Jim Goldie has been named head of ETF capital markets for Europe and Asia-Pacific at Capital Group following a decade at Invesco. Jim GoldieGoldie most recently held the role of international head of capital markets, ETFs and indexed strategies. Speaking to his appointment, Goldie said: “The firm is recognised globally for its deep research, investment excellence, long-term approach and unwavering focus on its clients. I look forward to collaborating with associates across the firm to develop capital markets capabilities that meet the evolving needs of investors across the regions.” In the new role, London-based Goldie is set to lead the development of the ETF capital markets function across Europe and Asia-Pacific, supporting the firm’s plans to serve more clients across the regions. He is also currently chair of the EFAMA ETF taskforce, and co-chair of the EU’s T+1 governance committee for asset management. Other previous positions include senior roles at Vanguard, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Scott Szever, head of ETF product and capital markets, Capital Group, asserted: “With nearly two decades of industry experience, [Goldie] brings deep expertise across ETF product development, distribution and capital markets. “We are committed to becoming the partner of choice for financial intermediaries and institutional clients globally as we focus on delivering our long-term results in their vehicle of choice.”The post Invesco international head of capital markets joins Capital Group as head of ETF capital markets appeared first on The TRADE.

Charles Adams has joined Wells Fargo as a senior lead in European rates cash trading, following a 14-year tenure at JP Morgan.  Adams will be based out of London in his new role, which will see him trading and building out the firm’s market making platform across SSA and related rates securities. He joins Wells Fargo after a year as head of EMEA sovereign, supranational, and agency (SSA) and credit repo trading at JP Morgan, having initially joined as an analyst in January 2011.  During his time at JP Morgan, Adams worked his way up the ranks, serving in various different roles across both London and Paris, including working as head of EMEA specials trading, where he set up and ran the continental SSA and credit repo trading desk in Paris, and built out the business’ European footprint.  Read more – JP Morgan EMEA rates options trading head joins ING in newly created role   Wells Fargo confirmed the appointment when contacted by The TRADE.The post JP Morgan head of EMEA SSA and credit repo trading joins Wells Fargo appeared first on The TRADE.

Trading Technologies International (TT) is set to provide clients with direct connectivity to the NSE, expanding institutional access to India’s derivatives and equities markets. Clients accessing the NSE via TT will be able to utilise the platform’s full suite of trading tools, including execution algorithms Autospreader and Algo Design Lab (ADL). Read more: Participate in The TRADE’s Algorithmic Trading Survey 2026  The firm is set to establish direct connectivity within the exchange’s co-location data centre. The setup will allow domestic and international market participants to access NSE liquidity through TT’s trading platform using infrastructure located alongside the exchange. The firm is set to establish direct connectivity within the exchange’s co-location data centre. The setup will allow domestic and international market participants to access NSE liquidity through TT’s trading platform using infrastructure located alongside the exchange. Shridhar Sheth, executive vice president and head of India and Middle East at Trading Technologies, said: “We are seeing a continued, strong increase in demand from our global customers who are looking to diversify their trading opportunities and access the vibrant liquidity available on the Indian exchanges.  “Becoming an empaneled vendor and establishing direct co-location connectivity to the NSE underscores our commitment to provide our users with the widest possible range of international trading opportunities without geographic restriction.” The post Trading Technologies to offer direct connectivity to India’s national stock exchange  appeared first on The TRADE.

TP ICAP is transitioning its spot cryptoasset exchange, Fusion Digital Assets, to a matched principal trading model, as the interdealer broker looks to enhance capital efficiency and counterparty confidence for institutional participants. The change, set to take effect in March 2026, will see TP ICAP act as intermediary between buyers and sellers, becoming the counterparty to both sides of each transaction. The structure mirrors trading models already used by the firm across foreign exchange, rates and credit markets. Specifically, the move is expected to align digital asset execution with institutional demand for risk-managed and capital-efficient frameworks in traditional wholesale markets, while addressing persistent concerns around counterparty exposure and settlement risk in crypto trading. Under the matched principal setup, trades will be backed by TP ICAP’s investment-grade credit profile, allowing clients to execute transactions without pre-funding requirements, while settlement will take place off-exchange. Simon Forster, managing director and global co-head of digital assets at TP ICAP, said: “This proven model is familiar to institutional clients and delivered by a counterparty they trust. It fills a critical gap in the crypto landscape by improving efficiency, reducing risk, and creating a flexible, institution-ready framework for trading.” The transition is also expected to support further expansion of Fusion Digital Assets’ product universe, including additional major cryptoassets, stablecoins, new fiat currency pairs and tokenised real-world assets. Moreover, operating hours on the platform will extend from 23/5 to 24/5 trading, with weekend coverage planned as institutional demand increases. The post TP ICAP shifts Fusion Digital Assets exchange to matched principal model  appeared first on The TRADE.

