As one of the most anticipated awards of the year, the recognition is designed to celebrate those individuals who have made a significant impact on their own organisation and, equally, the industry externally, with a commitment to bettering and future proofing the markets for years to come. 

Shortlisted individuals are repeated contributors to discussion whether that be through panels, associations or schemes to support the next generation joining the financial services industry. 

Last year, Goldman Sachs’ chief operating officer for EMEA equity execution services Eleanor Beasley took home the Industry Person of the Year Award in a landslide victory. 

The winner will be decided by a live industry vote at The TRADE’s Leaders in Trading gala awards night on 7 November at The Savoy. Congratulations to this year’s shortlisted nominees! 

Industry Person of the Year 2024 shortlist: 

James Baugh, managing director, head of European market structure, TD Cowen

James Baugh is an industry stalwart, having worked in the financial markets for over 25 years. Over the course of his career, Baugh has become renowned as a trusted partner to clients and for leading positive change in the European equities marketplace. He is an active participant in discussions on key topics impacting the industry. His team provides opinions and insights into shifting regulation and market structure, illustrating how these changes directly affect day-to-day business. 

Baugh currently serves as managing director, head of European market structure at TD Cowen; a position he has held since August 2021. Since joining the firm, Baugh has been a key driving force behind the growth of the firm’s European agency equities execution business. He has also helped shape the firm’s liquidity strategy by guiding clients through the complexities of European equity markets.  

Before joining TD Cowen, Baugh spent five years at Citi as European head of market structure. This followed 11 years at London Stock Exchange as head of equity sales, where he led initiatives like Turquoise Plato Block Discovery.  

A graduate of Newcastle University, Baugh began his career as a commodity analyst before taking on various roles at Dow Jones, including managing their European power index business. 

During the span of his career, Baugh has also represented several top financial organisations both across various industry forums including AFME, Q15 and Sustainable Trading, and on the board of Turquoise as a non-executive director.

Kate Finlayson, managing director, FICC market structure and liquidity strategy, JP Morgan

Kate Finlayson has considerable experience in financial markets, boasting a 25-year career that spans equities, fixed income, currencies and commodities.  

She currently serves as global head of FICC market structure and liquidity strategy at JP Morgan, having joined the firm in 2017. As part of her role, Finlayson has helped establish the FICC market structure function at JP Morgan, which she has developed into a global business with an extensive scope and reach.  

Before joining JP Morgan, Finlayson spent 14 years at UBS, holding a variety of senior positions including her most recent stint as head of market structure and liquidity strategy. Prior to UBS, Finlayson worked at Goldman Sachs in equity capital markets and prime brokerage.  

At JP Morgan, Finlayson engages with clients on the impact of market structural developments and drivers of change. Finlayson and her team also provide critical insights on emerging execution trends, microstructural dynamics and policy initiatives shaping liquidity across global markets. Widely considered to be a thought leader in the industry and a market structure expert, her insights are increasingly in demand. 

Alongside her role at JP Morgan, Finlayson is a trustee on the board of directors for JP Morgan Chase Pension Plan Trustee Limited. She also has external roles on industry advisory committees, including the UK FCA’s Secondary Markets Advisory Committee as well as the EMEA and US Quorum 15 Fixed Income advisory boards.

Bianca Gould, head of equities and fixed income EMEA, markets, BNY

Bianca Gould has extensive experience spanning 20 years in the industry, holding several senior roles throughout her tenure. She is particularly dedicated to supporting junior talent across the market.  

Currently, she is head of fixed income and equities EMEA within the BNY Global Markets Trading division and also sits on the executive committee for Pershing Limited. 

As part of her role, Gould is also responsible for expanding BNY’s execution footprint across EMEA.  A critical part of this strategy includes the recent launch of the firm’s new EU desk, based in Dublin Ireland. The aim is to deliver integrated execution serviced to its clients and facilitate more efficient trading for EU-based clients across both fixed income and equity markets globally.

Prior to joining BNY, she was the co-head of equities electronic sales and trading EMEA for RBC Capital Markets. Before that, she worked at Redburn for 15 years, having made partner in 2009 and remained the youngest partner appointed to date until the removal of the programme after her departure.   

In recent times, Gould has taken part in the Moonwalk initiative – walking a marathon during the night – to raise money for Breast Cancer, a charity close to her heart.

Stéphane Malrait, managing director and global head of market structure and innovation for financial markets, ING Bank

Stéphane Malrait is a market structure oracle. As a familiar face at some of the most important industry events, he works closely with advocacy groups, policy makers and regulators to make real change across financial markets.

Malrait works tirelessly to drive positive change in trading and market structure in the capital market space, understanding the important role of continued technological developments. At present he is working on the implementation of financial regulations that will impact the clients trading activity and transform how trading floors operate.  

Currently he serves as managing director and global head of market structure and innovation for financial markets at ING Bank, leading the financial market innovation strategies within the firm and contributing to industry working groups as a representative of the bank.

