To highlight the important work and impressive achievements of women in financial services, the STA Women in Finance Committee is pleased to highlight women from all areas of the industry who aim to inspire the next generation of women in finance.
For this edition, we’re highlighting the career of Patricia Koetzner, Managing Director, Equity Sales and Trading at Siebert Williams Shank & Co, a boutique broker dealer founded in 1997. She focuses on driving firm growth by enhancing and expanding the firm’s institutional equity trading relationships and facilitating equity trading for the firm’s corporate clients. Her trading functions include traditional long/short sales trading coverage, implementation of algorithmic strategies, share repurchases, and program trading.
Patricia has served in various capacities in the securities industry for over 25 years, including serving as Vice President at Barclays Capital for seven years where she covered cash accounts and repurchased shares for corporations, before becoming a member of its electronic trading group. For the first decade of her career, she was a NASDAQ market maker for firms including Neuberger Berman, Gruntal and Dominick & Dominick. Patricia earned her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Maine.
Why did you choose a career in the financial services industry? How did you get started?
As a public administration major in college, my plan was to attend law school to become an attorney or serve in public office. However, during spring break of my senior year in college, I had an opportunity to spend time on a trading desk and was impressed by the energy and excitement of the desk. So, I decided that I would become a stockbroker and take my licensing exam. However, after first working at a small broker on Long Island then at Oppenheimer in NYC, I decided that the “smiling and dialing” route was not for me. Eventually, I found my way to a syndicate desk at Dominick & Dominick, one of the oldest investment banks at the time. One morning due to a massive snowstorm, the firm’s Nasdaq trading desk was shorthanded so the firm’s president asked if I would mind helping because I was fully licensed.
It was that moment that changed the course of my career path. I was overwhelmed at the beginning but by market close, I was starting to get a good handle on what was going on and I had never been so engaged and excited about something outside of sports in my entire life. That afternoon while I was packing up to leave, the firm’s president called me in and offered me a position on the trading desk. I have never looked back and have been a trader ever since.
How has the industry changed in the time that you have been part of it?
I have witnessed many changes over the last 30 years, from decimalization, penny spreads, reg NMS, electronic access, algorithms, dark pools, thousands of people on the floor of the NYSE, numerous Nasdaq traders upstairs at various firms, and the list goes on. Your ears and mouth would hurt from talking on the phone all day with traders and clients to receiving orders now electronically or via Bloomberg IBs. The world has changed now, trading floors are quieter and there are less phone calls. However, the relationship side of this business is still alive and even more important. Having the old school approach to business has served me well and continues to do so.
What are you most proud of in your career and why?
The day I became the President of STANY was one the biggest highlights of my career because it is an organization of my peers that has meant so much to me personally and professionally. I joined STANY the year I joined the Nasdaq trading desk at Dominick & Dominick in 1995 and have been an active member ever since. The friends and contacts I have made throughout my career have helped me to have longevity in this industry.
How has working at a small broker dealer shaped your career?
The benefit of working at a firm of roughly 150 people is the much broader scope of my responsibilities and the impact I can individually have on the overall performance of our team. I perform multiple trading functions and cover a broad array of clients. I provide execution services for many of our firm’s key large and small asset managers. I have the opportunity to meet with treasury teams of Fortune 100 to Russell 2000 corporations to discuss our share repurchase capabilities, where I offer solutions that compete directly against bulge bracket firms on performance. I am frequently tasked with representing the firm and our trading desk. I am driven to help our clients be successful and help our desk “punch above its weight”.
Do you have any words of wisdom for the next generation of women in finance?
The one piece of advice that I would share to the next generation of both women and men in this industry is to constantly add to your skillset and never stop learning. For me that has meant many things. First, taking my background trading on a principal basis and pivoting to trade directly for clients in an agency capacity. Next, embracing and understanding electronic trading capabilities and algorithms to trade more efficiently for multiple clients. Then, adding more FINRA licenses so that I could hedge programs with futures, a skill needed at a prior firm, to eventually trading directly for corporations, a skill I have used at several firms including my current firm. Always continue to ask questions and keep learning. I heard someone recently say that everyone should try to excel at something that makes them a true specialist in that skill – for me that area is share repurchase for corporations, for someone else, it might be market structure. Find that one area and own it – make yourself invaluable.
Networking and getting involved in industry organizations is essential. Join your local STA affiliate and connect with others outside your firm. Find time for charitable organizations and get involved, the dedication of time means so much to others and makes you a better person as well.
Finally, mentor and give back to younger professionals. I am forever grateful to those who took me under their wing at events and encouraged me to get involved. Additionally, continue to pay it forward with others that are looking for new opportunities. There is no better feeling than helping someone with gain a new role or their first one.