Millennium appointed You Khai Tan as senior trader, based in Singapore. He joined Millennium from UBS, where he spent the last 13 years, based in Hong Kong and Singapore. Most recently, Tan held a global portfolio trading position, which included trading global equities with strategy implementation via algorithms, crossing networks and global portfolio trading desks. Prior to that, Tan held a global markets, APAC cash equities position based in Singapore. Elsewhere in his career, Tan served at Maybank Investment Banking Group in an equity sales trading role.

HSBC appointed Matthew Stanton as managing director, head of equities sales trading for Americas. Stanton joined HSBC from Primary Portal, where he served as a sales consultant. Prior to that, he spent just over seven years at Barclays, most recently serving as managing director, head of cash sales trading, Americas. During his tenure at Barclays, Stanton has also served as head of cash sales trading, EMEA, based in London. Earlier in his career, Stanton spent 18 years at Goldman Sachs in a variety of senior roles based in New York and London. This included equities sales trading positions for both the Americas and EMEA. He initially joined Goldman Sachs as a NYSE floor trader.

Nomura named Hemish Shah head of EMEA flow rates in a bid to strengthen its franchise. Shah has 15 years of industry experience and was most recently head of EGBs, bond derivatives and euro inflation trading at Deutsche Bank. His expertise includes a proven track record of developing trading and risk management strategies. In this new role, he will report to both Richard Volpe, global head of rates, and Nat Tyce, head of global markets EMEA.

US-based block trading start-up OptimX selected a former Virtu buy-side sales specialist to become its new head of institutional sales. Michelle Butler joined OptimX to head up its buy-side business after most recently serving at Virtu for 19 years, managing sales for its POSIT Alert business. Prior to joining Virtu, she spent six years as head of sales and coverage at E-Crossnet – one of Europe’s first peer-to-peer crossing networks.

The post People Moves Monday: SIX Swiss Exchange, Millennium, HSBC and more… appeared first on The TRADE.

Michelle Butler joins OptimX to head up its buy-side business after most recently serving at Virtu for 19 years, managing sales for its POSIT Alert business.

Prior to joining Virtu, she spent six years as head of sales and coverage at E-Crossnet – one of Europe’s first peer to peer crossing networks.

“We are incredibly excited to welcome Michelle to the team,” said Peter McStay, head of EMEA for OptimX. “Her extensive experience delivering liquidity to some of the largest global asset managers will be integral as we launch OptimX’s liquidity management technology across the US and EMEA.”

Aquis Exchange moved to expand its block crossing remit by taking a minority stake in OptimX Markets in August last year.

The deal was completed as part of a consortium which also includes the venture capital arm of Deutsche Boerse Group, DB1 Ventures.

The start up found itself in the headlines once more in November, with news that Liberum was set to connect to its block trading capability in early 2024.

The post OptimX Markets names new head of institutional sales appeared first on The TRADE.

“Our collaboration with Liberum highlights our firm’s commitment to provide distribution from the most innovative sources of institutional liquidity across the European marketplace,” said Peter McStay, head of OptimX EMEA. 

Through this early adoption of the offering, the business is set to leverage the power of the algorithmic management system (AMS).

In addition, Liberum’s new relationship with BMO Capital Markets’ Clearpool – in which Liberum’s new A-PEX algorithm will connect to Clearpool’s AMS – will allow the business to more easily smart order route, with extra configuration abilities, to OptimX.
 
Dom Lowres, head of execution strategy at Liberum, said: “We see clear benefits from entering into intelligent partnerships with the best smart order routing partners, enabling us to route to innovative and growing trading destinations.

“There is a clear appetite for new innovations around the block market in Europe. We will offer a true best-in-class user experience to complement the unique retail resident liquidity and other blocks already resting at mids in T-REX and A-PEX”.

Earlier this year, Aquis Exchange confirmed it was acquiring a minority stake in OptimX Markets in a bid to expand its block crossing remit with the investment having been made as part of a consortium including the venture capital arm of Deutsche Boerse Group.

The post Liberum to connect to OptimX Markets block trading capability appeared first on The TRADE.

A stream of merger and acquisition announcements has become the norm in recent months, as institutions from all corners of the market turn to deals for consolidation and expansion.

This week, the industry’s eyes turned to trading venues as two new M&A announcements were made.

Trading venues, in particular, have viewed consolidation as a method to expand their offerings, allowing them to become a one-stop-shop for their clients.