Before joining ING in 2015, Malrait spent eight years at Société Générale, most recently working as global head of FIC eCommerce. He also previously worked at JP Morgan Chase for ten years, serving in different roles in global FX eCommerce business management and cross-asset eCommerce technology, based in London and New York.

Since 2005, he has been an active member of the ACI Financial Market Association and is also a key part of the ECB FX contact group and a board member of ICMA.

Simon McQuoid-Mason, head of equity product and quant research, SIX Swiss Exchange

Simon McQuoid-Mason is a consistent thought leader across the trading landscape, continually unpacking the latest industry trends and sharing key insight on industry panels, important forums, and via insightful interviews.

McQuoid-Mason is currently head of equity product and quant research at SIX Swiss Exchange, having joined in 2020 as head of equity product for UK and Ireland. In his role, he is responsible for driving the evolution of SIX’s equity markets offering, including SwissAtMid and is also the lead author of SIX’s Trading InfoSnack series, a thought-provoking analytics series on market micro-structure and trading dynamics.   

He also serves as the current non-executive chair of the assets for the Te Aupōuri iwi, a Māori tribe from the far north of New Zealand, from who he descends. 

In addition, his past roles include stints at Bank of Queensland, the London Stock Exchange, Morgan Stanley and Emerge Capital Partners.   

A proponent of a pragmatic approach to the various trading areas, McQuoid-Mason consistently advocates for a rethink in terms of how key industry challenges are addressed, with a particular focus on ensuring policy makers and the wider public understand the benefits of thriving equity markets and overall reducing market complexity.

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Double volume caps (DVCs) were deleted as of 28 March in the original Mifir text published in January. However, the previous text only authorised the enforcement of the SVC [single volume cap] in 18 months’ time – leaving an unintentional window with no caps thanks to the clerical error. Brussels subsequently began exploring possible ways to close the loophole in the new share trading rules. In the last days of March, the European Commission subsequently rushed through a last-minute draft revision to its Mifir text to plug the loophole, keeping the DVCs in place until the implementation of the new single volume cap.

The regulator’s mistake and subsequent decision to fix it has re-sparked an existing discussion around why watchdogs are focusing their attentions on micro changes to regimes and not on the wider issue around low volumes in Europe – especially when the result has little to no impact on the markets. 

Dark trading became the poster child of post-Brexit regulatory discussion in the UK and Europe, with the Bloc championing lit transparent trading throughout. The DVCs regime included in the January Mifir text had followed more than six years of deliberation over the desired cap on dark trading in the Bloc, with the European Commission and Parliament finally settling on the deletion of the 4% and 8% caps in favour of a single cap of 7%. 

“In my opinion, the last-minute decision [in March] wasn’t a surprise as it’s been clear from the beginning of Mifid II that politicians and regulators across Europe are committed to the DVC mechanism,” Evan Canwell, equity trader and market structure analyst at T. Rowe Price, tells The TRADE.

An unintended experiment 

Without the clarification, ESMA had the opportunity to stop enforcing DVCs until Q4 of next year. Had the last-minute changes to the text not come through, Europe would have found itself taking part in an unintended experiment to test how far dark trading could go if left uncapped. 

“While I think it’s unlikely that ESMA had ever planned to stop enforcing the DVC mechanism during this period, it would have been a fascinating opportunity to observe the shift in market dynamics without any artificial constraints on dark trading,” adds Canwell. “This would also have allowed market participants and regulators to engage in discussions on both the optimal thresholds and the appropriateness of any future dark caps, in a fully data-driven manner.”

Following reports of the loophole in early March, participants and venues in some cases had begun to put in place contingency plans should dark trading be left uncapped. Those most vocal against the use of dark caps during the European regulatory discussions came from the buy- and sell-side, with many suggesting the new single cap of 7% was arbitrary and querying how the watchdog had reached this conclusion. Many were therefore keeping close tabs on the saga in March, watching the events unfold in the hope that what they considered an unnecessarily complex detail might not come to fruition.

“There was a genuine hope that there could be an opportunity for those caps to be repealed. I suppose intuitively you would expect a certain level of disappointment on a number of levels,” says James Baugh, head of European market structure at TD Cowen. “One is that we found ourselves in this position, but also perhaps that there wasn’t a willingness to use it as an opportunity, to provide that chance to see what would happen without the caps in place.

“If this was a mistake in the drafting, it would clearly take some courage to roll the dice to see what would happen if the caps were lifted for that interim period.”

The reality is that other regions where dark trading has been left uncapped have not seen the segment grow out of control. In fact, the US, which doesn’t enforce caps, and the UK, which ditched caps post-Brexit, have both seen dark trading reach a certain level and then plateau. In the UK, dark trading has peaked at around 13% of monthly traded volumes on exchange since removing its caps. Meanwhile in Europe, stocks are rarely close to the DVC thresholds. 