John Palmer has joined US cryptocurrency exchange Kraken as global head of derivatives.  New York-based Palmer brings extensive derivatives experience to his new role, and joins Kraken after nearly two years IEX, where he helped to support the development of the firm’s new options exchange, currently scheduled to launch by Q2 2026.  Palmer initially joined IEX in June 2024 as head of options, before becoming head of cross asset product a year later.  Before this, he held various positions at Cboe Global Markets where he worked for five years, before later returning in 2022 after a stint as CrossTower as global head of product strategy.  Read more – Kraken gains first MTF license from FCA for crypto futures venue During his time at Cboe, Palmer served in roles including as president of Cboe Digital, head of options and a senior vice president, working in US derivatives market development.  Previously in his career, he has also worked at ISE Holdings, Orc Software and Goldman Sachs.  Kraken had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.  The post IEX head of cross asset product joins Kraken to lead global derivatives appeared first on The TRADE.

Citi has appointed Thai Nguyet Minh (Minh Thai) as head of markets and country treasurer for Vietnam.  The appointment aligns with Citi’s plans to capitalise on growth opportunities with Vietnam’s markets, and in her new role, Minh Thai is set to support the firm’s development and execution of short and long-term strategies for its Vietnamese markets franchise and clients. In addition, she will also assume the responsibility for managing balance sheet and asset-liability committee (ALCO) processes, as well as aligning with global and local regulatory requirements and monitoring Citi Vietnam’s funding and liquidity, according to an internal memo seen by The TRADE.  Minh Thai will report to Sue Lee, head of markets for Asia South, who said: “With Minh Thai’s deep understanding of the local landscape and extensive experience across global and international banks, she is well positioned to propel our franchise forward. She will lead the Vietnam markets business with a client-centric approach, leveraging our global footprint and comprehensive product offering.” Read more – Citi expands FX team in Japan, Asia North, Australia and Asia South with seven new hires Minh Thai brings almost 20 years of markets experience to her new position, working across sectors spanning client advisory, foreign exchange and derivatives.  She joins the firm from Maybank, where she spent the past year as head of global markets Vietnam.  Prior to this, she worked at BNP Paribas for almost 15 years, initially joining as a graduate in 2010, before working her way up the ranks to later become head of global macro sales.  Previously in her career, she has also held positions at firms including Barclays, Julius Baer, Credit Suisse and UBS.  The post Citi names new head of markets for Vietnam appeared first on The TRADE.

Bloomberg has launched ASKB, a new conversational artificial intelligence interface for the Bloomberg Terminal, designed to help traders and investment professionals analyse markets, generate insights and act on information more quickly. Shawn EdwardsCurrently in beta, ASKB allows users to query companies, markets and investment themes using natural language, drawing simultaneously from Bloomberg’s structured datasets, news, research and analytics.  Specifically, ASKB will allow users to move away from traditional command-based navigation across multiple Terminal functions by allowing complex analytical queries to be completed through a single conversational interface.  Bloomberg said the system reduces friction in investment research by synthesising information from company filings, Bloomberg News coverage, sell-side research providers and proprietary analytics into consolidated responses with transparent source attribution. Shawn Edwards, Bloomberg’s chief technology officer, said: “This agentic AI system enables users to ask detailed questions in conversational language and receive comprehensive answers synthesised from our extensive data, documents, news, research, and analytics. Early feedback from beta clients shows ASKB is driving efficiency, improving discovery, and helping users surface actionable insights at speed.” The platform uses a coordinated network of AI agents operating in parallel to retrieve and analyse information across Bloomberg’s content ecosystem. Built using a combination of commercial and open-weight large language models aligned with Bloomberg’s Responsible AI principles, ASKB grounds responses in Bloomberg’s proprietary datasets with transparent attribution to underlying research documents and news sources.  Where queries involve data analysis, the system generates the associated Bloomberg Query Language (BQL) code, allowing traders to extend outputs directly into Excel, BQuant Desktop or BQuant Enterprise for further modelling and workflow integration. Read more – A new frontier of automation: Why agentic AI is the new financial market’s next fundamental hurdle The new ASKB offering is intended to address increasingly fragmented and manual research processes by performing discovery across Bloomberg’s full content universe and present structured insights designed to support faster investment conviction. The system also introduces ASKB Workflows, allowing users to describe multi-step tasks such as earnings preparation, post-event analysis or meeting preparation. Outputs can be saved as reusable templates, rerun across securities or time periods and shared across teams, enabling trading desks to scale research processes while maintaining consistency. David Easthope, senior analyst in market structure and technology at Crisil Coalition Greenwich, said: “As adoption accelerates, we expect AI to unlock new insights, automate complex analyses, and drive efficiency, with its full potential only just beginning to be realised. We see these tools becoming more mainstream, and they are increasingly embedded in major desktop solutions.” The post Bloomberg embeds agentic AI into the Terminal   appeared first on The TRADE.

