Are you in the driver’s seat? How innovative drivers can inspire traders

There are many synergies with the Formula-E concept and the financial markets. Both operate in a fast-moving market and parallels can be drawn between between drivers and traders; both are in some way high-speed pilots. Traders seek efficiencies and high performance in trying to generate alpha, looking for the ultimate advantage to make the difference by optimising details, day after day, hour after hour, minute after minute, second after second. They are driving their profit and loss in a rapid pace global economy. Many structural changes, stricter risk management practices, evolving compliance requirements and an evolving regulatory environment continue to impact the global capital markets, along with geopolitical issues that spur market volatility and uncertainty in this fast-moving environment.

Every day several trillion dollars of securities are traded around the world – the daily FX turnover is over $5 trillion – and growing. Newer transformative technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence, the cloud, and the high availability of news and information coupled with a larger number of trading venues are all enabling a more transparent, secure, speedy marketplace, with the capability for deeper analyses and greater understanding of risks. While all of these changes are positive, it means the needs of users have changed as well.

For instance, fast and accurate communications across front, back and middle offices are needed, as well as the ability to capture trade data for regulatory purposes. Trading operations across multiple geographies are needed 24/7. With employees increasingly working from offsite and remote locations, mobility is critical.

Similarly, in the automotive industry, the need for a new kind of mobility has become essential. Travel is changing, with energy sources, new vehicles, being always-on and connected around the clock, new technology and tools are empowering us, not only as drivers but “augmented-humans”. There is also access to an array of data while driving, which helps to make optimal navigation decisions. Some drivers are also looking at better ecological behaviour and responsibility, as well as performance efficiencies. Formula-E, for example, had to be reinvented to work, not really as an extension or copy of Formula-1, but as a new era in race driving, with new parameters. The engineers had to invent a new paradigm, to manage:

• Energy
• Speed
• Power and autonomy
• Performance

These and the new applications that would be transferred to the automotive industry, marks the rise of the electric car market. In a recent report, McKinsey insightfully tackles a new mobility ecosystem, autonomous driving, electrification and connectivity. It’s gets to the core of how mobility is being reinvented, the rise of the era of a software domination and what the new connected routes of the future are.

Being adaptive to change is critical, financial participants should have reliable and secure access to counterparties, liquidity, and trade lifecycle services. Cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) models are empowering IT departments with more flexibility and adaptability delivering on-demand market access, when needed. To succeed in developing and commercialising new solutions, it takes companies and people that live, breathe and believe in innovation. To enter new markets, technologies and horizons, a team needs to have a deep understanding of its customers’ business, but also push boundaries, think ahead, learn from prior experiences, embrace collaboration and be guided by an unfaltering mission to make the continually changing needs of the market and its innovation drivers.