“When we look at the double volume cap regime, it’s not like we’re seeing those European markets buffer at those levels,” adds Baugh. “It’s not like dark trading has got to those levels and therefore, it’s constrained at those levels. That’s not the case at all. If anything, the data would show you that it’s trading a couple of percentage points below those current levels.”

The market has evolved towards other forms of execution in light of the caps on dark trading, meaning a significant shift to dark venues is more than unlikely. 

“There are a large number of well-established alternative venues (such as periodic auctions) which allow for trading in a ‘dark-like’ manner and have been firmly embedded in routing logic across Europe,” adds Canwell.

Why is it then that we have seen two major primary exchanges move to launch dark books in the last few months when it was those exchanges that were most against removing caps on dark trading during Mifid discussions? Both Euronext and Deutsche Börse have set their sights on dark trading in the last year. Euronext confirmed in May 2023 that it was set to launch a dark trading service. The service went live trading in March but has seen slow uptake as of yet.

This news was followed by rival exchange Deutsche Börse announcing own its plans to develop a midpoint trading functionality in March earlier this year. The new functionality has an envisaged launch of November. Known as ‘Xetra Midpoint’, the functionality is a customer-driven project according to Deutsche Börse and will be integrated into the Xetra market.

The events around the DVC correction when laid alongside the recent launches paint an interesting picture and begs the question: what is Europe trying to achieve? Europe as a region is one of the most fragmented markets to trade with three times the number of exchanges as the US, 10 times the number of listing venues and 20 times as many post-trade providers.

Central to many panels at recent events is the level of fragmentation Europe has reached alongside its comparatively low volumes to the rest of the world. While fragmentation is essential to competition, it can go the other way and harm markets by causing investors to widen the prices they show and reduce their size.

Speaking at a recent Bloomberg Intelligence event which explored ‘liquiditiy in transition,’ Eleanor Beaslety, COO, equity execution, Goldman Sachs, said: “Innovation is great and if something has a USP that brings more volumes into Europe, that’s great. What we don’t need is more of the same. There are a number of dark books. The interesting thing with primary markets is potentially they have unique liquidity in regions that are very national so that could lead to more liquidity coming to the fore. Where it’s just another venue, it’s expensive and it’s another overhead.”

Moving from a micro focus to a macro one

With volumes in Europe on a continuous decline – seen most drastically on the lit continuous order books – it forces participants to question whether or not regulators are focusing on the right areas, with many participants suggesting we should zoom out from these time-consuming micro debates and assess the wider macro landscape to support growth in Europe. 

“We’re rarely in a steady state with regulation. We implement something and then months down the line we’re looking to change it,” said Anish Puaar, head of European equity market Structure at Optiver, also speaking at Bloomberg’s event.

“It’s every time something is introduced – e.g. DVC or SI thresholds – and this tinkering with micro aspects takes up a lot of time and doesn’t have any meaningful change in the market. Europe’s problems are much bigger than that.” 

Volumes have indeed become increasingly segmented and internalised in light of the challenging volume environment in Europe. Alongside volumes executed by systematic internalisers, the bilateral and negotiated trade segments have also grown exponentially. This is where many suggest regulators should be focusing their attentions. 

“That’s the bigger macro picture, not squabbling over the double volume caps,” says Baugh.

The UK is now bringing in new requirements in May that will transform the way firms tag trades and subsequently report them, shedding more light on volumes and liquidity taking place off exchange. However, a slight hinderance to this is that the UK and Europe have once again opted for ever so slightly different regimes. 

“If we could flag OTC trades and get consistency across the UK an EU it would go a long way to solving a lot of what the consolidated tape is supposed to be doing,” added Rupert Fennelly, head of electronic trading sales and coverage, Barclays Investment Bank, also speaking at Bloomberg’s event.

The events of the last few months have exacerbated a desire from participants to see their appointed regulators re-focus their attentions on core structural issues surrounding Europe’s trading landscape. As a region, Europe must turn its attention away from the small and arguably arbitrary fixes in favour of a resolution to the larger issues at hand.

“We need to have some tougher conversations that might be politically difficult such as simplifying post-trade. That would be a much more meaningful debate than some of the tinkering we’ve done over the last 10-15 years,” concluded Puaar. 

The post The dark trading debacle – does anyone even care? appeared first on The TRADE.

Baugh pointed out that South Africa has not been immune to macro issues impacting other financial markets and that notably, last year’s rebalance of the MSCI emerging markets index and the reduction of South Africa’s weighting led to an increase in sales of South African securities by international investors.

Brokers and nonresident brokers with access to international markets were noted by Baugh to have been increasingly sourcing liquidity in dual listed names offshore. This is occurring in markets that either offer greater liquidity and lower implicit costs relative to the local market in South Africa, he argued.

“They then go on to sell onshore to their domestic clients, which has also given the impression of a sell off, when in fact this is actually driven by local demand for these dual listed securities,” said Baugh.  

In the keynote, Baugh re-emphasised that changes in market dynamics are not very different to those seen in Europe. This was credited not only to ever present macro conditions, but also to the interconnected nature of the two markets.  

