The two historically have been their own realms: low touch sets and oversees the algos that handle ordinary, routine trades, while high touch gives personalized service to big clients and works the larger and more complex transactions, mostly over the phone.
Low-touch and high-touch traders will retain their distinct raison d'être, but providers of institutional brokerage services are seeing the value of moving together the desks that make the trades into a more holistic offering, particularly in equities. Convergence enables sell-side banks to better aggregate liquidity, which improves trading opportunities for clients.
Also, by centralizing a client’s activity, a sell-side firm can better understand what the client is doing across the range of services offered, which enables more proactive service. Technology can drive systematic engagement -- for example, if a buy-side client traded a certain bond three months ago and showed buying interest a week ago, that information, if properly digitized, can prompt a fresh client reachout if the bond reaches a certain level.
According to a Greenwich Associates poll conducted in the fourth quarter of 2019, 85% of capital market participants expect client trading history data to