Oliveira originally joined BNP Baribas as part of its corporate and institutional banking division in 2017 as deputy head of Hispanic, LATAM CIB. Since joining he has served in a number of roles across FX, commodities, local markets and global credit, rising through the ranks to his most recent role as global co-head of global macro and global credit in 2022. Prior to joining BNP Paribas, he served for almost a decade at Credit Suisse as its co-head of Brazil FID.

Luke Holmes, head of equity sales trading, US clients at Kepler Cheuvreux left the firm after five years, as revealed by The TRADE. Holmes joined Kepler in 2019 having previously served in equity sales trading roles at Sanford C. Bernstein and Goldman Sachs. His next role is unconfirmed.

Cameron Beale, head of sales trading, UK clients at Kepler Cheuvreux has also left the firm for pastures new. Prior to joining Kepler in 2019, Beale spent more than 25 years at JP Morgan, serving as equities sales trader and executive director.  

Janus Henderson Investors appointed Francesca Alesi as a junior equity trader, based in London. Alesi joined the asset manager from GSA Capital, where she spent the last two years. Most recently, Alesi served as an execution trader – a position she held for just over a year. Prior to that, she served as an analyst at the firm.

Liquidnet appointed Amanda Lee Volk as trade coverage/execution consultant for its New York desk. As part of the role, Volk will focus on providing primary account coverage for Liquidnet ATS members, which includes institutional, hedge, quant, multi-strategy and index funds. Volk brings 18 years’ experience to the role from Nomura, with particular expertise in the ATS block and algo trading space.

The post People Moves Monday: BNP Paribas, Kepler Cheuvreux, Janus Henderson and more… appeared first on The TRADE.

As part of the role, Volk will focus on providing primary account coverage for Liquidnet ATS members, which includes institutional, hedge, quant, multi-strategy and index funds.

Volk brings 18 years’ experience to the role from Nomura, with particular expertise in the ATS block and algo trading space.

“Her extensive knowledge and proven track record will enhance Liquidnet’s service offerings, supporting the firm’s commitment to delivering best-in-class service, products, and technology,” said Liquidnet in a statement.

In addition, Volk will provide daily coverage of Liquidnet’s algo offerings and block trading capabilities, supporting institutional asset managers with their trading and liquidity needs.

Her appointment follows that of Jeffrey Crane, who was named head of international for the Americas, as part of the firm’s continued investment in its cross-border business.

Crane joined from SageTrader where he most recently served as managing director and head of sales, overseeing new business growth for domestic and international trading.

The post Liquidnet names new trade coverage and execution consultant for New York desk appeared first on The TRADE.

Speaking to The TRADE, Chris Jackson, global head of equity strategy and head of equities, EMEA, explained: “There’s a number of different pieces that we’re drawing together. We operate in over 50 markets and block trading in equities is our main calling card so to speak. It is a business that we have evolved beyond just block trading, with a set of execution services, including algorithmic trading and high touch.

Balraj Briah

“Clients have been asking us increasingly to take those core values, and the Liquidnet approach, and apply that to helping them simplify the complexity of multi-asset trading so that’s what we’re doing, leveraging our unconflicted model and a technology-driven approach.”

Read more – Building an agile multi-asset business

Balraj Briah has been appointed head of multi-asset services, having most recently served as managing director at BTIG. He has also previously served in sales trading roles at Citi, Nomura, and BNY Mellon. 

“The trading landscape is evolving and so are our members’ needs, that’s why we’re really excited to have Balraj on board. He brings a breadth of experience across multiple asset classes,” Jackson tells The TRADE. 

Alongside Briah, David Cannon joined Liquidnet last month as head of multi-asset execution. He previously spent almost 17 years at Louis Capital Markets, most recently as head of equity trading.

“Dave has a huge amount of experience in the execution space that he has gained over many years on both the buy- and sell-side,” asserts Briah. 

