心理學家協助瑞銀提高研究水平

UBS has used psychologists, data scientists, shipment specialists and pricing experts to overhaul how it generates investment ideas and recommendations for clients.

瑞銀(UBS)聘用心理學家、數據科學家、運輸專家和定價專家，全面改革其爲客戶產生投資主意和建議的方式。

The Swiss bank said the Move — which some investors view with scepticism — had more than doubled readership of its research in the past two years.

這家瑞士銀行表示此舉——遭到部分投資者質疑——在過去兩年已使其研究報告的讀者羣翻了一倍以上。

UBS poached Juan-Luis Perez, global head of research who led the move, from Morgan Stanley in late 2013.

2013年末，瑞銀從摩根士丹利(Morgan Stanley)挖來胡安-路易斯•佩雷斯(Juan-Luis Perez)，讓他擔任瑞銀全球研究主管，負責領導此項努力。

Sprawling City research departments have been going through an existential crisis as banks and brokers prepare to abandon the age-old practice of bundling their research costs with trading fees to satisfy EU rules coming into force in 2018.

在倫敦金融城，各機構龐大的研究部門正在經歷一場生存危機，銀行和券商紛紛準備放棄將研究成本與交易費捆綁在一起的古老做法，以滿足將於2018年生效的歐盟法規。

UK-based banks expect to be held to the same rules regardless of Brexit.

無論英國退歐與否，英國各銀行預計將被要求遵守相同規則。

Investors are under pressure over the fees they charge their own clients and are struggling with low interest rates.

投資者對自己客戶收取的費用正受到壓力，同時他們還要艱難應對低利率。

A drastic reduction is expected in the volume of research they use.

預計他們使用的研究量將大幅降低。

Mr Perez, a 30-year-veteran of sellside research, told the Financial Times that to thrive in the new era researchers had to ask better questions rather than letting themselves off the hook with questions and vague buzz words.

有30年賣方研究經驗的佩雷斯對英國《金融時報》表示，要在新時代蓬勃發展，研究人員必須提出更好的問題，而不是用問題和含糊的時髦詞彙過關。

This is the area where the sellside has to make the biggest investment, and we are not making as much of an investment as we have to, he said.

他說：這是賣方必須做出最大投資的領域，而我們正在做出的投資還不夠。

Mr Perez said he had used psychologists to help analysts think about topics differently and pinpoint more precise and insightful research questions.

佩雷斯表示，他已用心理學家幫助分析師從不同角度思索話題，準確提出更精確、更有見地的研究問題。

Certain words were discouraged, the research chief said, because they were so vague as to be unhelpful.

這位研究主管表示，有些詞彙建議不用，因爲它們如此含混不清，以至於會幫倒忙。

For example, investors could interpret the word risky as a perceived chance of failure of anything between 10 and eightysomething per cent.

例如，投資者可能將有風險這個詞解讀爲失敗機率介於10%到80%以上這個寬泛的區間。

If you are using the word risky all the time, you never learn.

佩雷斯說：如果你一直使用‘有風險’這個詞，你永遠得不到任何收穫。

The interpretation is so broad that you can always take the victory lap, said Mr Perez.

它的解釋是如此寬泛，讓你總是能自稱勝利。

But a greater challenge was to break down the big questions, like ‘what is the future of the bank?’ into testable propositions, he added.

但他同時表示，更大的挑戰是把那些大問題——例如‘這家銀行的未來是什麼？’——拆解成可驗證的命題。

UBS was using a team of specialists in such areas as geospatial analysis, shipments and payments, and data science, said Mr Perez.

佩雷斯表示，瑞銀啓用了一支專家小組，其學科領域涵蓋地理空間分析、運輸和支付，以及數據科學。

Clients could use interactive tools to assess such things as the likely take-up of Apple’s next innovation or future competition on air routes.

他還表示，客戶可以使用交互式工具來評估一些問題，比如蘋果(Apple)下一個創新的可能接受率 ，或者某航線的未來競爭。

Some of the resulting research had a readership that was several multiples of what would normally be expected, he added.

他補充說，部分研究結果的讀者人數達到了通常預期的好幾倍。