued diversification appeared first on The TRADE.

Euroclear and LCH SA are expanding their partnership to give clearing members greater flexibility in settling Italian government securities.Under the initiative, participants will be able to settle all Italian government debt traded on MTS and BrokerTec, and cleared through LCH SA, at Euroclear Bank, the international central securities depository (ICSD) of the Euroclear Group. The service, expected to launch in 2026, is designed to support more efficient balance sheet management and improve operational processes for market participants.  By allowing settlement through Euroclear Bank, users will be able to consolidate activity across a broader network of euro-denominated securities, potentially reducing fragmentation in the post-trade chain. Sébastien Danloy, chief business officer at Euroclear group, said: “We are extremely proud to bring this expanded solution to the market together with LCH. Given that Italian government debt represents a major segment of the European fixed income market, this represents an important milestone in our vision of advancing the Savings and Investments Union. This is centred around greater choice, open access models and the continued development of a resilient, interconnected European capital market.” The move also enables Italian government debt to be mobilised within Euroclear’s Collateral Highway, facilitating greater use of the assets in securities financing and funding transactions. The initiative forms part of a broader trend toward deeper post-trade integration in Europe, as infrastructure providers look to enhance cross-border efficiency and promote open access across capital markets. Michel Semaan, global head of RepoClear at LSEG, said: “As a leading provider of clearing services for Italian government debt, we are delighted to be working with Euroclear to bring even greater efficiencies and choice to our members, both key elements of a competitive European capital market.” The post Euroclear and LCH SA expand connectivity for Italian bonds appeared first on The TRADE.

