Ever since Christopher Columbus traversed the Atlantic in 1492 and discovered America, we have known that the world is not flat. But the ripples of that discovery still are being felt.

In fact, only in recent history has the globalization phenomenon hit asset managers on Wall Street. No longer content to fill its portfolios with U.S. investments, the buy side has migrated into international waters, tapping into markets from South Africa to Singapore.

Yet, even as foreign markets open up to U.S. traders, the time differences remain the same, creating sleepless nights for many investment managers trying to get a piece of those overseas riches. And even with all of the technology afforded to them, nothing can diminish the thousands of miles that separate a trader in New York from his market on the other side of the world.

To close that gap, some buy-side firms have opted to take incisive measures, sending their own traders to the exotic locales in which they trade. The task is no small undertaking - everything from personnel to technology to business processes must be accounted for - but for some investment managers, the risk is worth the return.

"There are plenty of buy-side firms making a lot of decisions on buying different assets overseas from the U.S.," says Brad Bailey, a senior analyst with Aite Group, a Boston-based consultancy. "But when you open in different time zones and markets, and get color and information from that locale, you're looking at tremendous advantages."

AXA Rosenberg, an Orinda, Calif.-based investment manager with more than $100 billion in assets under management, recognized those advantages early on. "We always felt there was a lot to be gained from international diversification," explains Agustin Sevilla, AXA Rosenberg's Europe chief investment officer. "We believe it provides us with an element of stability."

Trading from a singular location was never an option, adds Mick Holman, AXA Rosenberg's head of global trading. "If you have one group in one office, there is a lot of local connection that you miss. By living in a zonal area, you have more background knowledge on what you're trading. The guys are actually living the market."

To accommodate that theory, which has been top of mind from the beginning stages of the 20-year-old firm's history, AXA Rosenberg built a proprietary technology system used by its 11 international traders on four desks in various locations throughout the world. "The investment process is centralized," explains Sevilla. "We have a model-based process that recommends buys and sells, and we rely on that model 100 percent. Traders match the model's demand for liquidity with the supply of their market."

A single research team, stationed at the firm's headquarters in Orinda, is responsible for dispersing data to update the model, which generates recommendations for each trading team. The model then is updated during the overnight of each trading zone.

The process is highly automated. Last year, Holman notes, AXA Rosenberg conducted $145 billion worth of trades with just 11 traders. "We only want individuals working on interesting things," he says. "We try to program away most of the things that other firms throw people at."

With such a high degree of automation, one might question whether traders were needed on the ground at all. But, points out Sevilla, the model doesn't take liquidity into account. "The model offers recommendations, not instructions," he says. "It's up to the trading teams to decide how and if to execute."

The knowledge that one needs to execute a specific trade, particularly if it involves a local company, can be difficult to obtain without direct exposure, Holman adds. Additionally, he continues, "If you're not looking to open local offices, you're not likely to get the local clients."

Local business was exactly what prompted Franklin Templeton Investments, a San Mateo, Calif.-based firm with $504 billion in assets under management, to explore international trading. As the firm and its business expanded, it was evident that opportunity could be found overseas. In addition to opportunity, international investments offered some semblance of portfolio balance. "The investment side led the process," relates Madison (Mat) Gulley, the firm's executive vice president, head of global trading.

The firm jumped into international trading with seven traders working during U.S. hours in an office in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. But Franklin Templeton quickly realized that, "There was efficiency that could be gained by trading real hours," says Gulley.

However, "You really need scale to trade from the U.S. during off hours," Gulley continues. "It's not effective to have just one person trade off hours - there's no teamwork, a limited talent pool and, of course, it's not a great lifestyle. We ended up working abbreviated hours while still trying to support a global infrastructure and explore trading efficiencies and initiatives."

Finally, in 2000, the firm moved traders to Asia, where Franklin Templeton already had an office housing other company functions. "It was hugely successful right off the bat," says Gulley of the trading experiment. "All of a sudden you could undertake initiatives that would enhance value, and you never saw that on a night desk."

Since then, the firm has exported the model to 12 trading desks in eight countries, with a total of nearly 50 traders staffing those desks. Gulley admits the process was timely, difficult and expensive, though. "It's definitely not for everyone," he says. "You need to have scale to support the infrastructure."