Optimal Market Technologies has launched a new US listed options execution platform, backed by global market makers Optiver and Virtu Financial, alongside investors Akuna and BSC Ventures. Brian DonnellyThe FINRA-approved broker-dealer expects the platform to become commercially available later in Q1 and will serve retail options wholesalers, institutional broker-dealers and large asset managers, with an initial rollout focused on the wholesaler community. The launch comes as options trading volumes continue to expand, with Optimal aiming to address persistent execution challenges, including high costs, constrained competition and inconsistent execution quality across the listed options ecosystem. Central to Optimal’s offering is its ‘competition for order flow’ (CFOF) model, which enables multiple primary market makers (PMMs) to compete for the right to trade against retail broker order flow based on execution quality performance.  Specifically, under the model, execution quality is assessed on a name-by-name basis using rolling performance metrics, with order flow reallocated monthly according to relative execution outcomes. Read more – Optiver to convert to a systematic internaliser The framework allows liquidity providers to concentrate on the products and strategies where they deliver the strongest performance and is expected to improve overall market quality while reducing unnecessary friction for both liquidity providers and brokers. At launch, PMMs on the platform will include Optiver, Akuna, Belvedere Trading, and Group One Trading, with additional market makers expected to join in the coming months.  Optimal Market Technologies is being established as a standalone entity, separate from RQD Clearing, whose multi-asset clearing, custody and execution platform underpins the new venue’s infrastructure.  The company is led by founder and chief executive Brian Donnelly, previously founder of both RQD and options market maker Volant Trading, alongside a management team of experts in the US options trading industry. Donnelly said: “Over the coming months, we plan to add additional liquidity providers so that clients can benefit from an even broader set of counterparties, all competing based on measurable execution quality.” The platform integrates via standard API or FIX connectivity and, with RQD acting as clearing counterparty, supports clearing, post-trade processing and regulatory reporting as part of a fully integrated operational solution. Jake Taylor, head of US single stock options at Optiver, said: “As retail participation and options volumes grow, it’s increasingly important that market structure evolves to promote choice, transparency and high-quality execution. […] We look forward to supporting Optimal as it builds a differentiated execution offering.” The post Optiver and Virtu-backed Optimal Market Technologies options execution platform launches  appeared first on The TRADE.

BlackRock BlackRock’s co-head of global trading, Jatin Vara, is departing the firm to embark on a new chapter after 27 years at the asset management giant.   Vara stepped up to his most recent role following Supurna VedBrat’s departure in January 2023, after being promoted from his previous position leading international and emerging markets trading.   He served as co-head of global trading alongside Daniel Veiner, who was named head of markets at the firm in July 2025.   Vara’s next role is currently unconfirmed.   Jefferies  Brandon Peoples has joined Jefferies, serving as the firm’s new global head of outsourced trading.   Peoples will be based out of New York and brings more than two decades of industry experience to his new role, spanning outsourced trading, execution services and market structure.  The appointment is expected to increase the expansion of Jefferies’ global outsourced trading platform, and Peoples joins the firm from Cantor Fitzgerald, where he spent the last six years leading the firm’s global outsourced trading offering.   Prior to this, he served at EastBay Capital as head of domestic trading and operations for more than six years.   Previously in his career, he has also worked in various trading-based roles at Diamondback Capital and XI Asset Management.   BBVA  Chloe Shepherd has joined BBVA as a vice president, repo trader, based in London.   Shepherd joins the Spanish bank after nearly three years at Citi, where she worked as a credit repo trader in locations spanning both London and Hong Kong.   Prior to this, she served at RBC Capital Markets for five years, initially joining as a credit trading analyst in 2018, before later being promoted as a repo trader, associate in 2019.   She also gained early career experience in global markets sales and trading at RBC.   Legal & General Asset Management Legal & General Asset Management has made an addition to its fixed income trading team, appointing James Maddox as a junior credit trader.   London-based Maddox joins the firm after more than two years at TSB Bank, where he initially joined as a Treasury junior analyst in 2023, before later being promoted as a dealer, covering swaps, gilts, SSA and covered bonds, repo and FX.   Prior to this, he also worked across multi-faceted investment strategy in equities at hedge fund RAB Capital.   Maddox also gained early career experience at firms spanning JM Finn and Killik & Co.   The post People Moves Monday: BlackRock, Jefferies, BBVA and more…  appeared first on The TRADE.

