Barclays Upgrades Electronics by Keeping It Simple
Traders Magazine Online News, January 5, 2012
Keep it simple: That is the mantra at Barclays Capital as it emerges from a year-long revamping of its electronic trading products and desk. And with this new simplicity, the bank hopes to increase profits and raise its profile in the challenging equities trading business.
Bill Bell
Barclays is employing a three-pronged strategy to achieve its goal of moving up from the middle of the pack and into the top echelon of broker-dealers, according to Bill Bell, head of electronic distribution Americas and Bill White, head of electronic trading. The strategy is to deploy its new smart order router globally, grow its dark pool Barclays LX and simplify its algorithmic offerings.
"We wanted to make our team global; take the solid U.S. experience that our clients were getting and make it universal," Bell said. "Simplicity is the key - we want to replicate the same sales strategy and product set across the globe."
"Simple is better. Consistency across the global regions is good," White said. To him, simplicity is what the buyside wants, whether in St. Louis or Hong Kong. Clients appreciate a coordinated and streamlined strategy, which he thinks is key. And when clients find success using the firm's products, White thinks they'll trade with Barclays more often.
Bell acknowledges the firm was a late entrant in the electronic revolution. But he thinks there is a window of opportunity for Barclays with its revamped offerings. Barclays gained a U.S. presence when it took over Lehman Brothers after the White Shoe brokerage firm collapsed amid the financial crisis in the fall of 2008.
Bell, a 15-year veteran, began at Lehman in 1993, and started his career as a sales trader on the OTC desk. He moved through the ranks serving stints on the Nasdaq and listed desks, covering long-onlys and hedge funds. In about 2001, he became a team leader and managed a team of cash, program and vol traders.
He told Traders Magazine that electronic products were something the trading desk was missing when he was promoted to his current position in 2010. He and the firm's senior management wanted to take his experience from his 17-years in the high-touch cash business and implement a similar coverage model in electronic. He took on the origination sales team in 2008 and in 2010 was named head of Americas electronic distribution, incorporating the origination sales, sales trading and the broker-dealer teams. Bell knew the high-touch business and what his team lacked.
"When I looked at the desk back then, I knew that to be successful in electronic trading, we needed to build a complete coverage model that replicated the high-touch desk," Bell said. "The goal was to build a high-touch desk for a low-touch outcome."
To do this, Bell went right to the firm's sales graduate training program, selected fresh talent and taught them the business from the ground up. He also added some senior industry professionals to round out the team. After the revamp in 2010, Bell needed electronic products to offer clients. As he puts it, "At that time, our product needed to evolve. In the past, sales had outpaced the product." Now the product offering has caught up, he said.
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