The addition of Briah and Cannon builds on several other new recent hires, including the appointment of multi-asset traders for the desk, with plans also in place for a senior hire in the analytics space – a major focus as part of the multi-asset push, The TRADE understands. 

Briah explained: “Data analytics is becoming more unified and lends itself better to cross-asset trading. This move is really improving traders’ relationships with their portfolio managers, enhancing their ability to act as their ‘eyes and ears’ in the market and overall increasing their trading performance.” 

Across the market the shift towards multi-asset trading has been clear to see, in particular given the advancement of technological capabilities, an increased focus on risk management, and increasing market intricacies. 

Read more – The multi-asset multiverse: Anticipating the trading landscape of the future with Mark Govoni

Speaking to the timeliness of the move, Briah tells The TRADE that a key recent trend he has been observing is the acceleration towards multi asset trading amongst the buy-side.

“I worked for many years at a large asset manager and we had separate dealing desks for each asset class, with each trader then having a very-clearly defined role.[…] This specialism meant there was, in some cases, only one expert in a particular product and, over time, people have started to realise that it isn’t an optimal set-up.

“Traditionally, multi-asset trading desks were more common at hedge funds but larger asset managers are increasingly adopting this model. Where before they didn’t necessarily have the resources to dedicate to different dealers, different desks, over time that has changed, especially as asset classes become more electronic.”

Read more – Fireside Friday with… Liquidnet’s Gareth Exton

Liquidnet’s position as an agency broker is a key factor in how the business conducts itself across asset classes, said Jackson. The business is never competing or has a competing interest with its own trading book and as such has historically placed a high importance on the use of technology to help clients improve trading performance.

As Liquidnet builds out its multi-asset capabilities, the business demonstrably already has an established approach lined up and various pieces of the puzzle in place across the organisation, as well as opportunities for collaboration with the broader group. 

Speaking to what’s front of mind at this stage, Cannon said: “Within multi-asset trading, a key consideration is that each asset class possesses its own unique trading difficulties. We need to bear in mind that there is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to trading different asset classes. 

“It’s really important when we talk about technology and automation that we also look at the role of the trader. I think what makes technology very powerful is bringing it together with the trader’s knowledge and expertise to create Alpha for the desk. At Liquidnet, we’re really well positioned to do that and it’s a really exciting proposition that we hope to be able to offer to our members.” 

Briah adds that key considerations when it comes to hiring on the execution desk is first and foremost ensuring that everything is of highest quality in order to meet the demands of the complex multi-asset space. 

“When we do something at Liquidnet, we do it right and we do it in collaboration with our members. We live and die by the quality of our execution and providing the best price possible in the market.”

The post Liquidnet to launch multi-asset trading desk appeared first on The TRADE.

Ninety One trader Tom Nickalls is set to leave the asset manager after 11 years to join Morgan Stanley. According to an update on social media, Nickalls will join the sell-side next month in an emerging markets credit role. He joined Ninety One in 2013 as a client operations analyst, moving into a portfolio implementation role in 2015 and taking up his current role as fixed income trader in 2018. He was recognised as a Rising Star of Trading and Execution at Leaders in Trading in 2021.

Robert Whelan joined Citadel as equity trader following almost eight years at Pictet Asset Management. Whelan joined Pictet AM as an equity trader back in 2016. Prior to that, he worked at Morgan Stanley, initially joining as an electronic trading associate before going on to a role as equity sales trader. Whelan will act as an execution trader on behalf of the desk and his role is non-risk taking, The TRADE understands.

Lara Jacobs was appointed vice president – equities electronic trading coverage at JP Morgan following six years with Liquidnet. She most recently served as head of international client trading, EMEA. Prior to this, she worked as a market structure and strategy analyst before moving onto a role as equity trader. Before her stint with Liquidnet, London-based Jacobs worked on the debt restructuring team for fixed income at M&G Investments.

