BARRINGTON The market has been executing through periods of poor liquidity and now abundant liquidity, all while working from home. This has had an impact on how the buy side communicates and executes, especially being more time constrained. As a result, we have had to adjust our approach to talking with and servicing clients.

With buy-side clients obviously not sitting together as one team, we have had to be a lot more tailored with our coverage – not just at firm level but also at individual level. In the past, we could always call a particular desk and talk to someone in that team. Information would naturally flow through very quickly.

Now clients are spread out across multiple locations, we can’t assume information will transmit quickly. We have adapted our approach and we are very interested to hear how the buy-side has adapted its execution.

MURRAY Working from home is certainly not the most efficient approach. We have managed to get everything done, which is good. But the reality is we could quickly disseminate information around the team when we were all in a room together, whereas we now need to have multiple conversations to get everyone on the same page.

Our interactions with the ANZ team have been particularly positive for trading. We have found they have done a great job in keeping up the communication.

Our business is still very voice-driven. We don’t use platforms, which is probably something we need to start thinking about. But it is something on which we would have an organisation-wide perspective.

MURRAY I don’t think so, but it has focused our attention on who the best counterparties are for a particular transaction. If we need to move a particular position, we are probably a bit better informed than we would have been in the past about who is the best person or the best house to approach.

But I do not think we have reduced our level of interaction. If anything, the number of conversations we have with our broker panel has increased.

ALEXANDER We have very heavy reliance on the banks and the information on markets they give us. I have to say that, particularly in Australia, we are very spoiled. There are many banks all with their own areas of expertise. I think the increase in debt has encouraged new companies to form, too. We are very well serviced on this side of the fence.

COLOSIMO As a general rule, we try to manage our portfolios so we are not trading in size that tests liquidity and has a market impact. We have tried to keep our trading as similar as possible to what it was. We use platforms to some extent, but we like the information flow and the conversation we have through voice trading.

Over time, one thing that has changed is the growth of potential counterparties in Australia. We previously tried to be more spread in what we showed to dealers. But since working from home, we have been more concentrated with dealers that have proven themselves consistently to show better pricing over time.

It is possible working from home has contributed to us doing a bit less trading. Overall, though, I think our processes have been consistent.

BUTCHER From February and March last year to now, the way we have conducted ourselves and the conversations we have had are all about relationships. The use of information and knowledge sharing is critical for us to understand pricing and regulatory environments.

This has always been the case, but it has never been more so than over the last 18 months – particularly with all the regulatory changes that have occurred. We have been trying to get a handle on what potential impacts there will be on the market from all these changes and then decide if and how to adjust our portfolio.