Death Of London

[AWW]

Traders don't work from home - they can't. They were even in during Lockdown. The algos still need to be built and operated by someone, that someone being quant traders. The investment banks have just as many quant traders today as the had voice guys twenty years ago.

Private jets are for hedge fund CEOs only btw, and there aren't that many of those. City Airport offers limited destinations compared to Heathrow, and you're always on one of those horrible little prop/turbofan things.

I architect algo trading platforms and have done for various London, Europe and US based banks for 15 years. London is still the best at this, in my asset class anyway.

[Stuey]

4 hours ago, AWW said:

Traders don't work from home - they can't. They were even in during Lockdown. 

Some can, some can't. "Trading" is actually a pretty broad catch all. 

I'm at second-stage interviews for two trading roles at the moment. One is fully remote. One says 2-days a week in the office (especially when onboarding).

[Sugarlips]

On 06/08/2023 at 00:07, PatronizingGit said:

Mores the pity. Canary wharf should have served as a holding pen for all these high rise carbuncles. As it is, large portions of London neighbourhoods & streets will be cast into the shadows & turned into wind tunnel urban canyons thanks to the number of high rises polluting the whole area now.

Had the misfortune of being in Wandsworth last week. Genuinely amazed that planning have waived through the high rises on top of each other there, and I’m really not sure who is buying them all, from ad’s in the back of  newspapers in wealthy Asian cities..?

Other parts like Islington seemed to have the mix right so it’s still a mixed bag plus much as I hate to admit it, the traffic noise and pollution was a lot less inside ulez 

[Bien Pensant]

6 hours ago, AWW said:

Traders don't work from home - they can't. They were even in during Lockdown. The algos still need to be built and operated by someone, that someone being quant traders. The investment banks have just as many quant traders today as the had voice guys twenty years ago.

Private jets are for hedge fund CEOs only btw, and there aren't that many of those. City Airport offers limited destinations compared to Heathrow, and you're always on one of those horrible little prop/turbofan things.

I architect algo trading platforms and have done for various London, Europe and US based banks for 15 years. London is still the best at this, in my asset class anyway.

Trading floors were only operating with 'skeleton crews' during 'Covid' and the only reason given for traders not working from home is 'the human factor', i.e. inertia from longer-serving staff. Zoomers aren't going to have those hang-ups.

London is a European financial hub and London City serves the main Continental centres - principally Amsterdam and Frankfurt - and as for operating "those horrible little prop/turbofan things" perhaps that explains why the City isn't in Hounslow.

I'm sure you like the place, as it goes so do I.. well, to some extent.. but the question is how many people will it support going forward? The whole point of computerisation is to reduce headcount and how many restaurant meals are you and the six other HFT whizz-kids going to be able to eat, etc.?

Edited August 8, 2023 by Bien Pensant

[Bien Pensant]

1 hour ago, Sugarlips said:

Had the misfortune of being in Wandsworth last week. Genuinely amazed that planning have waived through the high rises on top of each other there, and I’m really not sure who is buying them all, from ad’s in the back of  newspapers in wealthy Asian cities..?

Indeed, construction is London's other major 'industry' and, yes, that's exactly how its marketed.

The flats are mainly sold off-plan to wealthy Chinese who want somewhere to stash their capital and to be able to bolt to should things go wrong over there. Consequently, they play an important role in helping to keep the UK solvent.

Ignoring market-risks, they're actually quite a good way of protecting capital - you can't store the equivalent in bars of gold for the cost of their council tax and non-residents don't pay CGT.

But, it does remind me of Tokyo real-estate from the '90s, as someone's signature (I forget who's) on TOS used to say, 'it is 'till it isn't' - before the crash, space in Tokyo could cost almost 350 times as much as equivalent space in New York but fifteen years later it had still only recovered to half its former value.

Edited August 8, 2023 by Bien Pensant

[AWW]

2 hours ago, Bien Pensant said:

Trading floors were only operating with 'skeleton crews' during 'Covid' 

Absolutely wasn't the case at the shop I was at during the Covid shitshow. Half were in the regular building, half at the DR site as a sop up social distancing and bubbles. But they weren't at home.

[Errol]

4 hours ago, Stuey said:

onboarding).

Did they reach out to you to discuss your onboarding?

[Errol]

15 minutes ago, Errol said:

Did they reach out to you to discuss your onboarding?