Rothschild & Co has named Joelle Tarrant as the firm’s new head of market structure and strategy, The TRADE can reveal.  Tarrant will be based out of Rothschild & Co’s London office and is set to support the firm’s integrated equity capital solutions platform, Global Markets Solutions (GMS), in her new role.  Speaking on her appointment, Tarrant said: “Rothschild & Co has a long and proud tradition of providing market-leading, independent advice to its global clients. I am delighted to be joining the firm and look forward to navigating market strategy and execution sales across all client bases.” Tarrant brings more than 15 years of industry experience to her new role, and joins the firm from HSBC, where she most recently served as global co-head of cross asset electronic sales.  She initially joined the bank in 2017 as a director, global head of market structure and index strategy, and has also held the positions of head of European electronic trading and head of continental equities execution during her time at the firm.  Prior to this, she worked at RBC for more than three years as a director in electronic trading and market structure.  Previously in her career, she has also served as a sales trader, working across pan-European equities at Citi.  Tarrant’s appointment marks a continued investment in Rothschild & Co’s equities execution business, and also aligns with the recent hire of Luke Hedley as a sales trader.  Hedley joined the firm after more than four years at Investec as an equity sales trader, and had also previously spent a decade at Numis Securities in a similar role.  “We are delighted at the arrival of these two high quality individuals. [Tarrant] is well-known in the City for her expertise in market structure and she will help us continue to add clients – something that has been a major theme for us since Redburn Atlantic became part of Rothschild & Co,” said Andrew Quick, global head of execution at Rothschild & Co. Quick also added: “[Hedley] is a hugely experienced addition to an already well-regarded team – known for their ability to source block liquidity for clients and help them navigate – and understand – ever more complex markets.” The post Rothschild & Co taps HSBC for new head of market structure and strategy appeared first on The TRADE.

Investec has appointed Vinesh Chhaya as an electronic equities sales trader, as part of the firm’s efforts to build out its electronic trading capabilities and strengthen client coverage, The TRADE can reveal.  London-based Chhaya brings extensive industry experience working in senior positions across the sell-side to his new role, and he is also set to support Investec’s development of its electronic execution platform, ZebrA-X, which launched in February 2025.  Speaking on the appointment, Dominic Lowres, head of electronic trading and execution strategy at Investec, said: “Demand for our electronic execution solutions continues to accelerate, and [Chhaya] joins at an important stage in our growth.  “His experience across algorithmic execution and client advisory strengthens our ability to support clients as they engage more deeply with ZebrA-X. His contribution will be valuable as we continue to expand our capabilities and meet rising client demand.” Read more – Investec unveils new electronic trading platform Chhaya joins Investec from Peel Hunt, where he spent more than two years as an algo sales trader.  Prior to this, he held an electronic sales trading role at Numis Securities for four years, as well as working as an equity sales trader at Canaccord Genuity from 2016 to 2019.  Previously in his career, he has also held senior trading positions at firms spanning Haitong, Liquidnet and Instinet.  Clive Murray, head of equities at Investec, also commented: “Our aim is to provide a differentiated execution service that combines advanced electronic tools with deep market insight.  “Strengthening the electronic sales trading team ensures we can meet the growing demand we are seeing while continuing to deliver a personal and consultative service. [Chhaya’s] experience and approach will make an important contribution to the ongoing growth of this area.” Chhaya’s appointment also follows further execution-focused hires for Investec in recent months. In September 2025, the firm named William Boddy as head of fixed income and ETFs, while Ben Goodchild joined as the deputy head of the same division. Both Boddy and Goodchild are set to support the firm in building out its high-touch execution model in their roles, and joined Investec from Winterflood Securities, where they spent the last two decades working across fixed income in trading and senior leadership positions.   The post Investec bolsters electronic trading offering with Peel Hunt hire appeared first on The TRADE.

Brandon Peoples has joined Jefferies, serving as the firm’s new global head of outsourced trading.  Peoples will be based out of New York and brings more than two decades of industry experience to his new role, spanning outsourced trading, execution services and market structure. The appointment is also expected to increase the expansion of Jefferies’ global outsourced trading platform, with the firm having most recently selected TS Imagine’s integrated order and execution management platform to bolster fixed income outsourced trading.  Read more – Jefferies appoints former Barclays director as Switzerland head of fixed income Peoples joins the firm from Cantor Fitzgerald, where he spent the last six years leading the firm’s global outsourced trading offering.  Prior to this, he served at EastBay Capital as head of domestic trading and operations for more than six years.  Previously in his career, he has also worked in various trading-based roles at Diamondback Capital and XI Asset Management.  Jefferies had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.  The post Jefferies names new global head of outsourced trading appeared first on The TRADE.

