Rising Star Award
Laura Peterson
Janney Montgomery Scott
Rising Star Laura Peterson loves the human touch of bond trading. As director of fixed-income dealer sales for Janney Montgomery Scott, she works with new issues, CDs and structured products, and maintains a book for the regional broker-dealer. The equities desk may get the buzz and the cutting-edge trading tools, but Peterson loves the give and take with clients in the cozier fixed-income world.
That is probably my favorite part of my job. It feels great to cold-call a client and see them through a deal and have them be one of your best accounts.
Peterson grew up in San Diego with periods of time in New Zealand and Italy, as her father designed racing yachts. When asked if her fathers design and engineering background inspired her to pursue mathematics at University in Paris, she also sites her mothers radio ad sales days in Los Angeles. Coupled with my mothers numbers savvy and sales experience, it seemed like a really great fit to have these in my skill set.
Peterson entered high finance in 2008, right when it was imploding. At one of her first firms, she worked at a variety of desks as part of a rotational program, and that is where her love of fixed income blossomed.
When the fixed-income team at the shuttered Palle Capital formed the fixed-income sector at MPS, she helped build the trading desk from scratch. I got to see the ins and outs of building a desk. I helped with P&L, payroll, the website, the technology and then sales, she recalled proudly. In late 2012, she joined a team of 13 MPS fixed-income vets at Janney Montgomery Scott, where she works today.
As automation slowly comes to bond trading-traders still rely on phones, e-mail and even fax machines-Peterson hopes that the human touch doesnt disappear: Its important that we are providing the best customer service and products to make sure our clients call us instead of using an electronic platform.
