Equities traders in 2026 are navigating one of the most volatile and fast-paced market environments in recent years, driven by rapid price swings and the growing influence of AI. While core trading principles remain unchanged, execution now requires heightened vigilance, flexibility, and constant information monitoring says Edgar Castel, equities trader at Nordea Asset Management.
Speaking to Trader TV, Castel discusses how he decides between aggressive and passive, his preference for natural liquidity in current conditions dark pools and alternative venues play a key role for complex trades. As markets evolve, adaptability and smart use of technology have become critical to maintaining performance and managing risk effectively.
Interview
Josephine Gallagher – So, to start us off, characterize what it’s been like to be an equities trader in 2026 so far?
Edgar Castel – Yeah, so I think to be a trader in 2026 is not very different from what it was previously. As we are normally very flexible people, and no matter the environment, no matter the market’s condition, we always try to find a solution to each problem. So yeah, I will say that the main difference is the market condition, which has been super volatile since the beginning of the year. So we are more careful than before. We browse every news, we scan every chat, and of course, we try to catch any source of information to flag to our PM. So, of course, we also try to avoid any risk, because the market changes very quickly, and some stocks can be up 5% a day and be down minus 5% another day. So we definitely need to avoid any time risk. Of course, there is also new technology in place in the industry, especially AI, which is a revolution. So I will say that the environment has never been so fast-paced as today.
Josephine Gallagher – Understood, as you say, like in this kind of fast-paced environment, then how do you know or decide when to be aggressive versus passive when executing trades?
Edgar Castel – The strategy is always discussed ahead with the portfolio manager (PM) to try to catch the idea behind what the aim of the order is. Should we capture the maximum of liquidity? Should we be more passive, should we optimize, minimize the impact? Keep the cash balanced, wait for blocks. So there are a lot of different strategies to trade and of course, the execution is always open with the portfolio manager, and it’s very central, because also there is our expertise with the momentum and what is available in the market. So for example, during lunchtime in Europe, lunch time, the liquidity is pretty weak, and during the auction, the liquidity is bigger, so of course, we are opportunistic and trying to get the best source of liquidity. We also take advantage of several events during the day. So I think it’s a big mix of his strategy and our expertise. And of course, to assist us, we use some pre-trade tools to get a better idea on how we work and how we can handle it. So, especially for large and complex baskets, which can be very chaotic. So those kinds of tools are very, very important to get an exhaustive view on what we do.
Josephine Gallagher – How do you think of trade-offs when it comes to natural liquidity, dark crossing networks, and market makers, especially when considering transparency, information leakage, and market impact?
Edgar Castel – Yeah, I would say that the best source of liquidity is still the natural one. We always prioritize natural cross in the market, and we do that for almost two reasons. The first one, of course, is transparency, and the second one is also the market impact. So our brokers are very important to sourcing liquidity, because they are very central in this process, and we also mostly work with their electronic services, which we try to customize and improve with our needs, and to be very selective in terms of liquidity sourcing. In parallel, we also work with dark pool providers crossing networks, which is also a very good way to get liquidity. And at the end, we can also use, of course, some market makers or usual LPs (liquidity providers) to get some conditional darks or CRB (conditional routing broker). And there is some scenario, for example, when we pre-trail the very large basket with two legs and the baskets, we have a lot of large names in those baskets with weak liquidity or difficult to access. If we can manage to get some extra liquidity with those pools, it’s always very interesting for us, even if we have to do a cash-balanced basket. So this kind of dark liquidity, or dark providers, allows us to avoid any holdback in the basket and avoid any time risk. So it’s always very appreciated to work with that kind of liquidity.
Josephine Gallagher – So what is your process for selecting broker algos, and what do you look for from them when you’re executing different strategies?
Edgar Castel – So here at Nordea Asset Management, we have two kinds of orders. On the first hand, we have the systematic flow, which represents 60% of the total orders, but represents only 15% of the notional credit. And this flow is driven automatically through the algo wheel and reviewed quarterly after every broker review. So the performance is measured with usual benchmarks, and we collect a lot of data. And it’s pretty straightforward for this kind of flow to compare different brokers, different algos. And in the second hand, we have the high-touch flow, which is driven by the trader at discretion and directed by the PM instruction. So it’s harder to measure this kind of flow due to this nature, because the strategy behind can be very different. Some orders can last a couple of days, and we can have some changes in the instructions during his lifetime. So it’s always hard to measure it, because we had a lot of child orders, and to get an exhaustive view, we need to measure everything. So at least we’re trying to combat the trader selection by a discretionary wheel too. But at the moment, it’s quite new, and we don’t have a lot of data collected to give you an exhaustive report or exhaustive results yet.
Josephine Gallagher – And finally, what is your personal framework for preparing for each trading week, if you have one?
Edgar Castel – To be honest, I don’t have a real routine to prepare my week. I think adaptability is the key to success in this job, especially in this kind of volatile environment. So we have to stay consistent, open-minded, and of course, challenge our assumption, because the world has changed a lot, and the industry has changed a lot.