On Monday 7 August, Aquis Exchange announced plans to expand its block crossing remit with a minority stake in US-based equities block trading start-up OptimX.

The deal was completed as part of a consortium, including DB1 Ventures, the venture capital arm of Deutche Börse Group.

The terms of the acquisition show that the investment has been split into two tranches, payable in cash. The first tranche will see Aquis subscribe $750,000 out of a total first tranche of $3 million.

The second tranche, which is due to take place in a year’s time, will include a further $750,000 out of a total $3 million.

The deal teed Aquis up for its planned expansion into block trading, with plans to add conditional order types in the fourth quarter.

“This has been something in the making for quite a while. It’s part of Aquis’ developed strategy. We added the dark pool last year, then we added the dark lit order sweep. This is the next step, putting conditionals in, because clients want that capability,” Clelland told The TRADE.

Also announced this week was MarketAxess’ plans to acquire multi-asset algorithmic trading provider, Pragma, for an undisclosed sum at the end of this year, subject to closing conditions.

Pragma is an algorithmic trading and analytical services provider across equities, foreign exchange and fixed income. The firm’s clients include asset managers, hedge funds, broker dealers, banks and exchanges.

According to Pragma, its algorithmic trading platform has handled more than $2 trillion of client algorithmic order flow in various asset classes across 50 venues in 2022.

“Our acquisition of Pragma underscores MarketAxess’ commitment to innovating, integrating, and providing our clients with quantitative, AI-powered technology solutions powered by proprietary data designed to simplify and enhance their workflows,” said Chris Concannon, chief executive officer of MarketAxess.

Aquis Exchange and MarketAxess’ M&A agreements revealed this week follow a string of consolidation efforts seen over the last few months.

Read more: Asset manager consolidation wave continues as two deals announced in 24 hours 

Most recently, New York-based prime broker Clear Street announced plans to expand into the futures market with the acquisition of software developer, React Consulting Services, subject to regulatory approval.

React’s proprietary, cloud-native futures clearing platform, BASIS, will be integrated into Clear Street’s existing platform – which currently encompasses cloud-native clearing, settlement, execution and custody. Following the integration, Clear Street’s offering will finance US equities, options, fixed income, and futures.

The integration is set to be phased, beginning with connecting the platform to futures exchanges early next year.

The ongoing flurry of mergers and acquisitions to drive inorganic growth shows no sign of abating, with more announcements expected to be in the pipeline.

The post M&A flurry shows no sign of slowing with two trading venue deals announced this week appeared first on The TRADE.

The deal, announced on Monday 7 August, was completed as part of a consortium which also includes the venture capital arm of Deutsche Boerse Group, DB1 Ventures.

Jonathan Clelland

According to the terms of the acquisition, the investment has been split into two tranches, payable in cash. As part of the first, Aquis will subscribe $750,000 out of a total first tranche of $3 million.

The second tranche in a year’s time will include a further $750,000 out of a total $3 million.

The deal will support Aquis’ expansion into conditional block trading and crossing, with further plans for Aquis to add conditional orders to its markets in the fourth quarter.

Aquis’ chief operating officer, Jonathan Clelland, is expected to join the board of OptimX Markets.

“This has been something in the making for quite a while. It’s part of Aquis’ developed strategy. We added the dark pool last year, then we added the dark lit order sweep. This is the next step, putting conditionals in, because clients want that capability,” Clelland told The TRADE.

OptimX Markets will build out their own platform which is currently equities only and un-regulated.

“Conditionals will be launched by Aquis later this year and that opens up the opportunity of going into the block business,” Clelland added. “Aquis will develop its conditionals alongside its other products and then when OptimX Markets is ready to go live with banks and institutions on blocks, they will work with us as we’re a logical partner in terms of their execution.”

The deal and the expansion into blocks compliments Aquis’ existing dark pool business, the Aquis Matching Pool (AMP). Formerly UBS MTF, Aquis assumed responsibility for its business activities in March 2022. The exchange has since been building on the offering, launching Dark to Lit Sweep functionality Aquis UK and Aquis EU markets in June.

“The investment in OptimX is a significant opportunity for Aquis, adding additional connectivity to our successful dark pool (the Aquis Matching Pool) and providing clients with the ability to cross large blocks,” said Aquis chief executive officer, Alasdair Hayne, in a statement. “This alongside Aquis’s growing functionality will further enhance the range of execution options available to our members.”

The post Aquis Exchange acquires minority stake in US block trading start-up OptimX Markets appeared first on The TRADE.