“Liquidity has been increasingly hard to come by,” stressed Baugh. “The daily turnover cash equities in value terms is down 10% across both regions in 2023. If you just measure intraday onward liquidity, the decline has been even more acute.”

Baugh highlighted the need for collaboration to ensure the whole market can adapt to difficulties in sourcing liquidity – collaboration being a huge discussion point at the conference so far.

With connection to agency brokers, Baugh also discussed opportunities to differentiate smaller businesses from larger players.

“Your ability to navigate complex and fragmented markets while outperforming competitors can set you apart from others, particularly when liquidity or at least like-minded liquidity is increasingly hard to come by,” he said.

“And to that point, it’s not even about accessing all liquidity all of the time. It’s about being thoughtful, targeting the right liquidity at the right time in order to achieve those objectives as set out by your clients.”

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UK bundling rules are likely to be repealed mid next year, with Europe to follow. Discussions will centre around who pays for research rather than on re-bundling. Although some specialists may see an opportunity here. The question remains as to whether this will have a material impact on SME liquidity. Despite the Swedish Presidency pushing through changes in June, including a single volume cap for dark trading, limitations on SIs and the outlines for a consolidated tape, we’re unlikely to see any major impact next year, perhaps with the exception of the removal of the 4% single venue cap on dark trading, which could be lifted in the early part of the new year. 

The transition to T+1 in the US and the impact this has on the UK and Europe is an obvious theme. Improved post-trade efficiencies and initial regulatory leniency will hopefully make this an easier pill to swallow but funding costs and liquidity impacts are yet to be realised. Changes to UK trade reporting requirements will provide a clearer insight into how much business is done away from the public markets, which may court some regulatory attention. The introduction of a new Designated Reporter Regime will also likely be a key focus although some firms will likely want to continue to report as SI or via the off-book on exchange channel. 

Hayley McDowell, European market structure consultant, RBC Capital Markets 

The buy-side face a dilemma as the UK (and likely the EU) prepare to offer greater flexibility on payments for research. While a full re-bundling is unlikely, we may see an explosion of CSAs as firms look to align their research payment processes globally. As the choice to remain unbundled will be permitted, it might be a slow process for asset managers to make any material changes unless we see larger buy-side firms take the lead on this development. Despite the ongoing uncertainty for participants, 2024 promises to be another eventful year for Pan-European market structure.

Elsewhere, sourcing alternative liquidity will remain a key focus given the continued decline of order book liquidity in 2023. As off-book trading and internalisation grow, concerns about the potential impact on price formation could come to the fore for market participants. With new dark venues preparing to launch early next year, incumbent venues could lose market share in this space. 
 
T+1 will continue to be top of mind as the US and Canada migrate to a shorter settlement cycle in May. As the UK and EU ponder a similar move, reducing market hours could come back into focus, especially given the strained liquidity environment. The LSE’s previous consultation on reducing market hours a few years ago was well received by market participants and it’s unlikely this stance has changed drastically since then. 

Mike Carrodus, chief executive officer, Substantive Research  

Next year will bring more uncertainty for investment research, with a potential ‘rebundling’ of investment research costs with execution costs under Mifid II, and it will be a year of reckoning for market data. The recommendations from Rachel Kent’s UK Investment Research Review are now with the FCA. We’ll see the FCA’s Consultation Paper in February or March 2024, with the final UK rules coming at the end of June. But what rebundling might look like in practice is uncertain – everything depends on how end investors react to being asked to take on asset managers’ research costs once again.  

Also next year, the FCA will reach its conclusion after looking into opaque and inconsistent pricing models and barriers to entry in the wholesale market data market. This is addressing some long-held frustrations on both the buy- and sell-side, regarding these ‘have-to-have’ data products, such as indices, credit ratings and pricing and reference data.  AI will help fund managers sift through their research and data inputs much more efficiently, but will a new deluge of AI-enabled research content make finding what we want actually harder?

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The business has been rebranded as Marex Prime Services and Market Outsourced Trading, with both becoming part of the Marex Capital Markets business – formed last year following the acquisition of ED&F Man Capital Markets.

The businesses will offer services across multi-asset-class custody, high and low touch execution, financing solutions, securities lending, and related technology solutions, and capital introduction.

Jack Seibald and Mike Rosen

While Marex and formerly TD Cowen’s outsourced and prime businesses have zero overlap in terms of client base, Jack Seibald and Mike Rosen, now co-heads of Marex Prime Brokerage Services and Outsourced Trading, said the acquisition would allow the two firms to leverage each other to expand on their existing offerings and explore moving into new ones.

Rosen and Seibald have been with the business since its inception in the ’90s, selling it to Cowen in 2015. TD Bank Group then agreed to acquire Cowen in August 2022.

“The cross collaboration and working with all of the other business units is one of the biggest opportunities. It’s something that we learned to do quite well when we got to Cowen and we had a lot of success with working with different product lines,” Rosen told The TRADE.

