Can you tell me about your journey into the securities finance industry?
I joined State Street Global Markets in 2017 through a rotational leadership programme called the Professional Development Program. It provided an excellent opportunity to rotate through various trading desks, and gain a deep understanding of the capital markets products State Street offers to clients, one of which is securities lending. My third rotation, and ultimate full-time placement, was with our quantitative research team — State Street Associates. This was where my foray into securities lending research started.
My first responsibility was to help develop models and research specifically for our prime services and securities lending desks. The experience built a strong foundation to work from while providing a wonderful view into the dynamics of the securities lending market.
From there, I took on expanded research roles beyond securities lending and continued to work with State Street Associates’ academic partners from Harvard, MIT, and Boston College, which provided me with deep insights into investor behaviour and economic theory, and has influenced our research approach for securities lending. The interplay between lender supply and borrower demand, and how these dynamics influence, and even predict, asset prices continues to draw my interest.
As a young professional, what aspects of your role or the industry do you find most exciting?
An exciting aspect of the research role is what I believe to be a huge opportunity to develop quant models that deepen our understanding of the securities lending market. One recent project has taken advantage of State Street MediaStats indicators of stock-level sentiment signals from digital and social media. This inspired us to prototype a model leveraging social media attention and digital media sentiment in combination with securities lending data to better predict meme stock short squeezes. This theme has come under focus with recent market events, and we have found value in these signals.
Another exciting project that is of particular near-term focus for me is to draw on the expertise and knowledge across State Street Associates and the business to build a prediction model for securities lending fee directionality. The goal is to enhance our ability to identify stocks that may observe a large increase in fees over the next week or month.
The most rewarding aspect of these projects is finding unique relationships within securities lending data and with other alternative datasets, such as media sentiment. Communicating the insights we derive from our models to State Street’s clients and discussing with other industry participants is always a rewarding experience as well.
Many companies offer various training and development opportunities for their employees. How has your company supported your growth?
State Street, and in particular, State Street Global Markets, has been excellent in providing numerous opportunities to grow professionally and develop new skill sets. The Professional Development Program sets a strong foundation for me and others who graduated from the programme. Being able to rotate onto different business lines provides a great view into different capital market products, and enables individuals to develop diverse skill sets that they otherwise may not have been able to.
Additionally, we have a number of mentoring and shadowing initiatives that enable individuals to engage deeply with other businesses and different roles. Most impactful for me has been the incredible opportunity to relocate internationally from Boston to Frankfurt in February 2022 to lead the State Street Associates initiative in continental Europe. This experience will have a long-lasting impact on me, both personally and professionally.
What misconceptions about working in the financial industry have you encountered, and how do you address these challenges?
Perhaps when first starting off in the industry, I had an expectation that there would be a more individualistic, winner-takes-all culture. However, at least from my experiences over the last seven years in State Street Global Markets, this has not been the case.
While, of course, there is an expectation that the best ideas should come through, there is a collaborative effort across the businesses. Everyone here is more than happy to discuss their thoughts and help answer questions or provide guidance. This is extremely beneficial from a career growth perspective, especially for those who are just starting off in the finance industry.
Looking ahead, where do you see yourself in the next five years in terms of your career goals and aspirations?
Having spent close to three years establishing a strong global market research presence across continental Europe, I feel ready to take on a new challenge. Fortunately, the opportunity has presented itself again at State Street Associates. As a result, I am relocating back to Boston in August to build out a new team, tasked with developing machine learning models and innovative predictive analytics research in support of a wide range of markets and lending businesses.
Through this experience, I am looking to develop my leadership skills, improve my ability to share forward-thinking data techniques across teams, and implement practical new approaches to data-driven modelling with a wide range of use cases and experts across our business. This includes taking full advantage of the incredible progress in generative AI technologies.
What advice do you have for other young professionals aspiring to pursue a career in your industry?
Always be open-minded and work hard! There is so much to learn from the experience and knowledge of those around you, and being open-minded enables you to absorb as much of it as you can. Then work hard to apply the knowledge you have learnt.
Also, get out of your comfort zone to try new things! If you are working repeatedly in Excel, then try writing a Python script to automate it, for example. Being proactive helps you stand out and is usually appreciated by everyone. Lastly, do not be afraid of new projects or new opportunities — you never know where these things will take you.
Travis Whitmore bio
Travis Whitmore is the head of AI and trading analytics at State Street Associates, the partnership between State Street Global Markets and renowned academics at Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan School of Management, Boston College, and EDHEC Business School.
His team is responsible for developing machine learning models and innovative predictive analytics research in support of a wide range of markets and lending businesses. He is also responsible for driving research initiatives for State Street’s financing solutions business, including thought leadership, predictive models, and client engagements.
Whitmore is relocating back to Cambridge, MA, from Frankfurt in August, where he spent nearly three years leading State Street Associates' research initiative in continental Europe. He worked with institutional clients across the EU 27, delivering custom advisory projects, providing quantitative research insights, and presenting findings at industry conferences.
Before his role in Europe, Whitmore worked closely with Harvard Professor Ken Froot to develop innovative investment applications with State Street Associates' proprietary custody flows and holdings information. Additionally, he worked with State Street academic partners at MediaStats to research how investors can leverage digital media sentiment indicators in their investment decision-making.
Whitmore has developed numerous quantitative investment models, published research in The Journal of Portfolio Management, and is a frequent presenter at industry events He was awarded the ‘Rising Star’ prize at the Íø±¬³Ô¹Ï Finance Times Industry Excellence Awards 2023 for his research on the securities lending market.
Whitmore earned a degree in finance and computer science from the University of Vermont.
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