Blog · Coverage and territory · Trading
The ten questions a head of sales trading puts to the salespeople and the traders, which clients have gone quiet in a product where the desk has not, what is the size-weighted hit ratio by client, which clients are tiered where by flow and hit ratio, which axes reached the clients who trade them, who is covered by one salesperson only, what does the coverage map look like by client and product, does the blotter reconcile to the benchmark submission, which clients receive many prices and trade none, which salespeople's distribution lists are stale, and what changed, each with the table from the RFQ log, the blotter and the coverage file, and the answer to send back.
A head of sales trading asks the salespeople about their clients and hears about their clients. The RFQ log, the blotter and the coverage file hold the clients as tables. This guide is the ten questions, the tables, and the answer to send back.
| # | The question | The table | Identity | Send back |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Which clients have gone quiet where the desk has not? | Quiet list per product against own baseline; desk ratio beside; flow at stake | Traded ≤ inquired | Volume by client |
| 2 | What is the size-weighted hit ratio? | Hit ratio by client and product, size-weighted beside count-weighted | Same as 1 | Count-weighted |
| 3 | Which clients are tiered where? | Tiers on flow and hit ratio; coverage instruction per tier | Clients in one tier per product | The coverage list |
| 4 | Did the axes reach the clients who trade them? | Axe hit rate per client; traded-unsent list | Matched trades ⊆ blotter | Axes sent |
| 5 | Who is covered by one salesperson only? | Single-threaded clients by notional | Contacts attributed | A salesperson's word |
| 6 | What does the coverage map look like? | Salesperson by client by product: touched, inquired, traded | Assigned clients sum | Activity counts |
| 7 | Does the blotter reconcile to the submission? | Desk trades against the benchmark submission per period | Blotter = submission within tolerance | Assumed |
| 8 | Which clients receive many prices and trade none? | Inquiries high, hit ratio near zero, per product | Same as 2 | Inquiry volume as engagement |
| 9 | Whose distribution lists are stale? | List size, last change, list hit rate, per salesperson | Same as 4 | List size |
| 10 | What changed? | The movements page | Every line cites | Narrative |
Head of sales trading: Who has gone quiet? Response: Client 2207 in rates: inquiries down two thirds while the desk's rates flow is flat; active in credit and FX. $410m a month of prior flow. Salesperson S-04. Table 1, row 1. Head of sales trading: What is our hit ratio there? Response: 48 percent size-weighted, so pricing was competitive until the inquiries stopped. Not a pricing problem; a coverage or relationship one. Table 2. Head of sales trading: Anyone else cover them? Response: S-04 only; no second contact in the log. Table 5.
Three tables, one client, one salesperson, one call this week.
Count-weighted hit ratios. The client leaving the large tickets looks fine.
Quiet measured without the desk's ratio. Every client quiet in a slow month.
Axes measured by sends. The list that never trades looks busy.
Blotter never reconciled. The submission and the desk disagree, discovered by the regulator.
Covirage produces the ten tables from the RFQ log, the blotter and the coverage file, with the identities checked. The trading page describes the setup, and the quiet client guide covers the first table.
Quiet clients per product, because flow leaves before revenue does and the salesperson who calls at the turn keeps it. A client whose inquiries fell two thirds in rates while the desk's rates flow held, and who is active in credit, is a rates conversation this week.
No. Client identifiers, product, notional inquired and traded, dates, and the salesperson on the coverage file. The desk has the names; the tables are computed on identifiers.
Notional traded per client per product never exceeds notional inquired; clients' traded notional sums to the desk's; matched axe trades are a subset of the blotter; the blotter reconciles to the benchmark submission. A hit ratio weighted by count, where the client takes the small tickets and leaves the large, is sent back.