Tradeweb has entered a partnership with Kalshi, as the firm looks to expand institutional access to prediction market data and analytics and develop institutional trading infrastructure for event contracts. Billy HultThe initial phase of the collaboration will see Kalshi’s real-time event probability data integrated into Tradeweb’s electronic trading platform, making the datasets available across its rates and credit marketplaces via user interfaces, APIs and data-download tools used by institutional clients. As part of the agreement, Tradeweb has also made a minority investment in Kalshi, which is the largest regulated prediction market, underscoring growing institutional interest in incorporating event-driven data into core trading and risk management workflows. Read more – Institutional prop trading interest in prediction markets on the up, report reveals Moreover, the firms plan to co-develop institutional-grade analytics combining Kalshi’s event data with Tradeweb’s pricing, liquidity and macro datasets, enabling market participants to incorporate additional forward-looking signals into trading strategies and portfolio decision-making processes. Billy Hult, chief executive of Tradeweb, said: “Prediction markets are increasingly becoming a key part of the trading landscape, and have the potential to become an indicator for institutions to dynamically assess macro risk and allocate capital more effectively.  “Together, we’re positioned to deliver prediction markets intelligence to clients and, over time, build the prediction markets trading infrastructure that meets the standards of our institutional community.” Beyond data integration, the partnership will also explore the development of an institutional-focused portal for event contracts, combining Tradeweb’s market design and distribution capabilities with Kalshi’s prediction markets platform. Tarek Mansour, co-founder and chief executive of Kalshi, said: “Institutional adoption requires scale, regulation, trust, and substantial liquidity. Partnering with Tradeweb will help us accelerate the adoption we are seeing.” The move reflects broader efforts by institutional trading venues to expand beyond execution into embedded data and analytics capabilities, as firms look to integrate alternative market signals directly into electronic trading environments. The post Tradeweb partners with Kalshi to expand institutional access to prediction markets appeared first on The TRADE.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has served trade repository (TR) REGIS-TR a €1,374,000 fine for “serious breaches of organisational obligations.” The issue concerned incorrect implementation of the new Securities Financing Transactions Regulation (SFTR) reporting regime and “compromised the confidentiality of TR data”, according to the regulator. The sanction, which reflects seven infringements under the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) and SFTR, marks the highest fine imposed by ESMA on a trade repository to date.  In addition, the fine is also the first enforcement case to concern SFTR breaches, and ESMA has issued a public notice, which will require all ongoing REGIS-TR infringements to terminate.  Verena Ross, ESMA’s chair, said: “REGIS-TR failed to comply with its obligations under EMIR and SFTR. Data on trades made available to public authorities is essential for market surveillance, enabling early detection of exposure concentrations, cross-border risks, and changes in liquidity and leverage.“Our decision highlights ESMA’s commitment to enforcing essential requirements that ensure transparency and contribute to well-functioning markets.” Under EMIR and SFTR, TRs are expected to comply with obligations to maintain their data quality and protect EU market stability and integrity, with REGIS-TR’s breaches related to EMIR and SFTR policies and procedures, organisational structure and operational risk, as well as confidentiality and misuse of information.  Specifically, the seven infringements span deficiencies in REGIS-TR’s policies and procedures, impacting the clarity of governing bodies’ responsibilities, shortcomings in the firm’s organisational structure, failure to identify and minimise sources of operational risk, an inability to ensure the confidentiality, integrity and protection of information received under EMIR, and failure to prevent misuse of information received.  Ross added: “This case stems from long-lasting serious overarching issues identified at REGIS-TR. We will continue to foster a strong compliance culture, including by taking enforcement action, when appropriate.” The regulator also confirmed that it required REGIS-TR to bring three unremedied infringements to an end, and that it had considered aggravating and mitigating factors in EMIR when calculating the fine.  The post ESMA dishes out €1.37 million fine to trade repository REGIS-TR for seven EMIR and SFTR violations appeared first on The TRADE.