Outset Global appointed William Bradley managing director within its London office. Bradley brings considerable experience in the equity sales and trading space to the role, joining from Goldman Sachs where he served as vice president on the cross-asset sales desk in New York. Before joining Goldman Sachs, Bradley served as assistant vice president at Barclays on the equities liquid markets sales trading desk.

Bill Spencer was appointed head of client solutions at MarketAxess following five years at UBS Asset Management, most recently as executive director, multi asset centralised trading. The role is newly created, with Spencer set to hold responsibility for buy-side experience within MarketAxess’ trading system. Whilst at UBS, he worked as a senior trader on the US fixed income desk, as well as working on the daily trading of cash rates, credit, ETFs, and municipal bonds. He also lent his expertise to the trading of credit derivatives and listed futures and options. New-York based Spencer also previously held ETF-related positions at: REX Shares, Gelber Group LLC, and Chicago Trading Company.

Chris Robinson was appointed multi-asset trader at Liquidnet, joining from Louis Capital Markets where he worked for almost 13 years. He most recently served as a EMEA and US equity sales and execution trader. Prior to this he worked in equity derivatives for six and a half years, focused on Eurostoxx and sectoral indices. London-based Robinson has also previously served in a pension execution role at BDO UK LLP.

The post People Moves Monday: Millennium, Morgan Stanley, Citadel and more… appeared first on The TRADE.

He most recently served as a EMEA and US equity sales and execution trader. Prior to this he worked in equity derivatives for six and a half years, focused on Eurostoxx and sectoral indices.

London-based Robinson has also previously served in a pension execution role at BDO UK LLP.

He announced his new position in a social media post.

Read more – The multi-asset multiverse: Anticipating the trading landscape of the future with Mark Govoni

Earlier this week, Liquidnet’s head of international client trading, EMEA, Lara Jacobs announced she was leaving the firm after six years to take up a new position as vice president – equities electronic trading coverage at JP Morgan.

The post Louis Capital Markets trader joins Liquidnet appeared first on The TRADE.

To start, it is interesting to look at the transition of market conditions from 2022 to today. In 2022, the market saw the highest sustained real price volatility since the Great Financial Crises. This alone was enough to make institutional asset managers wary of making moves. The situation was exacerbated by historically high levels of correlations, which made the selection of fundamental winners and losers very unappealing. Non-traditional volume sources such as passive indexing, high-frequency trading, non-bank market making, and quantitative trading were gaining market share over institutional asset managers. The subsequent lack of continuous institutional volumes contributed to an unhealthy market backdrop in terms of liquidity, efficiency, and attractiveness, as evidenced by the highest levels of cash raises in over 20 years within the fund manager segment. 

In 2023, market conditions showed signs of improvement in terms of correlations and real price volatility. However, macroeconomic uncertainty, particularly due to historic inflationary pressures and rising yields, kept traditional asset managers cautious. Despite this, the groundwork for improved trading conditions was being quietly laid. All that was needed was some macro clarity.

As we move through 2024, macroeconomic volatility remains high, but there has been a sharp shift in sentiment indicators such as overall bullishness, recession fears, the disinflation narrative, growth expectations, and peaking interest rates. Correlations are approaching historically low levels, indicating rising risk but also presenting an attractive backdrop for asset managers. With increased macroeconomic clarity and sustained low real volatility, traditional asset managers have re-entered the market to a considerable degree, creating the healthiest trading conditions seen in five years.

Is the industry set to see a shift away from passive investing, high-frequency trading, and retail investors (strategies which have recently been dominant)?

We don’t see a shift away from passive investing. If the job market remains tight, which it has, and supports the soft landing narrative that boosts equity performance, this ensures a constant passive bid in the marketplace. Employers’ shift from pension-based retirement plans to 401(k)s means a steady influx of passive funds into the market.

High-frequency trading and traditional electronic market making will ebb and flow with market conditions, while retail investment will follow equity performance accordingly. These avenues are here to stay, but when conditions favor institutional asset managers, their larger share of overall volume enhances market liquidity and efficiency.

