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“Study the science of art. Study the art of science. Develop your senses — especially learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.” — Leonardo Da Vinci (~1500) It has been a little while - since here - that we updated our analysis on the market making and high-speed trading strategy end of the playing field. And, during that time it came to our attention that our friends at Flow Traders N.V. (FT) had begun to feel a little left out of the fun. After all, it seemed we had inadvertently given that impression by showcasing our thoughts on Virtu's progress and outlook as if it were the only remaining stand-alone public market making firm - now that the KCG acquisition had closed. (For those of you who are just joining us, you might refresh the thread on prior work around this topic, most notably, here...) Personally, I don't think Virtu will mind sharing a bit of the spotlight. With the Panthers near the basement of the NHL's Atlantic division, [...]

If you have bought into our arguments that the capacity of alpha is finite and that the leading managers of automated trading methods can achieve "winner-take-all" performance characteristics in the sources of alpha that they target, then it stands to reason that the causes for where assets are concentrating and which funds are closing are related. Without even looking at track records, these two facts lead to the conclusion that systematic strategies are more consistent than, and therefore, winning a battle over allocations to traditional, fundamentally-oriented and "manual" strategies in modern markets. Something amazing - and, potentially terrifying - is happening at the crossroad of asset management and global markets. The drumbeat of clues in support of this theme is increasing and those observers with keen insights into market dynamics are beginning to notice. Alphacution has played a small role in giving voice and illustration to this theme by placing a bow around a unique interpretation of unprecedented market phenomena worth paying attention to, most relevantly to this part of [...]

"Pay attention to what I say, not what I do..." More and more - over decades of practice - this opening statement has become the golden rule of marketing and communications, no matter if that "marcom" strategy is being applied in the context of finance, economics, politics - or, any other blood sport. Reason being: If you believe that perception is reality, then perception can have real economic consequences. However, with today's data ubiquity and resulting overload, we have the possibility of infinite perceptions and very little sense of reality... No one is truly to blame for this predicament. We have all conspired - most of us tacitly, some of us more directly - to participant in this confidence game. And so, when Alphacution picks out certain names, it is only to shed light on examples of how the game is played and not to pass judgement on the player(s) - since we are all more or less complicit... (As it turns out, Deutsche Bank is one of our best [...]

Before we dig into the latest numbers, let's level set the motivations here because, in the helter-skelter nature of most people's day, some of this analysis tends to get brushed aside as pedestrian. There is only so much one can do to make a headcount index sexy and provocative. But, this is something folks should be paying attention to. Banks are the biggest employers, the largest providers of services, and the most voracious consumers of technology in the global financial services ecosystem. As innovations strip away their dominance and incumbencies, people should want to know how the dominoes are going to fall because these players are currently interconnected with most everything that goes on in this space... Anyway, preamble (and gentle finger-wagging) aside, here's the setup: Why do we care so much about tracking bulge bank headcount? There are at least two reasons. The first is, well, a bit pedestrian, actually: Since we use headcount to normalize the variance in scale between banks (and other #fintech buyers) in order to [...]