Machine Learning and the Trader

Machine Learning has the ability to enhance the role of the buy-side trader; bringing trading and portfolio management into a single function. The trading desk has evolved into a highly specialised function within asset management firms, and they are taking on more portfolio management (PM) responsibilities. Trading desks are now fed with price and liquidity information to support over-the-counter trading, and have highly sophisticated execution capabilities for trading more liquid instruments. Consequently, traders are "enhanced" in their abilities and, with greater amounts of data flowing, they are also able to feed more information into the risk management and portfolio management functions. This adds greater value to the asset manager.