How has this shift affected market dynamics and overall stability?

The return of continuous institutional volumes, not seen with such consistency since before Covid-19, brings healthier liquidity to the marketplace. This translates to better depth of book, the ability to trade in size, lower expected impact costs, and more attractive contra. Traditional buy-side firms prefer trading with their counterparts, and improved confidence, as seen in 2024, creates a snowball effect that brings a level of health and normalcy to market conditions.

What impact are forthcoming regulations expected to have on this uptick of traditional asset managers?

The SEC’s market structure overhaul proposal presents some troubling components for institutional investors. The cap on access fees could dent the margins of single dealer platform/wholesaler participation in the marketplace. Retail participation, a significant change induced by Covid-19, appears to be secular rather than cyclical. While retail volume tends to rise when equities perform well, the presence of the retail player is something that is here to stay. Should access fees become prohibitively high for wholesalers, their disappearance could severely impact the quality of trading that retail participants currently enjoy, including zero commission trading, unlimited size, and totally accessible markets.

The proposed tick size adjustment could have harsh consequences for large institutional money managers attempting to move large blocks of stock. It will become more difficult to find real liquidity at a price point, with concerns around quote fragmentation, volatility, sub-penny quote jumping, flickering quotes, and increased messaging traffic further complicating the trading landscape.

The post Fireside Friday with… Liquidnet’s Jeff O’Connor appeared first on The TRADE.

Yichuan Zhang

This technological enhancement to Liquidnet’s fixed income primary markets workflow specifically allows Liquidnet to receive, process, and display newly announced bond deals at a significantly faster rate.

Speaking about the collaboration, Mark Russell, head of fixed income strategy at Liquidnet, said: “We’ve always been big proponents of interoperability and integrated solutions to bring true efficiency to bond primary markets. Our partnership with Boltzbit is a reflection of that strategy. Rather than rely on traditional Management Information reports, Boltzbit delivered a solution which allows us to interrogate the data via natural language queries, supported by dynamic reports.”

The technological enhancement speeds up the time between users receiving unstructured deal data and the bonds being ready by 90%, according to Liquidnet.

Read more: Fireside Friday with… Liquidnet’s Gareth Exton

Yichuan Zhang, chief executive and co-founder at Boltzbit, asserted that bond primary markets remains one key area where technological developments are most needed.

He added: “We see GenAI as the next wave of technological innovation for financial services, with significant potential for productivity gains and the creation of new products and services. We believe firms who get ahead of this trend will reap the rewards.”

The post Liquidnet enhances bond deal speed through incorporation of Boltzbit’s AI solution appeared first on The TRADE.

Edward Tilly was named president at Clear Street, 10 months after he resigned as chief executive of Cboe. In the role, Tilly is set to work closely with Chris Pento, CEO of Clear Street, jointly leading the firm through the next phase of growth. Tilly resigned as chief executive of Cboe in September 2023 following the conclusion of an investigation – launched in August – that determined he had failed to disclose personal relationships with colleagues. During his time at Cboe, Tilly was a driving force behind Cboe’s acquisition of BATS Global Markets in 2017, as well as overseeing the launch of products including 0DTE options.

Flavio Paparella was named managing director within BTIG’s global emerging markets fixed income group, joining from Seaport Global Holdings where he also served as a MD focused on LATAM fixed income. In the new role, Paparella will be based in New York and is set to focus on Latin American markets, as the firm seeks to expand its presence in the area. He will report directly to Stuart Kasdin and Pablo Melasecca, co-heads of Latin America and EMEA credit emerging markets. Previously in his career, Paparella ran the institutional structured products Latin America desk for RBC Capital Markets. He also previously served as managing director at both American Express Bank International and Deutsche Bank, Argentina.

Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management appointed Regine Wiedmann as head of distribution for the DACH region. Wiedmann brings more than 18 years of experience in asset management and sales in the German-speaking markets. She initially joined Edmond de Rothschild AM in June 2021 as co-head of sales Germany and Austria, later being promoted to head of sales Germany and Austria in January 2022. Before joining Edmond de Rothschild, Wiedmann served as an executive director at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, responsible for wholesale clients in Germany. Before that, she co-founded Vicenda Asset Management in Zug, Switzerland. Elsewhere, Wiedmann was head of marketing and key account manager at the investment boutique Tiberius Asset Management, also based in Zug, Switzerland.

NatWest Group named Jonathan Peberdy chief executive of NatWest Markets, following 11 months as deputy CEO. The appointment is subject to regulatory approval. Peberdy has been with the business for 25 years and has previously served as head of capital markets. He succeeds Robert Begbie, chief executive, commercial and institutional. NatWest Markets confirmed that Robert Begbie would assume the role of chief executive permanently back in June 2020, having led the business on an interim basis since December 2019. At the time, his appointment was a key feature of the first major leadership restructure by Alison Rose, the chief executive of RBS.

GLMX appointed David Nicol as head of commercial operations. Nicol was promoted to the role after initially joining GLMX as a consultant in December last year. Previously, Nicol served as chief executive and co-founder of corporate bond trading ecosystem LedgerEdge. Before serving at LedgerEdge, Nicol spent nearly two and a half years at R3, most recently serving as a product manager. This followed a five-year stint at IBM, where he also served as a product manager.

Liquidnet appointed Jeffrey Crane head of international for the Americas, as part of the firm’s continued investment in its cross-border business. Crane brings more than two decades of experience in institutional equity trading to the role. He joins from SageTrader where he most recently served as managing director and head of sales, overseeing new business growth for domestic and international trading. Before that, Crane spent more than 20 years with Instinet where he held various positions, including managing the firm’s cross-border business as head of the international desk in New York.

Honor Woods was appointed equity trader at RBC BlueBay Asset Management, based in London. Woods has previous experience working in the institutional equity trading team at AB Bernstein.

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Crane brings more than two decades of experience in institutional equity trading to the role.

He joins from SageTrader where he most recently served as managing director and head of sales, overseeing new business growth for domestic and international trading.

Before that, Crane spent more than 20 years with Instinet where he held various positions, including managing the firm’s cross-border business as head of the international desk in New York.

Crane will report directly to Alan Polo, head of equity sales and trading, Americas at Liquidnet.

“As we continue to grow our international cross-border trading offering, I am particularly excited to draw upon Jeffrey’s extensive expertise and insight,” said Polo.

“His deep understanding of the global trading landscape and his proven track record in managing complex trading operations will be invaluable as we enhance our services and expand our market presence.”

Read more: Liquidnet to imminently roll out derivatives predicted volume curve and sweep price analytics

As part of his new role, New York-based Crane will support Liquidnet’s international cross-border team, assisting members wanting to trade international markets live through low-touch and block trading capabilities, or hand-off overnight orders to its global execution desks.

Speaking to his appointment, Crane said: “Liquidnet is uniquely positioned to offer this type of service. With its global footprint, expertise in block trading, agency model and a 20+ year track record in delivering innovative trading solutions, we have all the necessary ingredients to offer buy-side traders the ability to trade anywhere in the world.

“I look forward to working with the team at Liquidnet to further enhance our international trading capabilities and deliver exceptional value to our clients.”

In 2023 Liquidnet’s cross border team facilitated nearly $100 billion in notional traded across the Americas, EMEA and APAC.

The firm has also expanded its geographical coverage to provide direct access to MENA countries, increasing its total number of global equity markets covered to 57.

The post Liquidnet names new head of international for the Americas appeared first on The TRADE.

Mike du Plessis (left), Darren Smith (right)

Aimed at supporting buy-side traders with their derivatives flow by creating an ecosystem of information all in one place, the analytics suite is being rolled out in three phases.