“It’s going to be very interesting for us because at Marex there’s a whole host of business that we haven’t been exposed to. There’s an opportunity for each party to bring their skillset to each client base and go broader and deeper with all of our collective clients.”

News broke of their split with TD in June earlier this year, reportedly concluding it would be in the best interests of clients if the prime brokerage and outsourced trading business were divested to a partner more “strategically and geographically aligned” to the platform.

“It became very clear early in the process that the business that we run which is a global prime brokerage and outsourced trading business largely focused on emerging and mid-tier hedge fund managers was not a business that was consistent with TD business plan or risk appetite and parameters,” Seibald told the TRADE.

“Rather than trying to fit a square peg into a round hole we collectively agreed there might be an opportunity to market the business in its entirety to other interested parties for whom the business aligns with their strategic priorities and risk appetite. To TD’s credit they gave us that opportunity.”

The Marex deal was later confirmed in September. When asked why they had selected Marex, a commodities focused with very little capital markets focus, Rosen and Seibald told The TRADE it was essential that a new parent company was committed to expansion and took on their business as a whole.

Read more – Marex to acquire Cowen’s prime brokerage and outsourced trading business from TD

Around 153 people are coming over from TD Cowen to Marex as part of the transaction across the US, London and Hong Kong and Belfast.

“Our objective was to keep the business and all the people in its entirety in place. Finding a partner that was sensitive to that notion and agreed with it to take on the whole business on a global basis was an important element in structuring any deal with anyone,” Seibald said.

“From our perspective, the opportunity is bringing to Marex a set of capabilities in traditional securities that’s pretty far advanced. Marex brings a substantial presence in futures, commodities and a global footprint that will allow us to take our business to a broader audience.”

“This is not the first time the business has been sold – it’s always important to brand the business as one so that there’s a clear understanding by clients that there’s a whole firm behind an offering and we aren’t a conglomerate of disparate businesses. Delivering the centralised message is easier and better if its utilising one name,” Seibald added when asked about the change in branding.

One such potential area for collaboration is offering commodities exposure to the firm’s existing energy hedge fund clients that already trade equities. Marex also has a presence in Asia and in the Middle East that TD Cowen’s outsourced and prime business did not formerly have access to.

Seibald and Rosen confirmed prime services and outsourced trading will be central to their focus going forward from the transaction.

“Philosophically, we were very much aligned with Marex in terms of it being entrepreneurial, in terms of customer base, in terms of desire for growth. On all of those fronts they certainly tick the box and that makes the opportunity exciting to us,” Rosen concluded.

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Drew Vincent is set to join TD Cowen in an execution services role following almost 15 years at Credit Suisse. During his tenure, Vincent held various positions across Credit Suisse, most recently as head of AES sales trading, based in London. He also worked on the client coverage team of Credit Suisse’s agency electronic trading platform, Europe, focused on bespoke execution consulting and strategies. In his most recent position, Vincent led a team of sales traders, overseeing the restructured coverage in the aftermath of Brexit, as well as managing the review and deployment of algorithms and implementing T-1 related changes for business operations.

Aquis exchange chief operating officer Jonathan Clelland is set to depart next April, with chief revenue officer and head of Aquis Markets David Stevens appointed to replace him. Prior to joining Aquis, Clelland was chief operating officer at HSBC Investment Bank corporate finance division and of Shearman & Sterling in London. Clelland will remain as a special advisor in order to “ensure a smooth transition”. Stevens joined Aquis in 2021 and had previously held various senior roles across financial services and technology. His past positions included chief executive of foreign exchange broker Global Reach Group, as well as senior roles at Investment Technology Group, JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs.

Twelve individuals were appointed to lead UBS’ business across various areas as it restructures its operations. In the vertical global product pillars, Adrian Bracher was appointed to lead macro structured solutions (rates and FX), having joined UBS this month. Ramzi Issa was named structured credit and sustainable credit products lead, joining the business in November, as is Julien Bieren, soon to lead equity structured solutions. Also in the vertical restructure is Guilio Alfinito, appointed to lead QIS structuring, and Richard Walters, new lead of fund derivatives and structured finance solutions. Under the horizontal set-up, Romain Barba will join the business in November toco-lead APAC structuring alongside Ahmad Chaudry, while Chris Cook will head up Americas structuring. In addition, Erica Yeu will lead wealth management solutions, while Ahmad Chaudry leads wrapping solutions and Hannah Vinci oversees strategic products. Spyros Mesomeris, in addition to his global role, will head up EMEA structuring.

Investec named Paul Moss as its newest equity sales trader following three and a half years at Goldman Sachs. Moss has an established focus on global emerging markets, having worked across various jurisdictions within his roles. He has held various positions across the industry, most recently as CEEMEA (Central Europe, Middle East, and Africa) equity sales trader at Goldman Sachs. Before that we worked in a range of roles at Citi, most recently as pan Asia equity sales trader.

