S’pore traders scramble to cope with tsunami of activity

SINGAPORE — Phones rang off the hook incessantly, while traders feverishly worked on the floor taking enquiries and executing orders, pausing only for hurried bites of takeaways, which littered their desks and pantries.

The Brexit referendum threw trading floors for a loop on Friday, even though many had already braced themselves for a volatile market.

Analysts and traders woke up earlier than usual on the rainy Friday morning — as early as 4am — to look at the latest updates on Brexit and head to work earlier than usual.

In fact, traders were already working round the clock the day before, mostly on shifts, to handle the huge volume of enquiries and orders from customers.

A trader from a local bank, who wished not to be named, said everyone had been on high alert since Thursday. “There is so much volatility, we have been on standby, on call and we expect more activity for Friday and the following business day as well as there are too many orders,” said the trader, adding his whole team was out in full force.

Another trader from a foreign bank, who also declined to be named, said: “Volume was overwhelming today, I can’t even gauge how much it was. Some people couldn’t get the pricing they wanted and there was a lot of panic selling.”

Over at the Singapore office of trading firm IG, which has been gearing up for the polls over the past two to three months, traders took calls from customers from all over Asia, in different languages.

Said the firm’s market analyst Bernard Aw: “My UK guys were in before 7am on Thursday. Two of them were in at 4pm UK time on Thursday because they will be covering through the night. We are a global company, so we — different offices around the world — take turns round the clock to answer queries.”

CIMB economist Song Seng Wun hit the office at 5am, an hour earlier than usual. “There was a thunderstorm when I woke up this morning at 4am — both outdoors and in the news wires,” he said. “By mid-morning, everyone was chatting on their phones, as my side is private banking and some clients were calling in to see possibilities of opportunistic trades.”

The hive of activity paused only for one moment — when British Prime Minister David Cameron went on live television to deliver his statement on the outcome. Gasps of shock and surprise were heard as he announced his resignation.

But in the blink of an eye, they collected themselves and dived back into the action.

Even more calls came flooding in when the London stock exchange opened for trading at 3pm Singapore time.

To handle the onslaught of activity, trading firms had prepared by communicating with clients ahead of the vote.

A spokesperson from IG said the company had margin requirements on certain products deemed “highly sensitive to the Brexit vote”.

“After the UK voted to leave the EU, IG will keep in place the phased margin increases introduced over the past two weeks, and will review them next week,” the spokesperson added.