Elsewhere, Kevin Galvin was appointed as a sales trader in Redburn Atlantic’s Boston team. Galvin joined from Cantor Fitzgerald, where he spent the last 19 years. As part of his new role, Galvin will be responsible for growing the region’s high touch business.

Wells Fargo appointed John O’Neil as an equity trader. As part of the role, O’Neil will be based in New York. He joins Wells Fargo from JP Morgan, where he spent the last 17 and a half years. Most recently, O’Neil served as an equity traders at the bank.

XTX Markets appointed Igor Zelenberg to its business development team, where he will focus on building out the firm’s ETF efforts. As part of the role, Zelenberg will be based in New York. Zelenberg brings over 16 years of ETF trading experience to the role, having most recently served at Goldman Sachs. Elsewhere, he held positions at Getco/KCG, HRT and XR Trading.

The post People Moves Monday: Redburn Atlantic, Wells Fargo and XTX Markets appeared first on The TRADE.

Over the last year, the liquidity landscape has continued to develop, with players continually innovating their offerings and growing their teams to better meet client needs.

Among the key players in this competitive landscape, The TRADE has selected Citadel Securities, Optiver, Virtu Financial, and XTX Markets for the 2023 shortlist, following various individual achievements by these businesses over the past year. 

Citadel Securities 

Needing little introduction, Citadel Securities, is one of the largest market makers in US Treasuries and USD interest rate swaps globally, and serves an extensive list of financial institutions, including: banks, asset managers, pension funds, hedge funds, central banks, and sovereign wealth fund. Its focus is to provide investors with the liquidity needed to trade equity and fixed-income products in any market condition.

Over the summer, Citadel Securities entered into the credit sphere amidst technological advancements, offering US investment-grade bond trading to clients as of June. Speaking at the time, head of fixed income ETF trading, Bob Cariste, highlighted that the initial focus for the business was on investment-grade (credit) due to the fact that that is where the greatest overlap exists with Citadel’s existing fixed income business.

The firm is active across more than 55 markets, with $440 billion in trades executed per day. Last August, the business opened its Tokyo office, continuing its global expansion in the region – offering US fixed income products to Japanese institutional investors. The firm’s growing global footprint now includes 15 offices across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific.

Optiver

Optiver has gone from strength to strength in recent years, developing a unique European cash-equity franchise thanks to its expertise in options and ETF market making. Over the last 12 months, the business has grown its client roster, establishing cash-equity trading relationships with various entities including: asset managers, sovereign wealth funds and private banks. Optiver’s approach is to give institutional asset managers access to liquidity from its central risk book.

Optiver’s net trading income in 2022 saw a 42% year-on-year increase, with a total equity of €3.6 billion compared to € 2.8 billion the previous year. Optiver’s market structure team actively monitors developments among exchanges, custodians, industry groups, and policy makers in order to formulate the business’ stances. The firm also regularly publishes whitepapers and shares insights on market structure and regulation, recently sharing insights around: T+1, IFR/D, key options considerations, EU and US policy, and venue functions.

In March, Optiver was the lead investor in the equity funding round for the launch of the MEMX Options exchange. As part of its commitment, the business confirmed it would assume a MEMX board seat, as well as chairmanship of a newly-created Options Market Structure Committee. In September, the electronic market maker selected Philippe Rizzo to join its institutional sales team, with his role focused on cash equity sales in France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland. Rizzo joined from Instinet, where he previously served as a global equity sales trader. The same month, Optiver took a further step in its US expansion plans with the opening of a new Chicago office, an increase of over one-third from the firm’s previous footprint in the city. 

Virtu Financial

Global market maker Virtu Financial has had a stellar performance over the last 12 months with a high number of business updates across various areas as it enhanced its offering aimed at creating more efficient global markets. Virtu’s product suite includes offerings in execution, liquidity sourcing, analytics and broker- neutral, multi-dealer platforms in workflow technology. It operates across Asia Pacific, Canada, EMEA, and the US.

In August, Virtu entered into a strategic alliance with InvestorLink to integrate order management and AI-based matching platform with Virtu’s infrastructure to offer retail investors better access to the primary markets. In June, Virtu upgraded its POSIT Alert block trading capabilities to include automated dark liquidity seeking in a bid to tackle fragmentation in the non-displayed markets. Named Alert+, the solution aims to give traders an increased opportunity to execute any residual and reduce execution risk by sourcing incremental dark liquidity and completing orders more quickly. The upgraded workflow solution allows users to immediately elect to route residual share quantities not filled on POSIT Alert to be executed in the dark via Virtu’s Covert algorithm.