Instinet appointed Christopher Brown as executive director, latency sensitive electronic trading (LSET). Brown joined from JP Morgan where he spent nearly four years as executive director of quantitative investment strategies (QIS). Prior to that, Brown spent almost 3 years at Citi as director of systemic and quant trading solutions. Before joining Citi, Brown served as director, autobahn equity sales and trading, low latency DMA at Deutsche Bank. Elsewhere in his career, Brown held senior position at FIX Protocol, Chi-East and Instinet – the latter being his first tenure at the firm in 2009.

MUFG appointed Daniel Sbroocca in a credit trading position, joining from BNP Paribas where he spent almost nine years. While at BNP Paribas, Sbrocca most recently served as an emerging markets credit trader – a position he held for two years. Previously, Sbrocca held an emerging markets credit sales position at the firm. Elsewhere in his tenure at BNP Parabis, Sbrocca served in a corporate rates sales role for Northern Europe.

Wells Fargo appointed Jon Thorne as senior securities sales trading specialist, joining from Credit Suisse, where he spent 13 and a half years. Most recently, Thorne served as a listed sales trader – a position he held for almost 11 years. Elsewhere during his tenure at Credit Suisse, Thorne worked in a FX and futures execution position as well as a FX prime brokerage role. Before joining Credit Suisse, Thorne held an eFX and prime brokerage FX position at Commerzbank AG. Prior to that, he held the same role at Dresdner Kleinwort.

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As another new category to the 2023 Leaders in Trading awards gala, this award is intended to celebrate those sell-side institutions committed to expanding their electronic trading offerings to aid clients and remain innovative.

Among the key players in this competitive landscape, The TRADE has deemed Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, JP Morgan and TD Cowen the top performers for the 2023 shortlist.

Goldman Sachs 

Goldman Sachs Electronic Trading (GSET) has undergone a makeover in the last 12 months, designed to streamline its operations and expand its algorithmic client offering. Around 72% of what Goldman trades per day in notional is now accounted for by the low touch channel with the roughly 28% left accounted for by high touch and program trading.

In light of the evolving demands of its client base, the Goldman Sachs team has been expanding the remit of its low touch capabilities including the building out of its suite of algorithms on its new proprietary equity trading platform, Atlas. Throughout 2023, the bank has been migrating its algos onto Atlas including its new liquidity seeking algo, Sonar, a dark liquidity seeking algo, Sonar Dark and VWAP. The rest of its algo suite are derivatives of these three. Embedded in its Sonar strategy is a new Dynamic Close Scaling perimeter designed to capture more liquidity in the closing auction and DTC Stealth – a new solution aimed at internalising orders before they touch the street. 

“GS’s desire to help clients improve their trading performance at the parent order level across all trading channels (high touch, program trading and low touch) was a core reason why we kicked off a multi-year, global >$100mm USD investment into our trading stack three years ago. Everything has been built from the ground up, giving us the enormous scale and flexibility needed to operate in the trading landscape we see today,” the bank told The TRADE. 

Jefferies

Jefferies Electronic Trading (JET) offers algorithmic strategies and program trading across Europe, the US and Asia. The broker offers a platform with algorithmic access spanning 45 countries and over 100 liquidity destinations globally. Jefferies offers its clients a full suite of liquidity seeking and benchmark tracking algorithms, both through client integration and via FIX architecture to OEMS providers.

Alongside the firm’s liquidity seeking, next generation, auction and listed based algorithms, Jefferies offers its clients workflow solutions allowing them to switch between strategies or utilise tiered strategies, and a suite of customisable algorithmic strategies across VWAP, TWAP and others. It’s constantly working with its buy-side clients to develop and tailor new strategies to meet their needs including continuously developing its growing algo wheel offering, creating new strategies around the close in light of the market’s shift to the final portion of the trading day and new tools for order aggregation amid industry consolidation.

It has previously been ranked number one US electronic trading product and service quality provider and number one most helpful execution broker during the covid-related market crisis by Coalition Greenwich. Jefferies won the Algorithmic Trading Best Customer Support & Consulting at the Leaders in Trading Awards 2019. 

JP Morgan 

JP Morgan moved to expand its rates algo franchise to support the market’s wider electronification of rates trading – which has historically had limited algo usage and instead favoured risk transfer via RFS and RFQ for pricing and execution – in May.

As part of the expansion, JP Morgan now offers a complete set of algo order types available in rates across time, limit and market. The offering is available via the bank’s single dealer platform, Execute, and via API, with plans to get the offering live with FlexTrade and Tradeweb in the future. The bank launched its existing TWAP rates and adaptive algos last year. Both use JP Morgan’s internalised liquidity pool.

Alongside the expansion, JP Morgan also became the first dealer to go live on Bloomberg for automated US treasuries algo execution, meaning clients can now place an order on the platform and executions are streamed back for clients in real time with electronic trade booking once the order is done. The move meant the bank’s rates algo offering became equal to its long-standing FX algos offering in terms of analysis and tools available.

