UK
There are tentative signs that the electronic trading revolution is making its way to the Middle East, with both banks and technology vendors beginning to target the region. But, although it threatens to take off in the future, hiring is so far very limited.
Richard Bentley, vice president, field technical services at Progress Software – which has just entered the region – says that financial services firms in the GCC are continuing to invest in electronic trading platforms, which is helping to develop the relatively nascent phenomenon.
"There is sophistication in the market and as banks start trading on multiple exchanges, the relevance of electronic trading increases. Competition has also increased among regional exchanges and, therefore, there is a drive to provide access," he told Emirates Business 24/7.
Credit Suisse, for instance, rolled out a direct market access platform in May, which opens the door for its clients in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. It also provides funds managers with algorithms tailored to those markets.
Bob McDowall, research director, Europe at TowerGroup says the Middle East is gaining momentum in this area: "Local exchange investment in electronic trading is complemented by international banks and brokers as well as multi-lateral trading platforms importing their own trading platforms to these markets."
Credit Suisse insists it is anticipating demand for their new services from fund managers. But Rob Maher, head of advanced execution services sales for Europe, the Middle East and Africa told Financial News it was “in this for the long-haul”, suggesting this was unlikely to happen any time soon.
At the moment, the most e-trading activity takes place in Saudi, but this is still relatively small numbers – at around $300m. Although this month the kingdom started an electronic market for bond trading.
Most of the hiring in this space currently is similarly diminutive.
James Sayer, senior manager at Robert Half in Dubai, says: "We’re seeing the first companies moving into the region and starting to hire. But it’s currently limited to sales people with a strong banking background a good network in the GCC.
They certainly need to be in it for the long haul..the only problem is there’s nothing to trade as no one floats firms in the Gulf Region because there are much easier ways to raise capital given the amount of money sloshing around. Lets look at the figures once more for a giggle. NASDAQ Dubai after 5 years of the most ludicrous bull market in history has a tub thumping 15 listed shares ! (including NASDAQ OMX). Of these only 3 trade!
http://www.nasdaqdubai.com/marketdata/marketdata_eq.html
There’s so little trading you can’t even apply algorithms.