Back in April, the business’ Triton execution management system (EMS), Triton Valor, was integrated with the bookbuilding platform offered by equity markets technology solution, Appital. Named Appital Turquoise BookBuilder, the solution is an algorithmic bookbuilding platform which brings a typically manual and opaque process into an automated, electronic offering. More recently, in September, Triton Valor was integrated by Sumitomo Mitsui Trust AM. Triton Valor supports trading across: Munis, MBSs, global corporate and sovereign bonds, fixed income ETFs, EM debt, futures and CMOs, aiming to allow users to utilise a single dashboard across asset classes. Last March, Virtu added Liquidnet alumnus Leon Mouzourakis to its execution services team in an electronic trading role. 

XTX Markets 

London-based algorithmic market maker XTX Markets continues to impress as its operations develop. The business partners with counterparties, exchanges and e-trading venues globally and provides liquidity in the equity, foreign exchange, fixed income and commodity markets. XTX Markets’ clients range from regional banks to institutional investors – including macro, systematic funds and real money. The business hit record profits of £1.095 billion from its UK entities in 2022, up 64% from the previous year.

Following solid results, the business continues to be at the forefront of making financial markets more efficient for all participants. Its focus is on reducing the cost of trading for clients through its analytical tools and data-driven insights. The quantitative trading firm opened its new office in New York earlier this year, and also has bases in London, Mumbai, Paris, Singapore, and Yerevan.

The team is made up of more than 200 people across the globe, speaking 26 languages. Last October, XTX Markets appointed Zar Amrolia as chair, replacing Niki Beattie who held the position for five years. Amrolia’s appointment came as part of XTX Markets’ leadership transition. The business is focused on growing its equities franchise in the US going forward. In March, XTX Markets appointed Credit Suisse alumnus Charlie Whitlock as head of Americas distribution, leveraging his 25 years of experience in financial markets. Based in XTX’s New York office, Whitlock is responsible for growing XTX’s single dealer platform business in the US.

The post Leaders in Trading 2023: Meet the nominees for… Outstanding Non-Bank Electronic Liquidity Provider appeared first on The TRADE.

Virtu Financial expanded its execution services team with the appointment of Leon Mouzourakis. Mouzourakis joined Virtu Financial from Liquidnet where he spent the last four years, most recently as head of equity platform distribution and execution consulting. Previously at Liquidnet, Mouzourakis served as head of electronic trading distribution, EMEA and prior to that, held a role in algo business development. Before joining Liquidnet, Mouzourakis spent five years at Morgan Stanley, most recently serving in the equities division at Morgan Stanley Electronic Trading. Elsewhere in his career, Mouzourakis held an electronic trading position in Goldman Sachs’ equities division, following serving as a business analyst and junior developer in the firm’s equities technology division.

ION Markets named Bruce Bland as its new head of electronic trading. As part of his new role, Bland will manage the design and development of both the ION Markets global algorithmic suite, as well as its market connectivity solutions. Bland was promoted to the role after initially joining ION Markets in 2019 as head of European product marketing. Following that, he assumed the role of head of equities product marketing in July last year. Before joining ION Markets, Bland spent 22 years at Fidessa Software – before its eventual acquisition by ION – most recently serving as its head of algorithmic research.

XTX Markets appointed Charlie Whitlock as head of Americas distribution, effective from 3 April. Based in XTX’s New York office, Whitlock will be responsible for growing XTX’s single dealer platform business in the US. He brings 25 years of experience in financial markets to the firm, joining from Credit Suisse, where he most recently served as managing director, head of America’s advanced execution services (AES) sales. Prior to that he served at ITG and JP Morgan where he was head of America’s electronic sales. Earlier in his career, Whitlock held a senior algorithmic trading role at Merrill Lynch and an institutional sales position at Bloomberg.

Stone X Group promoted Thomas Friesleben to the new position of managing director to oversee the growth of its Stone X Pro division in EMEA. Friesleben originally joined Stone X in 2021 as in a senior sales position for Stone X global payments. Prior to joining Stone X, he spent several years consulting in the DMCC, UAE with a focus on bespoke treasury and banking solutions for institutional and corporate clients. Before that, he spent two years at Credit Suisse AS Dubai, responsible for ultra high-net-worth individuals (UHNWI) and corporate structured solutions. Friesleben began his career at Deutsche Bank AG, serving in a variety of roles in Germany, Singapore and Dubai, including head of corporate treasury solutions for Middle East and North Africa.

