Two long-time buyside traders have joined brokerage firm Stuart Frankel & Co. in sales positions–one in Charlotte, N.C. and the other in San Diego.
Bob Rasile, who’s spent the last 20 years in Charlotte, holding senior positions at Sterling Capital and Evergreen Investments, joined the New York-based Stuart Frankel & Co. last month as a salesman to develop business throughout the Southeast.
The hiring of Rasile, who ran the Evergreen desk, comes on the heels of another buysider who has signed up for sellside duty at Frankel & Co. Jamie Atwell, who spent almost his entire 18-year career at growth managers like AIM and Nicholas-Applegate, joined the firm last summer and is in charge of business development for the West Coast. Besides his sales role, Atwell also trades the Asian markets in real-time overnight.
"We felt that it was imperative to have exposure on a regional basis," said Andrew Frankel, who, along with his brother Jeffrey, is co-president of the firm based on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange since 1973. Having sales people on the ground gives the firm insight into what the buyside is thinking, as well as the opportunity to get into new lines of business, Frankel said, such as the addition of the launch of Asian trading a few months back.
Both Rasile and Atwell were long-time clients, Frankel said, so there was great familiarity with them as traders and people. Both have great relationships and are respected in the industry, he added.
In recent years, a number of sellside traders have made the move to the buyside, but it has always been less common for the buyside to move to the sellside.
One former buyside trader thinks that Frankel’s blueprint is a good one. Buyside traders who have made the switch to the sellside have an added advantage when selling products and services into the desks of asset managers, according to Michael Fenske, a former 13-year trader on the buyside. In August, Fenske left trading to start a college football recruiting service, MFJ College Football Recruiting.
Not only do they have tremendous insight into the buyside, but "as a buyside trader, you have seen, tested and used every algo and crossing network out there," Fenske said. "So you know your competition, and that should give you an advantage."
Fenske said he thinks that buyside traders can make the transition to sales trader or trader with little trouble. Depending upon the person, he also thinks that the buyside trader can also move into straight sales roles, like selling algorithms and crossing systems. He pointed to sales people at Liquidnet and Pipeline Trading Systems who have made such a transition.
One senior sales executive at an algorithmic trading shop agreed that former buyside traders have a tremendous advantage in understanding the ins and outs of the buyside, but "unfortunately, that doesn’t always translate into more business."
Rasile said his approach in sales will be very straightforward. "I’m basically selling the services of a firm that I’m very familiar with and I’ll explain why I used them."