Already brought to market, phase one includes volume and liquidity information. Traders can access the user face via GUI or API.

“Liquidity or the quality of conditions can change day-to-day and even intraday depending on what’s happening,” says Darren Smith, head of listed derivatives EQS at Liquidnet.

“By consuming our data from the API, you have a relatively sophisticated metric that can power automation and combine market touch liquidity and volume run rates etc.” 

Read more – Liquidnet launches new futures rolls negotiation tool

The rollouts are aimed at supporting the buy-side as TCA becomes more real time and prevalent in the execution decision, as seen in the equites markets. In particular, the suite can be used when selecting what execution method to use, be it on-exchange, request for quote (RFQ) or using an algo.

“The pre trade analytics are a very useful means by which clients can assess the quality of a block price,” the global head of listed derivatives at Liquidnet, Mike du Plessis, tells The TRADE.   

“Having submitted an RFQ, they can choose not to trade on block and actually aggress the order book directly if that seems to be a better option at the point of trade. You then start think about TCA a little bit differently. It’s not so much that post-trade piece but more of a point of trade process as well.” 

Phase two

Phase two set to be rolled out in the coming weeks will be focused on predicted volume curves and sweep prices, Smith explains.

“One of the most frequent questions we get asked by traders with large orders is “how long is it going to take me to do X thousand lots in Y obscure product,” he says.  

“We were able to calculate where projected liquidity is going throughout the day as it evolves and then present that relatively scientifically. There’s an advantage in putting all that information in one place. It’s very difficult for traders now to get all that information quickly from the number of screens they would have to go to. There are different calculations you would have to do, collate it all and put in one place and by that time the markets moved.” 

Phase three is set to cover hidden liquidity, something that the pair confirm has been at the forefront of their minds for the last few months.

“There can be far more liquidity available than there seems on screen. It is really difficult to measure because by its very nature it’s hidden so we’re working through some ideas of how you proxy for it,” says Smith.

“For example, touch liquidity may look awful but if you aggress the market you get size done. In the immediate aftermath of SVB last spring, touch liquidity just disappeared. There was nothing there but as soon as you were participating in the market you were getting filled and able to get size done.” 

High frequency

The roll outs fit into a much wider ongoing story taking place in the markets. Given the reduced balance sheet offered by banks paired with the proliferation of higher frequency and electronic firms, Smith and du Plessis confirm that the buy-side need better tools to help them to compete and achieve their outcomes.

By offering asset managers and other non-high frequency firms enhanced data capabilities in one place, it allows them to execute in the market more freely without being run over.

Exchanges generally notify firms who have a resting order that has been filled, first. Given the high frequency industry’s preference to face algos that slice orders up into smaller chunks, it’s usually these firms that find out first when an order has been filled. While these may only be small lots, that’s valuable information.

“If you are a super large high frequency trading hedge fund or CTA etc you’ve certainly got access to all this market data but if you are even a relatively large asset manager you don’t necessarily have the resources to build a suite of analytics like that,” says Smith. 

Elsewhere, speaking to The TRADE, du Plessis adds: “It’s really important context to think about the fact that the pendulum has swung so far from the providers of brute force balance sheet liquidity i.e. banks in the 90s and early 2000s towards participants who, by design, use limited balance sheet but with a much higher velocity of hedging. It’s interesting that many of those faster houses lobby in such a way as to promote top-of-book trading (a space that they continuously occupy) in order to support the lower balance sheet model.

“End users necessarily slice up orders in an attempt to minimise market impact – invariably that process comes at a cost to the liquidity seeker of information leakage over time. The low-balance sheet participant is both informed and able to hedge the small pieces of business on a continuous basis rather than deal with the big chunk at the outset. Again, we are trying to help the buy-side confound that predictability and switch seamlessly between execution “modes” which will help ensure they are paying the right amount of spread in a given liquidity state.”

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