Fixed income investment banking boutique KNG Securities appointed EM specialist Cagri Kutman in a senior fixed income sales position within its credit trading team. Kutman’s appointment comes as part of KNG’s strategy to expand in emerging markets. He joins the firm from Morgan Stanley, where he spent just over 10 years in both London and Istanbul, most recently as senior vice president within cross asset sales. Prior to that, Kutman spent four years at ABN AMRO in Istanbul, working on sales of multi-asset products, where we gained insights into Turkish markets.

The post People Moves Monday: Trading positions appeared first on The TRADE.

Based in XTX’s New York office, Whitlock will be responsible for growing XTX’s single dealer platform business in the US.

He brings 25 years of experience in financial markets to the firm, joining from Credit Suisse, where he most recently served as managing director, head of America’s advanced execution services (AES) sales.

Prior to that he served at ITG and JP Morgan where he was head of America’s electronic sales.

Earlier in his career, Whitlock held a senior algorithmic trading role at Merrill Lynch and an institutional sales position at Bloomberg.

“We’re delighted to welcome Charlie to the team with his extensive experience and industry knowledge. He will be a key part of our drive to further grow our equities franchise in the US,’’ said Eric Swanson, chief executive of XTX Americas at XTX Markets. 

The post XTX Markets appoints Credit Suisse alumnus as head of Americas distribution appeared first on The TRADE.

Citadel Securities

Market-making giant Citadel Securities needs no introduction. It provides liquidity to the market across equities, options, and fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC). A behemoth of a firm, its automated equities platform trades over 20% of US equities volume. It also executes around 35% of all US-listed retail volume. It claims to be the top liquidity provider on major US options exchanges, representing 99% of traded volume. Citadel Securities has a global presence across 15 offices, with its most recent one opened in Tokyo in august. As part of the launch the firm will offer US fixed income services in Japan for the first time.

It has demonstrated ongoing commitment to alternative sources of liquidity through its Immediate-or-Cancel order (IOC) platform, Citadel Connect, a service which it claims is key as managing risk via off-exchange trading becomes more and more important. As one of the fastest growing sources of off-exchange liquidity in the US equities market the platform provides Citadel Securities’ principal liquidity across 8,000 exchange-listed securities. It has also made several strategic investments in the last year including contributing to a $50 million funding round in institutional credit network, Hidden Road Partners in July.

Flow Traders

Launched in 2004, Flow Traders has been providing liquidity in Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) in Europe for nearly two decades. The firm leverages a global presence with eight offices worldwide. It expanded into foreign exchange (FX) and crypto in 2017 and spot precious metals trading in 2021.

The last year has seen significant development by the market maker, proving itself dedicated to investment both internally and externally to support the development of the market. In 2022, this progress has not stopped, boasting the title of the leading liquidity provider for ETFs on and off exchange in EMEA in its second quarter results.

The firm launched single bond market making in corporate credit and emerging markets sovereigns and its single dealer platform at the end of 2021. Within the same period, it became the first market maker to act as a name disclosed liquidity provider for US high yield corporate, Euro-denominated investment grade and high yield, and emerging market sovereign bonds, as well as contribute streaming prices for US high yield corporate bonds, on MarketAxess’ platform. It also joined forces with Neptune Networks to distribute axes on investment grade and high yield corporate credit, and emerging markets sovereign bonds. Earlier this year, it connected its platform with anonymous credit trading pool, Bloomberg Bridge.

Since its expansion into digital assets, Flow Traders has made several strategic moves and investments to support the development of the crypto and DeFi space, not least with its agreeing to contribute data to the Decentralised Finance (DeFi) data network, Pyth, and its joining TP ICAP’s digital assets platform as a market maker. It also made investments in institutional digital asset platform, Elwood Technologies, crypto start up Sei Labs and institutional DeFi platform, Ondo Finance. 

Hudson River Trading

Armed with maths and computer science degrees, the founders of Hudson River Trading launched algorithmically focused equities trading firm, Hudson River Trading, in 2002. It has since growing into a multi-asset business spanning across the globe. The firm operates a single dealer platform that provides access to its principal liquidity in equities and exchange traded funds and US Treasuries.