They take the discussion re. Onboarding offline to get their ducks in a row. There needs to be a workable solution that gives transformational change, leverage and gets the low-hanging fruit. The team will circle back around on the actionable points and re-group.

To be fair, this could be a game changer, engaging all strategic partners and helping crystalise proactive, outside the box thinking.

[Mandalorian]

5 hours ago, Errol said:

They take the discussion re. Onboarding offline to get their ducks in a row. There needs to be a workable solution that gives transformational change, leverage and gets the low-hanging fruit. The team will circle back around on the actionable points and re-group.

To be fair, this could be a game changer, engaging all strategic partners and helping crystalise proactive, outside the box thinking.

Going forward

[leonardratso]

[spygirl]

On 08/08/2023 at 01:08, AWW said:

Traders don't work from home - they can't. They were even in during Lockdown. The algos still need to be built and operated by someone, that someone being quant traders. The investment banks have just as many quant traders today as the had voice guys twenty years ago.

Private jets are for hedge fund CEOs only btw, and there aren't that many of those. City Airport offers limited destinations compared to Heathrow, and you're always on one of those horrible little prop/turbofan things.

I architect algo trading platforms and have done for various London, Europe and US based banks for 15 years. London is still the best at this, in my asset class anyway.

Not even close.

Youll want a Quant guy doing the maths. and a osftwar guy doign the implementation.

Im not sure of the ratio of open opencry traders/warm bodies to Quants/Sw heads but it would nto surprise me if its 1000:1.

The move from open outcry/pople trading to computers was massive i nterms of reduction of headcount.

You can see it in the collapse of demand for  Cnary Wharf and CoL office.

 

 

 

[AWW]

1 hour ago, spygirl said:

Not even close.

Youll want a Quant guy doing the maths. and a osftwar guy doign the implementation.

Im not sure of the ratio of open opencry traders/warm bodies to Quants/Sw heads but it would nto surprise me if its 1000:1.

The move from open outcry/pople trading to computers was massive i nterms of reduction of headcount.

You can see it in the collapse of demand for  Cnary Wharf and CoL office.

Open outcry hasn't been a thing for decades in some asset classes. I'm talking about voice traders on phones on the trading floors of institutions, not guys in stripey jackets yelling at eachother in the rink of an exchange.

[spygirl]

16 minutes ago, AWW said:

Open outcry hasn't been a thing for decades in some asset classes. I'm talking about voice traders on phones on the trading floors of institutions, not guys in stripey jackets yelling at eachother in the rink of an exchange.

Decades?

LME, the last biggy, onyl moved away in 2021.

LFFE did in 2000.

In terms of nubmer of telephone traders - Dunno.

Id like to see some numbers.

Id guess theyve been reducing at a rapid clip since 2008.

 

 

 

 

[spygirl]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12386757/Mayor-urges-people-not-Oxford-Street-amid-social-media-nonsense.html

Youths apprently.

No further description.

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/sadiq-khan-oxford-street-shoplifting/

[AWW]

1 hour ago, spygirl said:

Decades?

LME, the last biggy, onyl moved away in 2021.

LFFE did in 2000.

In terms of nubmer of telephone traders - Dunno.

Id like to see some numbers.

Id guess theyve been reducing at a rapid clip since 2008.

Yes, decades. LIFFE only had a couple of pits left in operation, they'd been reducing them for years.

The LME actually recently went back to open outcry because of some features unique to the PM market.

But still, I think you'd be shocked by the size of the some of the quant trading teams and also the number of people still sitting on phones in the City.

[Bornagain]

On 08/08/2023 at 10:22, Errol said:

They take the discussion re. Onboarding offline to get their ducks in a row. There needs to be a workable solution that gives transformational change, leverage and gets the low-hanging fruit. The team will circle back around on the actionable points and re-group.

To be fair, this could be a game changer, engaging all strategic partners and helping crystalise proactive, outside the box thinking.

Hold on a minute,  what about reimagineering and then digitally transforming the business to face the new paradigm with lazer-precise customer focussed delivery ?

[Errol]

I'll need to touch base with other stakeholders to get a holistic view on that. Not sure it's on their radar, and it may be difficult to get buy-in.

