With an increasing number of sales and trading boutiques opening their doors, research is becoming one of the key differentiators among competitors.
Mark Field set up Summit Securities, predominantly a high-yield and fixed-income sales and trading firm, in November 2007 to capitalise on this.
One of Summits key propositions is the research-based trading ideas that the firm offers clients. Field says that the larger institutions that offered research are suffering a loss of talent, and their clients are looking elsewhere. "In investment banks there is more of a focus on capital-raising, and it has become hard to justify the cost of research. A lot of boutiques have set up, mainly because there is a lot of talent out there looking for a home." Field says that the...