“Algos help clients manage costs, efficiently access liquidity and are an important utility in the toolkit given the current market environment. Other benefits include the time savings associated with the automation of workflows, the ability to access multiple different sources of liquidity, and the availability of pre- and post-trade analytics,” Chi Nzelu, head of FICC eTrading, JP Morgan, told The TRADE at the time of the announcement. 

JP Morgan won the Algorithmic Trading Best Provider – Multi-User Clients Award at Leaders in Trading 2022.

TD Cowen 

Despite the industry challenges posed by consolidation and declining market volumes, TD Cowen’s European electronic trading team has gone from strength to strength in the last 12 months. In a time when many are making difficult decisions around downsizing, TD Cowen has expanded its European electronic trading business, continuing to hire talent to reinforce its team to meet growing demand from clients under the leadership of Tom Campbell.

Since its launch in 2020, TD Cowen’s equities market share has continued to grow in the European market. Recent developments have further accelerated the firm’s progress, including its acquisition by The Toronto-Dominion Bank for $1.3 billion. “This strategic move provided a springboard for further growth, opening new opportunities and strengthening its market presence,” Cowen told The TRADE.

“At the heart of TD Cowen’s success lies a commitment to best-in-class client coverage. Its thoughtful liquidity interaction and market-leading dark liquidity seeking algorithms enable the team to not only stay ahead of the competition but also manage costs more effectively for clients. Its agility and adaptability to client needs in algo trading is truly exceptional, exemplified by its ability to swiftly implement changes intraday (or where necessary overnight) — a feat that larger institutions struggle to match.”

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During his tenure, Vincent has held various positions across Credit Suisse, most recently as head of AES sales trading, based in London.

He worked on the client coverage team of Credit Suisse’s agency electronic trading platform, Europe, focused on bespoke execution consulting and strategies.

Read more: UBS hires four ex-Credit Suisse individuals amid wider organisational restructuring

In his most recent position, Vincent led a team of sales traders, overseeing the restructured coverage in the aftermath of Brexit, as well as managing the review and deployment of algorithms and implementing T-1 related changes for business operations.

TD Bank Group completed its all-cash $1.3 billion acquisition of Cowen in March – following an initial announcement in August 2022. The plan was to create an integrated North American dealer to significantly advance its growth strategy in the region, specifically through the addition of Cowen’s US equities sales trading, execution, and research offering.

The company is one of four nominees for The TRADE’s Editors’ Choice Award for Best Broker Electronic Trading Initiative award, with winners to be announced on 8 November at Leaders in Trading 2023.

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New to Leaders in Trading 2023, this category is designed to recognise those firms and individuals going above and beyond to service and support their clients in light of the numerous regulatory and market structure overhauls taking place across the globe.

Post-Brexit, divergence continues to play a part in the regulatory regime in the UK and Europe, while other major shifts such as the transition to T+1 settlement in the US are likely to significantly impact the way institutions operate.

In light of this, The TRADE has selected Goldman Sachs, Optiver, RBC and TD Cowen for the 2023 shortlist, following their efforts over the last 12 months. 

Goldman Sachs

Over the last 12 months, Goldman Sachs’ market structure and regulatory team, spearheaded by chief operating officer for EMEA equity execution services, Eleanor Beasley, has continued to provide thought-leading content in the context of market structure changes in the EU and UK. Whether that has been covering consultation papers that continue to come from the UK and the EU, or highlighting changes in exchange offerings or migrations, the investment bank has provided insights on what it believes the impact is going to be and what is going to happen to the broader liquidity landscape as a result.

Alongside helping its clients to make sense of regulatory regime changes in Europe and the UK, Goldman Sachs has produced deep dives into regulatory updates and launched a new quarterly market structure podcast – ‘Evolving Equities’ – in which Beasley hosts a new external guest each episode. The quarterly content aims to provide clients with insights to better understand and navigate the equities landscape. Other regular content by Goldman Sachs includes weekly liquidity colour, monthly liquidity analysis, quarterly cost to trade analysis and quarterly developed vs emerging markets liquidity deep dives.

Goldman Sachs’ market structure team works as part of a broader team within the investment bank, including the quant analysts and its SOR strategy team to ensure that market structure and information received from regulators is an integral part of its broader liquidity strategy. 

Optiver

With former TRADE reporter and Rosenblatt analyst, Anish Puaar, at the wheel, non-traditional liquidity provider Optiver has made a significant push into the thought leadership sphere in the last 12 months, aiding both its own counterparties and firms across the wider market in their understanding of the shifting market structure and regulatory landscape.

In the last year, the market maker has published whitepapers and spoken at industry conferences on a variety of topics including: the “anti-competitive nature” of single market-maker exchanges, the benefits and risks of Europe following suit with the US in the pursuit of T+1 settlement, the international financing review (IFR), closing-auction outages and market-maker protections in the options market. As well as the history and uses of short-term options, capital markets recommendations for incoming EU policymakers and the Asia-pacific equity options markets.

