Asset Managers Phase Out, Outsource Trading Desks

A Bloomberg article notes increasing demand for firms that provide trading services to asset managers seeking to cut costs and estimates that a fifth of investment managers overseeing more than $50 billion will outsource at least parts of their trading by 2022.  Trading desk costs include salaries, data fees, new technologies and regulatory costs, which can make it expensive for smaller firms to maintain an internal trading desk. Bloomberg quotes consultants from Opimas who estimate that each buy-side trader can cost an asset manager at least $500,000 a year and can handle about $1.5 billion of annual stock trading volume. Northern Trust, BNY Mellon and Jefferies are among firms providing trading platforms to asset managers seeking to outsource this function.