Coffee Catch-Up
At IAM, we ensure our clients interact with industry experts to get the best value for their investments. We caught up with one such expert, IAM’s Head of Fixed Income Trade – Capital Markets, Scott Whitecross for a coffee.
Read excerpts from our Q&A below:
Hi Scott!
Thanks for joining us for coffee today. You’ve been at IAM for over 3.5 years now, we’re interested to learn more about your background and how you came to be part of the Capital Markets team..
1. Congratulations on your recent promotion as Head of Trading and Facilitation. What does your day to day look like now?
Thank you! The day is still very much full of monitoring market movement’s, communicating deal flow with advisors, and working with stakeholders to get trades across the line. It’s a fast-paced role & I get to work with a very wide range of people, so I like it!.
2. Strong technical knowledge and ability to work accurately with tight deadlines. Could you walk us through your strategy for effectively covering and servicing clients?
I think the key to effectively servicing stakeholders is preparation and not allowing anything to sit on the back burner. Being timely is very important in markets, so making sure clients and advisors have accurate information quickly is very important. There’s no secret sauce. Just be quick and don’t get distracted!
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Now, let’s dive deeper into your expertise and how you operate within the ever-changing financial markets:
3. With your experience in the fixed income market, what are your top picks or insights on the current trends and opportunities in the bond market?
There’s been a lot of volatility in yields the last few days, which has highlighted a lot of value in the longer dated fixed rate space. Particularly the recently issued Lloyds Bank fixed tier 2. That’s popped back above the 7% range, which is a pretty spicy meatball when you consider some equivalent bonds from the domestic majors are trading in the 5’s.
4. We understand that you are on call during the US and EU session. Are there challenges and opportunities you encounter when covering the overnight session?
The hours can be a challenge, but some bonds are only tradable in the overnight sessions. So, if we have a particular trade that needs executing, we need to be open to working exotic hours. The benefit is that we can access a broader scope of assets and deeper liquidity pools. It’s also interesting being exposed to the different trading habits of people in other markets. American trading culture can be quite different to ours.
5. As someone who has experience working overseas in Malta, how did you enjoy that?
It was extremely interesting! I love hot weather and the sea, so island life suited me well. It was a lot of hard work though. I covered EU & US markets and had to manage handover with APAC, so I had a 15hour workday most days … it was a great experience though. Wouldn’t trade it for the world.
Shifting gears a bit, we’d like to get to know you on a more personal level.
6. Since moving to Sydney from Brisbane at the start of this year, how has the city been treating you? And what are your favourite things to do in or around Sydney? ?
Sydney is super nice. I should have made the move long ago. I really enjoy the hustle and bustle of a bigger place, and I can’t think of another city on Earth that marries a financial hub with beach culture so well. I think we’re lucky to have this place.
7. What do you miss about Brisbane?
The folks in our Brisbane office.
8. Your nickname is Mr. Hollywood, is there something you need to tell us?
Ha ha. I’m not so sure I should. Back in my uni days I had a couple of friends in film school. We made a few movies together and one got picked up by Triple M. They put on a red-carpet premier for us and the film got a distribution deal off the back of that. My mum has a DVD copy she likes to keep in the plastic.