As global markets continue to cast their eye to emerging markets, an increased focus on market structure shifts is vital, agreed experts speaking on the ‘navigating the evolving landscape’ panel on Thursday. Omar Bennani, head of EMEA delta one trading at JP Morgan, asserted that an increased appetite in EM is being sustained, with strong inflows into South Africa specifically as the region’s story “has become topical”. “We discuss this in risk meetings through different angles […] it has become a subject of discussion on the positive side,” said Bennani. He explained that demonstrably positive momentum is continuing to enhance the region’s attractiveness despite previous challenges. Delving further into the specifics, Bennani highlighted a rotation in investor focus away from US tech-heavy sectors. “Clearly people are shifting from what has been predominant the last few years which was the US magnificent seven companies into something that is broader. “[…] On the delta side I would say that’s what we have observed this year is consumer inflows into EM in general, from Europe in particular we see a lot of requests, inflows, to that market – EM has been a big topic and continues to be a big topic.” Read more: The TRADE predictions series 2026 – All about emerging markets  Elsewhere, panellists discussed shifts in capital market processes, including the question of increased liquidity moving to the closing auctions. Luke Alers, head non-linear derivatives, Absa, highlighted the challenges for market makers, explaining that despite large pools of liquidity, trade size is a key factor and that while more and more liquidity is moving towards the closing auctions, this works for smaller sized trades, and it is when trades get larger that things need to be considered more carefully.  “The reality is if you’ve got bigger orders to work, it does become problematic and you obviously you don’t want to move the market. Our job as a markets business is to provide access to markets and bring both sides of a trade – buyers and sellers – together as brokers.” Delving further, Alers explained that it affects clients from a pricing perspective, with trading at the close equalling a fixed price. “If you have a client coming in during the day and saying, ‘okay I’ve got this order to work, what basis can you offer?’ You can actually offer a discounted basis. And the reason why you can do that is because you’re actually matching all flows. As you know, as a brokerage we have the other side of the trade, the other side of the order. At least in some of the stocks we can subsidise that. “So, I think there is something to be said for not always coming in for the close.” The post EM inflows gathering pace as global investors broaden focus appeared first on The TRADE.

As volatility across the capital markets shows no sign of let up, expert speakers at the JSE SA Trade Connect conference on Thursday unpacked the real consequences of its persistence. Questioned as to whether from a trading venue perspective volatility is considered a positive, Alicia Greenwood, director of post-trade services at the JSE, asserted that it’s something which the exchange thrives on, particularly when one considers the full value chain. “We are moving toward a much better ability to cope with volatility as we build out our data sets, as we connect them from previously disparate sources. I think our ability to interpret that data quickly and respond as quickly as possible is really what it’s about.” “Managing volatility for all of us is just becoming more and more part of our fabric. The days of the single black swan are long gone – there’s a flock of black swans coming at you, and it’s persistent.” Salvador Rodriguez, EMEA head of global execution services at Instinet Europe, further echoed the notion of embracing volatility – especially in light of its inevitability, adding that ensuring the tools at your disposal remain of high quality is a priority. “It’s about how you react to it and how you adjust how your systems cope with it,” he asserted. “You have to continue to invest in platforms and infrastructure to remain robust. This year, just for our US business, we’ve had our top five all time volume gains in terms of messaging in the system – that’s billions of messages. To be able to cope at all times, you need that robustness in your platform.” Read more: The TRADE predictions series 2026 – The impact of market volatility Speaking from his perspective at a data and analytics-focused firm, Paul Humphrey, chief executive, BMLL, highlighted the fact that increased volatility in essence translates to increased complexity across the market – with more and more material needing to be processed. “When I was a broker, I loved volatility. As things moved, volatility was our friend. I think these days, if you leave aside all the risk elements, it just brings more complexity to the marketplace and grappling with the information is a challenge. “One thing’s for sure, the more firms understand the market microstructure of the venues they’re trading on, the more they trade on them. We see real evidence of that. When it comes to commenting on volatility, we know our place in the marketplace. We know what our part to play is in that.” When it comes to the role of volatility in shaping market strategies, Cyril Bosch, senior product manager, FTSE Russell, shared what he’s seen from his seat, pointing to the empirical ways in which global asset managers are adapting. “We’ve got a very good view of what global asset managers are doing because we help them with a lot of research, with a lot of simulation and product innovation development. “We’ve seen how they’ve shifted into alternative weighting schemes in global benchmarks, how they’ve moved away from concentrated US high valuation, and how they’ve really rotated out of that growth trade into more value – away from developed markets, perhaps into more emerging markets. Having seen that, we can see that people are responding very quickly, both on the equity side, but especially on the multi-asset side.” The post ‘The days of the single black swan are gone’ appeared first on The TRADE.

