Group Co.
BUY-SIDE SNAPSHOT: Dan Royal, Janus Henderson
Traders Magazine Online News, May 29, 2018
Dan Royal won Buy-Side Trader of the Year at the 2018 Markets Choice Awards. Markets Media recently caught up with Royal to discuss his career thus far and thoughts on the future.
Talk a little about your career background and current role and responsibilities.
I'm Global Head of Equity Trading for Janus Henderson, which has about $370 billion in assets under management. We’re about a year into the Janus-Henderson merger. Prior to that, I had the same role at Janus Capital. I started with Janus in 2001, and I took a two-year hiatus from 2006 to 2008 when I went to Artisan Partners to run trading and operations globally.
My role has expanded with the merger. From a responsibility perspective, it's as you'd expect with a global head role -- we have a team of six traders including myself here in Denver, plus teams of six and five in London and Singapore. We have centralized dealing in each of the regions. We trade largely equity -- we do a bit of FX here and there, plus some equity derivatives and some futures. We handle a multitude of different strategies and PM needs. Janus was largely a U.S.-focused manager, while Henderson was largely European-focused, but both were global. The merger certainly gave us a bigger presence in each of those regions collectively.
I try to trade as much as I can, but that can be a little challenging because I get pulled a lot of directions.
What have been some key takeaways from different organizations you’ve worked at?
I've had the privilege to work for some great firms. I started with Cargill back in 1984, on the floor of the CME. I spent 11 years with Cargill, which is a very large, privately held, commodity-based business that prides itself on integrity and doing the right thing. So making sure that our footprint was completely compliant, and our actions were in the best interest of the marketplace and our client, was how I was raised.
From there, I worked for two different commodity trading advisors -- SJO Asset Management in Chicago and John W. Henry and Company in south Florida.
By working for a number of different places, you get to see what works and what doesn't, which is valuable experience in trying to build out an operation that works. My role right now is to make sure we have an environment and platform that allows the team to succeed. That entails making sure we've got the right policies, people, systems, and support network. Ultimately, it’s the people that make the company successful.
I don't know if there's any one person I can point to to say that they were a huge influence on my career. But I've worked with great people throughout, which I think gives you the DNA to know to do the right thing.
Who are some key members of the JH trading team?
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