It has made several strategic investments and development partnerships within the crypto and Decentralised Finance space in a bid to help its development. These include crypto liquidity protocol, Algofi, Bitcoin and crypto SMA platform, Eaglebrook Advisors, crypto exchange FTX, the Pyth Network, crypto information services provider, The Tie, and DeFi platform, Vertex Protocol. It also supports challenger venue to the incumbent US stock exchanges, MIAX.

Hudson River Trading also agreed to become a market maker on TP ICAP’s Digital Assets Spot platform in March ahead of its launch that is expected later this year. “As an active participant in the crypto markets since 2017, we have witnessed a number of major milestones that have helped pave the way for greater institutional adoption of crypto,” said Brad Vopni, head of Digital Assets at Hudson River Trading. “Together, we will provide a new set of investors with the ability to gain access to this rapidly evolving asset class on a familiar institutional-grade platform.”

Jane Street

Quantitative trading firm Jane Street began with domestic and international ETFs. It now prices and trades more than 5,000 ETFs globally and offers liquidity across equities, bonds, and options.

In 2014, Jane Street moved into equites with the launch of JX, its US single dealer platform. The market maker extended into digital assets in 2017, now offering crypto trading around the clock globally. Also in 2017, the market maker launched its EU and UK single dealer platform, JX-EU, which streams liquidity to trading firms in Europe for equities. Its offering was expanded further with the launch of a digital assets single dealer platform launched in 2018, JCX, and its wholesale market making service for US equities launched in 2019 which trades directly with the largest retail brokerages.

It claims to have traded more than $300 billion with clients in the fixed income markets throughout the course of last year, pricing more than 16,000 bonds on all the major electronic platforms and over the counter (OTC).

Looking outwards, Jane Street has played an instrumental role in several market initiatives in recent years in a bid to address issues with market structure including the launch of member-owned challenger US equites exchange, Members Exchange (MEMX), which it joined the board of investors of in 2020. More recently, the firm joined the Pyth network as a data contributor and became a market maker on TP ICAP’s Digital Asset Spot platform at the end of last year.

XTX Markets

London-based algorithmic trading firm XTX markets was founded in 2015 and offers liquidity across equities, FX, fixed income and the commodities markets.

Despite being a fairly new player in the market, the firm has clawed its way to the top of the league tables, achieving a top three liquidity provider ranking for electronic spot and forwards for seven years in a row and according to a survey by Euromoney, this year it became the largest emerging market FX provider. With offices across New York, Mumbai, Paris and Singapore, it handles $295 billion in daily trading volumes across asset classes.

XTX had its strongest year yet in 2021, taking home £667 million in net profits for the year up from £470 million, according to figures published by the Financial Times.

In April, Hans Buehler was appointed as deputy chief executive officer of the firm, effective from July after spending the last 14 years at JP Morgan across various roles including as global head of equities data analytics, automation and optimisation, as well as global head of equities and securities services quantitative research at the investment bank.

The post Leaders in Trading 2022: Meet the nominees for… Outstanding Alternative Liquidity Provider appeared first on The TRADE.

Beattie took on the position in 2018, alongside serving as a member of the firm’s audit committee.

“After five great years on the amazing XTX journey, Friday was my last day as chair of XTX,” said Beattie in a social media post.

“Many thanks to the talented team of very professional staff across the firm for all their help and support during my tenure and also to my fellow board members. Best wishes to my successor, Zar Amrolia, as he steps up to lead the board.”

In addition to taking on the role of chairman, Amrolia will maintain his position as co-CEO of XTX Markets, which he has held since 2015.

Before joining XTX, Amrolia spent 11 and a half years at Deutsche Bank, most recently serving as global head of foreign exchange; co-head of fixed income, currency and commodities (FICC).

Prior to that, he spent four years at Goldman Sachs as partner managing director, co-head of foreign exchange.

Amrolia’s appointment comes as part of XTX Markets’ leadership transition, which saw Hans Buehler appointed as deputy chief executive officer earlier this year.

Buehler joined from JP Morgan, where he served in various leadership positions for close to 14 years. Most recently, Buehler served as global head of equities data analytics, automation and optimisation, as well as global head of equities and securities services quantitative research at the investment bank.

The post XTX Markets appoints new chairman following the completion of Beattie’s five-year term appeared first on The TRADE.

Buehler will join XTX Markets from JP Morgan, where he served in various leadership positions for close to 14 years.

Most recently, Buehler served as global head of equities data analytics, automation and optimisation, as well as global head of equities and securities services quantitative research at the investment bank.