London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) has launched a new model-as-a-service (MaaS) capability, enabling financial institutions to host, distribute and analyse analytical models through a secure marketplace, with Societe Generale joining as the inaugural provider. The new offering will make seven Societe Generale datasets and analytics available through LSEG’s model marketplace, spanning fixed income, foreign exchange, ESG and equities.  In addition, clients will also be able to access the bank’s analytics alongside LSEG datasets through a single integrated environment. Specifically, the launch is set to allow firms to consume third-party and proprietary models without additional integration, with LSEG’s strategic partnership with Microsoft allowing the MaaS to provide portfolio managers, risk teams and other market participants with access to datasets, analytics and models. Aysegul Erdem, head of modelling solutions at LSEG, said: “We are excited to onboard Societe Generale as one of our partners and provide them a trusted route to market which allows their data and analytics to be distributed, discovered, and adopted across institutions.” Read more – LSEG and Standard Chartered unveil multi-year enterprise data agreementAccording to LSEG, MaaS also provides institutions with a scalable route to commercialise proprietary analytics while reducing infrastructure, compliance and go-to-market overheads. Powered by Model Context Protocol connectors, the capability enables models to be delivered directly into partner AI ecosystems, including Microsoft Copilot Studio. Bill Borden, corporate vice president, worldwide financial services at Microsoft, added: “LSEG’s Model-as-a-Service offering is an important step forward in helping financial institutions harness the power of advanced analytics and AI. Through Microsoft’s strategic partnership with LSEG, we’re giving financial institutions a streamlined path to better insights and accelerating innovation across the industry.” The post LSEG launches model-as-a-service marketplace; onboards Societe Generale as inaugural partner appeared first on The TRADE.

As developments across South African capital markets continue to gather pace, an expert panel speaking at SA Trade Connect delved into the impact of the South African Financial Sector Competitiveness Taskforce (known as Operation Phumelela). Vuyo Ntoi, managing director at African Infrastructure Investment Managers, explained that the taskforce has a “single, urgent goal”: securing South Africa’s position as the leading financial hub in Africa. Vuyo Ntoi, Derrick Msibi“The JSE has over the years been the largest capital market on the continent but the problem we’re seeing at the moment is that this position is slipping,” he said. “New centres such as Mauritius, Casablanca, Kigali have been rising up in the rankings, and Johannesburg and Cape Town have been falling. As a result of this, they’ve come together to address this.” When it came to the biggest gaps which Operation Phumelela is attempting to fill, Derrick Msibi, chief executive, STANLIB Asset Management, touched on a core issue which remains front of mind – the increasing number of local investment activities going off shore.  One topic which should be addressed, Msibi explained, is the “long standing issues around how money moves in and out of South Africa which has caused friction. “We as practitioners need to update the regulators and the policy makers in understanding how we have to deal with foreign exchange movements.” Read more: Ninety One AM’s Cathy Gibson on building deeper, more resilient capital markets The focus going forward, Ntoi added, should be on truly tangible goals which can be quickly realised. “A set of interventions is needed. Not deep structural interventions, but practical and quickly implemented interventions that can assist in bringing back a lot of what’s currently being lost. So it’s not just about rankings, it’s really about that kind of loss of capital activity in South Africa.” The Operation Phumelela initiative took inspiration from other efforts including the UK’s Capital Markets Industry Taskforce which was initially set up to improve the competitiveness of the City of London. An official announcement in November 2024 during the launch of the taskforce highlighted that the initiative was set to specifically focus on “improving efficiencies, reducing frictions and enabling financial institutions in the country to better manage investment and capital formation on behalf of domestic, regional and global investors and issuers. “It will work to improve the competitiveness of South Africa as an attractive capital raising and investment destination, both on public and private markets.” Read more: M&G Investments’ Ann Leepile on the emerging markets landscape evolution throughout 2026 Removing elements of friction in the pursuit of the further advancement of South Africa’s capital markets is demonstrably front of mind. Against this backdrop, Msibi believes the region is, in actuality, in a highly privileged position, comparable to other developed markets. “Look at the number of CFAs, look at the number of investment bankers, look at the structuring capability, and capabilities when it comes to a resident in South Africa being able to execute on whatever investment product […] I think that probably even places like London and New York are not too far ahead of where we are.” Looking ahead towards future success, the panellists enthused that there is a clear sense of optimism across South Africa. What is key, said Msibi, is that the region continually looks ahead. “Unfortunately, as South Africans, at times we only react when there’s a crisis […] Whereas here we’re trying to change the mindset and say ‘let’s think about long term’.” The post ‘Practical, quick wins’ needed to restore SA capital markets competitiveness appeared first on The TRADE.