The market maker has also introduced a quarterly market structure newsletter for trading counterparties, highlighting statistics like liquidity and trading spreads across cash equities trading venues, and published comment letters on Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) equity market structure proposals. Optiver is committed to voicing its opinion in industry bodies and at industry forums and conferences. Subscribers to the market maker’s Insights email list are up 39% this year, Optiver confirmed.

RBC

Headed up by global head of market structure, Rich Steiner, with consultants on the ground in Europe such as former TRADE editor, Hayley McDowell, RBC’s global market structure team provides insights and content on key themes and trends to assist clients with their execution processes and decisions. They produce monthly recaps, key development notes and in-depth reports on market structure themes which are distributed regularly to clients, as well as curated content on client request.

The team collaborates closely with product to develop the algo suite and logic based on regulatory, liquidity and other market structure changes to improve performance, reduce costs and increase efficiency for its clients. Current themes of focus include liquidity shifts, AI and machine learning, T+1 settlement, upcoming changes to Mifid II research rules and market outages.

Earlier this year, RBC’s Digital Solutions and Client Insights (DSCi3) business expanded Aiden, its proprietary AI-based electronic trading platform, into Europe. The tool is designed to reduce slippage against the volume weighted average price (VWAP) benchmark while minimising market impact. According to RBC, it’s market structure team played a key role in Aiden’s implementation by ensuring the algorithm leverages the nuances of the European trading landscape and informing clients of Aiden’s capabilities and logic with the product and coverage teams.

TD Cowen

TD Cowen’s market structure offering is spearheaded by former Citi, LSEG and Turquoise alumnus James Baugh, now head of European market structure for the firm. TD Cowen, part of TD Securities, aims to put market structure at the core of its electronic trading business. The market structure offering provided by the institution is a “linchpin for liquidity strategies and a driving force behind its distinctive algorithmic trading offerings,” TD Cowen told the TRADE.

The TD Cowen market structure team provides opinions and insights into regulatory and market structure changes, adding depth, perspective and practical value by illustrating how these changes directly affect day-to-day business. The firm also regularly distributes notes and updates to the buy-side community. These updates cover a wide range of topics, such as the implications of diverging regulations post-Brexit, the re-bundling of research, the ban on payment for order flow (PFOF), primary market outages and data centre moves.

Actively engaged in discussions on key topics impacting the industry, TD Cowen participates in most major industry forums and conferences, reaching markets across the continent and as far afield as South Africa. Its involvement with Q15, where James Baugh serves as an advisor to the Equity Quorum, emphasises its role in shaping industry dialogue.

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The transaction is expected to close at the end of the year, pending regulatory approval and customary closing conditions.

The operations acquired will be rebranded as Marex Prime Services and Market Outsourced Trading, with both becoming part of the Marex Capital Markets business (formed last year following the acquisition of ED&F Man Capital Markets).

Following the acquisition, both businesses will continue to be led by Jack Seibald and Michael Rosen.

Speaking in an announcement Ian Lowitt, chief executive of Marex, said: “This transaction advances our strategy, increasing our capabilities to connect clients to markets in new ways across multiple geographies. Mike and Jack have built a terrific business, and its addition to Marex broadens the range of essential infrastructure we provide to clients, as well as creating opportunity for Marex to provide additional services to a new set of clients. Expanding our capital markets business also adds to our diversification and to the resilience of our franchise.” 

Read more: Fireside Friday… with Cowen’s James Baugh

The TD deal for Cowen was completed in March this year, but just months after their merger, it was announced that the prime brokerage and outsourced trading division would diverge from TD Bank Group on mutually agreed terms.

At the time, sources close to the matter revealed that the businesses had sent a communication to clients confirming the divestment, highlighting that it was “in the best interests of clients” if the prime brokerage and outsourced trading business were divested to a partner more “strategically and geographically aligned” to the platform.

TD Bank Group completed its all-cash $1.3 billion acquisition of Cowen in March – following an initial announcement in August 2022. The plan was to create an integrated North American dealer to significantly advance its growth strategy in the region, specifically through the addition of Cowen’s US equities sales trading, execution, and research offering. 

TD will continue to operate its own prime services business despite the Cowen spin-off. 

Earlier this year, TD also confirmed that Cowen Digital was shuttering two years after its launch. 

In a communication seen by The TRADE – signed off by 11 team members including managing directors – the importance of “trusted counterparties who understand the needs of institutional investors” was emphasised. The memo also highlighted that it was necessary for the unit operate from “a different home” going forward.

In an announcement today, Dan Charney, vice chair of TD Cowen and co-head of global markets, said: “The divestiture of Cowen Prime was planned as part of the acquisition of Cowen by TD earlier this year. As TD continues to focus its efforts on growing TD Securities Prime Services, we are pleased to have found a great home for Cowen’s legacy Prime Services business in Marex, bringing significant opportunities for both businesses.”

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