Remember, though, this initiative is about coming up with new ways for BlackRock to conquer electronic trading, not for the senior half of these odd couple pairings to abuse the set-up by pestering their new friend with questions about "the cloud."

BlackRock, which manages $4.6 trillion in assets, has a team of young traders thinking of ways to apply electronic trading to markets where it's not yet prevalent. The program pairs young workers who are more adept at using technology — the firm calls them "medium-experienced" — with more experienced hands who know how to do things the old-fashioned way. Supurna VedBrat, BlackRock's deputy head of trading, says the idea is to bring some new thinking to the table. "Your 25-year-old may come up with a brilliant idea that somebody with 20 years' experience may not come up with just because they've been so attuned to the status quo," said VedBrat, who is also cohead of electronic trading and market structure.

BlackRock is betting on millennials to help fix the market's biggest weakness [BI]