Buy-side trading desks today are being asked to do a lot more, often with significantly fewer resources than they had during the relative boom times before the global financial crisis. As a result, maximizing the efficiency of internal trading desks has become an increasingly important priority for institutional investors. In this paper, Greenwich Associates identifies key challenges facing buy-side trading desks and provides insights from head traders at large and small institutions about strategies they have employed to address these challenges. We also present detailed metrics on trading desk structure, staffing, budgets and operational practices against which institutions can benchmark their own trading desks.