[leonardratso]

35 minutes ago, Errol said:

I'll need to touch base with other stakeholders to get a holistic view on that. Not sure it's on their radar, and it may be difficult to get buy-in.

ill touch your base with my stake holders.

[One percent]

2 hours ago, spygirl said:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12386757/Mayor-urges-people-not-Oxford-Street-amid-social-media-nonsense.html

Youths apprently.

No further description.

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/sadiq-khan-oxford-street-shoplifting/

I’ve just come to post this. Now, I wonder how many cockneys will turn up?  

[janch]

It's taken me two days to catch up here and also to get over a trip to Londinium.  I used to love going to the capital....not any more.  It was the most dispiriting experience I've had for a while.  The reason for going was to visit my son who lives and works there (how he puts up with it I don't know).

It started badly with the train being rammed (the previous train was cancelled) and I spent the first hour (two thirds of the total) of the journey on my feet.

Everywhere was crowded and busy with probably half the people I saw in central London being non-British and probably residents rather than tourists.  Everywhere people were on their phones non-stop and taking selfies.

Next time (if I ever go again) I will take my own refreshments as there was nowhere which would take cash.  If I hadn't been a bit desperate I would have ordered and then refused their stuff when I found out you had to pay by phone or card.  This really bothers me as we are (as a society) sleepwalking into CBDCs and programmable money.  Everywhere access was by QR code on phones.

Nobody except me seems bothered by all this.  I feel like getting hold of them all and giving them a good shake to say "wake up"!  Can't you see what's happening?  I don't think there's anyone in UK who hasn't got a mobile phone in their hand morning, noon and night.   We have become a nation of mobile zombies and the capital is the epicentre.

[leonardratso]

1 hour ago, janch said:

It's taken me two days to catch up here and also to get over a trip to Londinium.  I used to love going to the capital....not any more.  It was the most dispiriting experience I've had for a while.  The reason for going was to visit my son who lives and works there (how he puts up with it I don't know).

It started badly with the train being rammed (the previous train was cancelled) and I spent the first hour (two thirds of the total) of the journey on my feet.

Everywhere was crowded and busy with probably half the people I saw in central London being non-British and probably residents rather than tourists.  Everywhere people were on their phones non-stop and taking selfies.

Next time (if I ever go again) I will take my own refreshments as there was nowhere which would take cash.  If I hadn't been a bit desperate I would have ordered and then refused their stuff when I found out you had to pay by phone or card.  This really bothers me as we are (as a society) sleepwalking into CBDCs and programmable money.  Everywhere access was by QR code on phones.

Nobody except me seems bothered by all this.  I feel like getting hold of them all and giving them a good shake to say "wake up"!  Can't you see what's happening?  I don't think there's anyone in UK who hasn't got a mobile phone in their hand morning, noon and night.   We have become a nation of mobile zombies and the capital is the epicentre.

hey 2 same articles in the same paper is a DM trick.

Edited August 9, 2023 by leonardratso

[janch]

3 minutes ago, leonardratso said:

hey 2 same articles in the same paper is a DM trick.

Sorry guilty as charged

[leonardratso]

9 minutes ago, janch said:

Sorry guilty as charged

just scan this qr code to restore your credit rating.....

 

Edited August 9, 2023 by leonardratso

[Bien Pensant]

On 08/08/2023 at 09:18, AWW said:

Absolutely wasn't the case at the shop I was at during the Covid shitshow. Half were in the regular building, half at the DR site as a sop up social distancing and bubbles. But they weren't at home.

I'll take your word for that.

However, the fact remains that the number of Over The Counter trades has been rising for years, meaning that people are drifting away from not just the City but organised exchanges altogether - buyers and sellers just don't need them to link up with one another any more so why not save the overhead?

If you think it can't happen to a 'financial centre' well I must tell you that the Bristol Stock Exchange now serves a very nice curry.

[Ash4781b]

https://amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/aug/08/khan-tells-people-to-shun-nonsense-tiktok-craze-on-oxford-street
 

“The force said it is aware of online speculation “about opportunities to commit crime around Oxford Street”.

A dispersal order has been put in place from 11am on Tuesday to 10am on Thursday, giving police officers the power to exclude people from the area for 48 hours. Anyone who does not comply can be arrested.”

What on earth was this all about? 
 

Edit: I see dosboddrrs upthread commented

Edited August 9, 2023 by Ash4781b