The TRADE is thrilled to announce the shortlisted nominees for the Industry Person of the Year Award 2025. As one of the most anticipated awards of the year, the nomination aims to celebrate and recognise those who have made a significant impact in their own organisation and also across the industry as a whole. These individuals each bring a commitment to bettering and future-proofing the markets for years to come. The shortlisted individuals are repeated contributors to discussion across the markets, whether that be through panels, associations or schemes to support the next generation.Last year, James Baugh, managing director, head of European market structure, TD Cowen won the award after a competitive vote. In his speech, Baugh recognised the key individuals and organisations who had contributed to his career thus far and reminding the room that the industry is all in this together as it moves forward.Previous winners also include Goldman Sachs’ Ellie Beasley and Turquoise’s Robert Barnes. The winner of Industry Person of the Year 2025 will be decided by a live industry vote at The TRADE’s Leaders in Trading gala awards night on 6 November at The Savoy.Congratulations to this year’s shortlisted nominees! Industry Person of the Year 2025 shortlist:Alex Dalley, head of European cash equities, Cboe Alex Dalley is an established industry thought leader, often recognised for his keen insight into European equities. He has long been a point of reference in his field and has built strong relationships during his career in various client-facing roles. He boasts a wealth of experience across both equities and derivatives and has spent the last nine years at Cboe Global Markets. Dalley was promoted to head of European cash equities for Cboe Europe earlier this year, overseeing the largest pan-European stock exchange and equity trade reporting facilities. Dalley was in fact one of the first employees to join Cboe Europe back in 2008, where he leveraged his deep well of market expertise to build its MTF’s trading participant community as head of sales.Previous roles include stints as head of Cboe’s Netherlands-based exchange (which operates pan-European equities and equity derivatives exchanges) and also co-head of Cboe Europe’s equities sales division. His established relationship with the markets is long-standing, with his career having had a keen focus on client relationship management and development across continental Europe.  He is widely respected across the industry for his proven track record and the breadth of high-profile responsibilities undertaken in his career. Notably, Dalley previously served as head of membership and exchange trading at the London Stock Exchange and also led business development for the LSE buy-side/sell-side FIX hub and spoke service. Laetitia Visconti, head of market structure, Aquis Exchange   Laetitia Visconti is a market structure expert, boasting more than 20 years’ experience in equities execution, financial services advocacy, and regulatory change management. She joined Aquis Exchange in February 2025 as head of market structure, where she leads the firm’s advocacy and regulatory agenda, and contributes actively to the product innovation and strategy for the firm’s pan-European MTF.   Before joining Aquis, Visconti spent nearly 14 years at Barclays Corporate & Investment Bank, most recently serving as head of EMEA equities market structure and market connectivity. In this role, she oversaw Barclays’ low-latency market access product suite, led the firm’s EMEA equities market structure and policy agenda from advocacy through to implementation, and managed key relationships with EMEA exchanges and brokers. In addition to her corporate roles, Visconti is an active contributor in the broader market community. She has been a member of the AMF Markets and Exchanges Consultative Commission since December 2022, is co-chair of the FIX Protocol Equities Consolidated Tape working group and participates in several industry groups focused on equities market structure. She has also served as a member of the AFME Equities Board and as vice-Chair of the AFME Securities Trading Committee. Her 2025 research report titled ‘European liquidity could be bigger than you think’, which presents a contrasting view to the frequent portrayal of European markets as lacking liquidity, volumes and market depth, has been widely recognised and cited by peers across the market. Mark Montgomery, chief commercial officer, xytMark Montgomery’s international experience spans London, New York and Hong Kong, and his track record of building lasting relationships with institutional clients, deep understanding of the trading and investment community’s challenges, and experience delivering practical solutions has made him an important voice in the industry.  Having spent almost four decades working in the markets, his knowledge and client-focused innovation covers a range of bases. His expertise encompasses equities trading, sales, cash, portfolio trading and electronic execution, and a notable focus on market data. Montgomery currently serves as chief commercial officer at xyt, having joined the firm in 2018, responsible for the strategy and development of xyt’s smart data and analytics solutions to the global trading and investment community.  He began his journey on the floor of the London Stock Exchange in 1986 and his previous roles span both the buy- and sell-side. Career highlights include stints at: ITG, where he managed sales and trading from ITG’s European launch, working directly with institutional clients exploring electronic trading and transaction cost analysis at its inception; AllianceBernstein, where he established the European portfolio and electronic trading desk; and Barclays Capital, where he served as director of electronic trading sales.A familiar face at industry events and conferences, Montgomery is a consistent thought leader across the trading landscape, continually providing key insights and unpacking industry trends.Stuart Lawrence, head of European equities trading, UBS Asset Management   Stuart Lawrence has extensive experience spanning nearly 25 years in financial markets, holding varied roles on both the buy-side and sell-side throughout his career.  He currently serves as the head of EMEA equity trading for UBS Asset Management, having previously held the position of head of UK equity trading. During his six-year tenure at UBS, he has been the driving force of change behind the desk.  He carefully navigated the complexities of merging and integrating the Credit Suisse Asset Management trading desk into the UBS environment, and subsequently helped to lead the centralisation of all European trading within London.   Prior to joining UBS, Lawrence worked at Kepler Cheuvreux (now KCx), Principal Global Investors and spent six years at Instinet as a sales trader for US clients.Lawrence is an active member of the Investment Association’s Equities Trading Committee and is currently on the team working on the electronification of the IPO and secondary markets initiative which aims to update the market approach to ECM deals. He can often be spotted speaking at conferences and events, where he promotes the continued evolution of the broader market and collaboration between peers.  He is also committed to the nurturing of junior talent across the market. In recent times, Lawrence has taken part in two 100k ultra marathons to raise money for Macmillian Cancer Support and Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, charities close to his heart. The post Leaders in Trading 2025: Industry Person of the Year shortlist revealed appeared first on The TRADE.

Clearstream has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with The Securities Depository Center Company (Edaa), a subsidiary of the Saudi Tadawul Group, to jointly introduce new post-trade services in the Saudi capital market.The partnership between the two central securities depositories (CSDs) is aimed at strengthening the efficiency and competitiveness of the Saudi post-trade ecosystem for both domestic and international participants.It follows Clearstream’s earlier move in 2021 to connect its global client base to the Saudi domestic market via Edaa.Under the collaboration, Edaa and Clearstream plan to develop a range of new services covering collateral management, securities lending and borrowing, fund services, and digital securities.Hanan Alshehri, CEO of Edaa, said: “Our Partnership with Clearstream marks a vital step in our endeavors to enhancing the overall efficiency and liquidity of the Saudi capital market. It is a testament to Edaa’s continued commitment to strengthening the Saudi market infrastructure in line with international best practices.An initial area of focus will be the Saudi Collateral Management Service (SCMS), a centralised domestic triparty capability designed to automate and optimise financing and collateral management activities within the Saudi capital market.SCMS will facilitate greater operational efficiency for local financial institutions, support liquidity growth, and enable smoother connectivity with global markets.The initiative represents a further step in the ongoing modernisation of Saudi Arabia’s market infrastructure, aligning with efforts to attract cross-border investment and strengthen the country’s role as a regional financial hub.Sam Riley, CEO of Clearstream Securities Services, said: “Our collaboration with Edaa is a key part of our commitment to connecting global investors with emerging and dynamic markets. We are thrilled to work with Edaa to advance the local post-trade market’s infrastructure.”Riley added: “Providing our global expertise, we aim to boost market liquidity and efficiency, supporting market participants with sophisticated tools to meet their investment and growth ambitions.”The post Clearstream and the Saudi Tadawul Group partner to develop post-trade services in Saudi Arabia appeared first on The TRADE.

