Sales Trading Services

In 1994, a transaction on the Zurich stock exchange took several minutes to complete and involved many different people. In 2022, the same transaction takes less than a millisecond without any manual intervention. The work of a sales trader has changed accordingly.

The Zurich stock exchange on Selnaustrasse. The year is 1994. A sales trader in the ring is speaking into a telephone: “Buy 100 shares of Vontobel at market.” The order is noted down on paper and handed to the ticket runner. He then rushes off straight away to the trading floor to his dealer. The order is traded with a counterparty “open outcry,” and the exchange commissioner notes the time, volume, and price of the transaction. The ticket runner then rushes back to the ring, where the details are confirmed again with the client over the phone. The entire process takes several minutes and involves four different people. Today, machines communicate with one another in a matter of milliseconds and the process is fully automated.

The current Electronic Sales Trading team was established at Vontobel in 2018. Today, this team is comprised of four sales traders with a great deal of experience who support a broadly diversified client base of more than 130 banks, asset managers, and investment banks with their day-to-day business. The team is part of the Electronic Trading Solutions department, which is led by Matthias Schiesser. It is responsible for the execution of all of these clients’ asset classes.

The stock market landscape is in constant flux. New, more efficient technologies and liquidity pools, as well as increasing regulatory requirements, all pose constant challenges. The core function of a sales trading desk is to combine various internal and external stake holdergroups, particularly in the areas of execution/liquidity and technology. These fields were also the main areas of focus at this year’s TradeTech, a financial industry conference held every year in Paris. One of the key messages from this event was that these increasing demands will result in the formation of new cooperation models. In particular, in the future, the buy side and sell side will look less like a client-broker relationship and will instead involve developing cross-team, solution-oriented approaches. The first building blocks for this transformation were laid at Vontobel with the establishment of the Electronic Sales Trading team.

Execution/liquidity

We advise our clients on the execution of sensitive orders and, in cooperation with Fabienne Béguin’s Global Execution department and the execution trading teams of Michael Wenger and Christian Pfund, we execute these orders on the market and in the countless liquidity pools available to us. We manage these orders across the entire lifespan and, depending on market trends, make decisions that, in the end, are aimed at achieving better execution prices.

Trading Product Development team

In close cooperation with Roman Würsch’s Trading Product Development team, we are expanding our client base using our in-house algorithmic trading strategies, thus increasing our market share and straight-through processing (STP) rate for our clients. The STP rate describes the number of incoming tasks received through integrated, company-wide processes that can be processed with little to no manual intervention. All of our trading strategies are described in the Transaction Banking Magazine, some in greater detail. Naturally, we are also experts and know exactly how these tools work and – most importantly – the most effective ways to use them. Our Bank’s electronic trading platform is extremely robust, continually integrates new liquidity facilities (such as single-stock equity trading via Tradeweb AiEX), and is constantly expanding to include new potential areas of application.

Trading Data Science team

We use transaction cost analyses to evaluate the quality of our results together with our clients. Our Trading Analytics Platform™ can create a transaction cost analysis (TCA) report for every individual transaction. If a transaction is executed using our smart order router, we can also generate a best-execution report. Furthermore, our order flow is also monitored to ensure that our partners receive a “clean, nontoxic flow.” In the area of data analytics in particular, it is especially worthwhile to learn more about our tools in person.

Maintaining and strengthening client relationships

An ongoing dialogue with our clients across several communication channels is essential and is an important tool that allows us to continue to strengthen our relationships. Clients receive our “International Telegram” early in the morning with the most important updates on the developments on the stock markets and the latest business news. During the course of the day, they find out about changes on the market in real time via Bloomberg chat. But face-to-face contact during in-person meetings is also vital. That’s why we organize our so-called “Floor Walks” for our clients. On a walk around the trading floor, our clients are introduced to our services in the areas of Algorithms, Data Analytics, and Sales Trading.

Many of our competitors still have their sales trading teams divided into high and low touch. At Vontobel, we have long believed that this distinction makes little sense, and therefore we offer our clients a combined service that is greatly appreciated. With an STP rate of over 99 percent in the area of cash equity, we are able to stand out thanks to the high quality of our service for nonautomated transactions. Service is our top priority.

Regulatory and technological requirements are steadily growing and becoming increasingly complex. Through regular meetings with clients, attending trade fairs, and sharing information, we are able to stay on the ball and share our knowledge with our clients. This often leads to innovative solutions and cost savings.