Your panel focused on a range of market structure considerations, when it comes to fragmentation and multi-venue trading, what are the impacts on institutional investors? Using data from US markets such as Nasdaq, S&P, and Russell, the last three decades have seen two broad strands of evolution. Firstly, a massive increase in electronic order execution led to a market increasingly dominated by non-bank market makers which accelerated post-GFC. Coinciding with this automation was a big reduction in the tick sizes – also a function of electronic order execution which tends to favour smaller ticket sizes, executed in ever increasing speeds. These two trends resulted in a market that is predominantly automated with reduced trading costs as spreads tightened – on average from approximately 100bps roundtrip to less than 10bps on most stocks. The progress was stalled by the SEC’s Regulation NMS (National Market System), as evidenced by the stagnation in bid-offer spreads since 2008. Specifically, NMS was a regulator response designed to address three things. Firstly, market fragmentation, given the advent of dark pools and fragmented exchanges, it wasn’t easy to get a unified view of where the best price was to trade Google stock for example.  Market transparency was also an aspect, as dark pools operated by non-bank trading companies like Virtu, HRT and Citadel Securities have often been accused of extracting too-high economic rents from their market making activities. Finally price improvement – by introducing a National Best Bid-Offer (NBBO), so a market maker is prohibited from showing clients prices that a worse than the NBBO. The impact on institutional investors is that fragmentation tends to lead to a more complex trading execution environment, however as we see above, there are other market mechanisms, such as electronic trading, regulatory responses and venue consolidation that can still reduce unit trading costs for clients over time. All this means that buy-side firms have had to become increasingly more sophisticated in how they execute – especially in markets that are requiring ever increasing fixed costs just to stay in business. When it comes to liquidity access, what’s front of mind from the buy-side perspective? Fragmented markets lead to higher fixed costs – even as the marginal costs of accessing venues decreases – as well as higher search costs, such as latency costs, signal costs) and physical infrastructure required to link to more than one venue.  So, while the liquidity improves from market evolution, the costs required to operate in this environment keep going up.  Looking across emerging markets, what market structure changes are set to be most impactful across 2026? Increasingly companies in emerging markets have, or are considering having, dual listings – one in their home market and then one in a more developed market.  This may affect where the shares of these companies are traded. If, for example, there is much better liquidity in a company’s shares trading in a developed market, then you may see local emerging market asset managers opting to shift their trading out of the more illiquid emerging market venue into the more liquid developed market venue.   Companies considering having dual listings would typically be the larger companies listed in emerging markets and providing an alternative trading venue for the company’s shares outside of the local emerging market, could have a profound effect on the overall trading liquidity of the emerging market.   The post TRADE Talks: M&G Investments SA’s Ann Leepile appeared first on The TRADE.

Euronext has posted positive annual results, with underlying revenue and income up to €1.82 billion in 2025 – a 12.1% increase from 2024.  The Q4 results mark the firm’s seventh consecutive quarter of double-digit growth, with Euronext putting this increase largely down to non-volume related business expansion and resilient trading.  Specifically, in the past year, the firm has enhanced its footprint in the Nordics with the acquisition of software company, Admincontrol, as well expansion into Greece with the addition of Athex Group, with further plans to invest approximately €15 million of underlying expenses into the delivery of strategic growth projects.  Read more – Euronext to acquire Athens Stock Exchange marking the next phase of exchange’s European expansion In addition, the firm also launched the first fully integrated European marketplace for ETFs in September 2025 – Euronext ETF Europe – with further plans to establish Euronext Securities as the central securities depository (CSD) for four European markets by September 2026.  Speaking to The TRADE, Stéphane Boujnah, chief executive and chairman of the managing board of Euronext, said: “What makes me happy is our consistency. For years, we have under-promised and over-delivered. We’ve stayed focused on profitability and free cash flow, choosing not to follow the crowd, but to build a resilient, disciplined business. Every decision has been guided by one simple question: will we create capital or destroy it?” Within FICC markets, revenue increased by 16.2% to €342.8 million, largely boosted by strong fixed income, commodities trading and clearing growth throughout the year. Fixed income trading and clearing, in particular, recorded marked growth, noting a 22.3% increase from €160.8 million in 2024, to €196.6 million in 2025.  Elsewhere, increases in volumes and revenue capture in cash equity trading saw the equity markets division up by 11.7% to €410 million, while FX trading recorded a 6% growth to €33.4 million.  Cash trading and clearing also increased by 16.5%, up from €308.4 million in 2024 to €359.3 million in 2025.  On the other hand, equity derivatives trading recorded a decrease from 2024, down by 13.4% to €50.7 million.  Euronext noted that this decline is largely a reflection of lower volatility throughout the year.  The exchange’s results also align with Euronext’s ‘Innovate for Growth 2027’ strategy, which aims to accelerate non-volume business growth, expand the firm’s FICC trading clearing franchise and expand the cash equity and ETF offering. Boujnah added: “This is now our seventh consecutive quarter of double-digit growth, proof that we deliver. When I look back over my 11 years here and compare past perceptions with where we stand today, it’s clear how far we’ve come. We’ve built a strong, robust pan-European platform, and we remain focused on generating cash, creating capital, and staying agile and hands-on.” The post We chose ‘not to follow the crowd’, says Euronext chief after seventh consecutive quarter of double-digit growth appeared first on The TRADE.