Stifel has expanded its execution services team in Europe, with the additions of Jack Harvey and Yannis Bouchakour, The TRADE can reveal. In their new roles, Harvey will work out of London, while Bouchakour will be based out of Paris, both focusing on low-touch trading.  They will also come under the leadership of Seema Arora, managing director and head of execution services at Stifel.  Harvey joins the sell-side firm from Tavira, where he spent over three years, most recently as an equity execution trader.  In addition, Bouchakour most recently worked at Societe Generale in London for over six years, serving in roles spanning portfolio trading and electronic sales, equity financing, quantitative investment and fixed income.  Prior to this, he also worked as a financial risk analyst at Milleis Banque. Speaking to The TRADE, Arora said: “With growing interest in both our US and EMEA execution, we have made additional hires to service our diverse range of clients. Jack and Yannis represent the next generation of quantitative talent, bringing strong technical skills that complement our experienced team and translate into sharper insights and superior execution outcomes for clients.” The hires follow further recent expansion of Stifel’s execution services business in the last few months. In September, the firm appointed Matthew McNestry as a managing director in low-touch trading, as revealed by The TRADE at the time.  He joins from Euronext, where he spent almost five years as head of sales, global buy-side and liquidity providers.   Additionally, Darryl Willoughby joined Stifel in August from Pareto Securities, to serve as a managing director, looking after pan-European trading. The post Stifel makes two new hires to bolster European execution services appeared first on The TRADE.

SIX has appointed Aquis Technologies as the technology provider for its forthcoming harmonised trading platform. The new system will bring together all exchanges operated by the group, including SIX Swiss Exchange and Bolsas y Mercados Españoles (BME), onto a shared infrastructure. The project will establish a single trading framework designed to offer clients a unified connection point across multiple venues, with the goal of simplifying access, supporting interoperability, and improving liquidity. David Stevens, CEO, Aquis, said: “The decision by SIX – one of Europe’s largest exchange groups – to use Aquis’ technology only reinforces the strength and capability of the Aquis matching engine and related services. Alongside our work to build an industry-leading harmonised platform for SIX exchanges, we are excited to continue expanding our technology offering and client base in the coming years.”   The exchanges will operate on the Aquis Equinox matching engine, a system currently supporting several global trading venues.  The technology is known for its low latency and continuous uptime and will form the foundation of SIX’s planned pan-European trading environment, which aims to provide harmonised access across its markets. Tomas Kindler, global head exchanges & executive board member, SIX, said: “Harmonising all our platforms through Aquis’ cutting-edge, regulatory grade technology represents a major technological milestone for SIX and a defining leap in our evolution as a pan European exchange innovator.  Kindler added: “With the concept of ‘One Plug, Multiple Trading Venues’, our existing participants in the Swiss and Spanish markets will be able to benefit from a next-gen trading system, delivering innovation, new functionalities and unrivalled access to investment opportunities in multiple markets with just one harmonised connection standard to our multiple trading platforms.”  “This harmonisation will significantly reduce operational complexity and provide our participants with the best possible trading experience and access to services via some of the most advanced trading technology available today,” said Kindler. According to the firms, the new platform for equity and equity-like products is expected to launch in 2027, with additional asset classes to follow.  SIX said it is working closely with regulatory authorities to secure the necessary approvals ahead of implementation. Aquis was selected following a multi-stage evaluation process involving several vendors, and joint development work is already underway. The post SIX selects Aquis Technologies to deliver harmonised trading platform across European exchanges appeared first on The TRADE.