Traders Magazine speaks with Darlene Pasquill, Head of Americas Equity Division for Mizuho in NYC, Sam Clapp, Mizuho Americas Electronic Trading Sales, and Don Hundley, Mizuho Head of Japan Electronic Trading.

What is your reaction to winning the Award at the 2022 Markets Choice Awards?

“Markets Media is the premier market structure news outlet and the awards are always a who’s who of the industry, so it is an honor to win for Compass,” said Darlene Pasquill, Head of Americas Equity Division for Mizuho in NYC. “We’ve been talking to clients about Compass for over two years and about the innovative work we’re doing with regards to our use of AI in the trading process. It’s great to see that work validated by the industry.”

Please tell us about AI technology that you use at Mizuho Americas. What’s your approach?

Sam Clapp, Mizuho Americas Electronic Trading Sales, and Don Hundley, Mizuho Head of Japan Electronic Trading, noted: “At a high level, Mizuho uses Deep Learning, which is a type of AI, to gather, analyze, and act upon features and tasks extracted directly from data.  Our models use neural networks to continuously train themselves to understand patterns in the data we provide and then output useful predictions.”

How AI can improve trading performance?

“Given the amount of raw data that is now available in the life cycle of the trading process, utilizing some form of AI to extract and examine indicators most valuable to your model, is important,” said Clapp.

“In Mizuho’s case, we use AI for stock volume prediction. This allows us to a gain a more accurate picture of the anticipated volume in a given stock and then trade in a more timely fashion which ultimately improves performance,” he added.

How by using AI has Mizuho Americas improved operational efficiency and reduced costs?

Hundley and Clapp noted: “Our models process more data in less time. Given the nature of our AI research, and that it continues to learn on its own, elements of the manual work that was needed in the past have been replaced.”

What AI solutions do you offer to external users?

“From an equity trading perspective, our AI research is used extensively within our algorithmic trading platform,” said Hundley.

“Clients that utilize these trading strategies benefit from the research that our team has done and continues to improve on.”