Bear Stearns has appointed Jenny Miller as senior managing director and Head of Portfolio Trading Sales, Europe.

She will be charged with managing the firm’s London-based portfolio trading sales team, as well as the portfolio sales trading business to European institutional and hedge fund clients.

“My key objective is to expand the business through my relationships with many U.K. institutions and then potentially into the Nordic institutions,” says Miller. She adds that she will manage a team of seven in the London office, predominantly sales and sales traders.

“The portfolio trading business is changing, it’s becoming much more complex,” she adds. “A lot of sophisticated clients are using algorithms so the plain vanilla business we used to do in portfolio trading is just put through algorithms now. The business that lands on the portfolio trading desk with a portfolio trading sales person or sales trader needs to be handled by a much more experienced person and needs to have a value add.”

That value add, says Miller, includes optimal trading strategies using a traders specific expertise, or pre-trade tools that are made available. But first and foremost is the relationship.

“We all basically offer the same product, but what makes you stand out and be counted or why is one firm chosen over another?” asks Miller. “It has to be the relationship and the person that you are working with and the feeling that they will go that extra mile for you.”

Simon Bird, Head of International Portfolio Trading at Bear Stearns, adds that there is an “ongoing investment in providing the best service and technology for clients.” He says the expectation is that equities will grow quickly over the next few years not just in Europe but in the Far East as well.

“With all of that growth comes investment in good people and infrastructure,” says Bird. “In terms of the portfolio trading and electronic trading side there is a lot of capital investment we’re putting into the businesses and with that our product improves and the revenue increases…and we’re already seeing that with the growth that we’ve had.”

Miller was previously head of portfolio sales trading at Merrill Lynch and has also held positions at UBS and BZW.

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