Mobile Technology for Trading? Definitely Not

Financial technology experts Monday said that they are willing to provide tablets and smartphones to portfolio managers and analysts.

But traders?

Not.

The greatest demand in trading and fund firms is for iPads and iPhones, said a panel on technology for asset management at the Linedata Exchange. The panel included Ryan Bateman, director of technology at Sands Capital Management, Brij Agarwal, executive director of J.P. Morgan Asset Management, Fred Schmidt, director of information technology manager for capital markets at TIAA-CREF and Rashmi Rao, director of equity trading at UBS Global.

But they are only likely to be provided to portfolio managers and analysts, at this point, the group said.

The managers likely should be and will be allowed to retrieve research and place orders to trading desks in a secure fashion. But huge rebalances? Probably not.

Even if the orders are turned over to a trading desk, the portfolio manager is likely to be asked to be on company premises when orders are placed, in some cases, in case there’s a mishap with the execution, the technology managers said.

Key to any use of mobile technology, even before it reaches the trading desk, Bateman and colleagues indicated, is encryption of the data and instructions that get transferred and clear policies on how to deal with lost or stolen devices and, how to guard against hotspots and other access points that are compromised, they said.

Trading desks, they said, can take in the orders from mobile communications. But will continue to execute them on in-house, secure systems.