Prior to JP Morgan, Buehler served as global head of equity derivatives quantitative research at Deutsche Bank for seven years.

As part of his appointment, Buehler will further strengthen the senior leadership of XTX Markets.

Current co-CEO of XTX Markets, Zar Amrolia, is set to retire from executive duties at the firm early next year.

“We are delighted to welcome Hans to XTX Markets. He is a strong cultural fit and will bring a wealth of experience to the firm,” said Amrolia.

Speaking on Buehler’s appointment, Alex Gerko, founder and co-CEO of XTX Markets, said: “I am looking forward to working closely with Hans as XTX enters its next phase of growth.”

The post JP Morgan equities specialist to join XTX Markets as deputy CEO appeared first on The TRADE.

The service will be supported via Cboe FX’s electronic communication network (ECN), giving users access to XTX Market’s Execution Algo, which aims to reduce slippage to arrival price.

The exchange said it had been granted exclusive rights to the algorithm for use in the anonymous ECN space with users able to access it either on an anonymous or disclosed basis.

“As the use of algorithms becomes more prevalent in the spot FX market, we couldn’t be more excited to be utilising the expertise of a best-in-class FX market maker,” said Jonathan Weinberg, head of Cboe FX.

“This service will offer greater choice and transparency to Cboe FX’s participants in how they access liquidity as they seek to improve their execution quality, demonstrate best execution and drive automation within their FX operations.”

The service is available for the execution of the most actively traded pairs in the spot FX market including EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD, AUD/USD, USD/CAD, USD/CHF, and USD/CNH.

Initially users will be able to access the algorithm and its transaction cost analysis (TCA) offering via the credit infrastructure available on Cboe FX available through an API in its New York-based matching engine. The exchange added that this could be extended to London depending on customer demand.

The news follows XTX Markets also making its implementation shortfall execution algorithm available via the BidFX hub in July earlier this year with the intention of meeting rising demand for algorithm execution in the FX markets.

Speaking to The TRADE in June, head of Bloomberg’s FX electronic trading platform, Tod Van Name, said algo trading had surged in the last year as participants looked to reduce market impact and achieve best execution.

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London-based market maker XTX Markets has made one of its execution algorithms available on the BidFX hub to meet increased demand for FX algo trading.

The implementation shortfall execution algorithm from XTX, which aims to reduce slippage to arrival price, went live on BidFX last year in an initial targeted client rollout and is now available to all BidFX clients.

“XTX Markets is one of the largest market makers in the world and their expertise in market microstructure and the reduction of signalling and information leakage aligns with our client’s sophisticated requirements in regulatory, functional and execution strategies,” said John McGrath, BidFX chief revenue officer.

The market maker is the latest firm to host its algos on BidFX, following other major institutions such as Commerzbank, State Street, Nomura and RBC Capital Markets. 

The connection between the two entities comes as algo trading as an execution strategy gains popularity with FX traders. 

Head of Bloomberg’s FX electronic trading platform, Tod Van Name, recently told The TRADE that algorithmic trading in FX had seen the most significant uptake in recent years compared to other execution strategies. 

He attributed the uptake to a desire from participants to minimise their market impact and achieve best execution.

Elsewhere, a report from Coalition Greenwich last month predicted that the increased use of algo trading in FX is here to stay with 40% of the respondents to its survey stating they expected to further increase their algo use in the next year. 

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The single dealer platform, named XTX Direct, is built on the same technology as other bilateral trading venues and is aimed at providing institutional market participants with access to better liquidity.

“Although we will continue our advocacy for policies incentivising on-exchange trading, we will also vigorously compete wherever we can provide a superior trading experience for our clients,” said Eric Swanson, chief executive officer of XTX Markets Americas.

XTX said that it had already partnered its XTX Direct platform with several brokers, among them Barclays, that will be able to offer liquidity to users of the platform.

“XTX is a leading provider of liquidity in US equities and we are excited to make their liquidity available to our institutional clients through the BARX suite of algorithms,” said Kevin O’Connor, head of US equities electronic sales at Barclays Plc.

The market marker said it has a proven track record in off-exchange direct access offerings, claiming its systematic internaliser platform is the largest by volume in the European markets.

Earlier this year, research by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) found that trading in venues that the EU has tried to restrict or ban, including dark pools and periodic auctions, could reduce transaction costs as more transparent venues tend to incur higher costs and implementation shortfall.

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