Morgan Stanley sales trading specialist Tracey O’Shea has left the bank to join buy-side firm MFS Investment Management, The TRADE can reveal.O’Shea has swapped the sell-side for the buy-side after serving with Morgan Stanley for nearly three decades, originally joining in 1997.She joins MFS Investment Management’s European equities trading team, operating under director of international trading, Jennifer Blanchette.Morgan Stanley declined to comment on her departure.A spokesperson for MFS Investment Management could not be reached for comment at the time of publishing.The post Morgan Stanley sales trading specialist joins MFS Investment Management appeared first on The TRADE.

Wedbush Securities has collaborated with technology provider Rapid Addition in a bid to enhance the firm’s trading infrastructure.  Mike PowellThe integration sees Wedbush – Wedbush Financial Services’ largest subsidiary – adopt Rapid Addition’s cloud-ready platform, with the aim of streamlining multi-asset trading, risk management, and post-trade processes.  “The move to the cloud not only strengthens our ability to respond to market changes but also significantly enhances how we serve our clients – by improving efficiency, scalability, and integration across all touchpoints of our execution and clearing services,” said Rodrigo Parrode, Wedbush Securities executive vice president and chief operating officer. “As our business grows, so must our infrastructure. This integration strengthens our ability to scale responsibly, adapt quickly, and uphold the high standards of service and stability our clients expect from Wedbush.” The firm has also indicated that the collaboration will pave the way for future developments, such as possible expansion into further asset classes and workflows.  Mike Powell, chief executive at Rapid Addition, said: “By helping harness the benefits of cloud and integrating trading process across front and middle-office, the RA Platform will help Wedbush drive efficiency, respond faster to client needs, and scale its trading infrastructure as their business grows.” The integration marks a further partnership in a string of collaborations for Rapid Addition in recent months. In March 2025, the provider collaborated with the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) to unveil a new order routing service, JSE-FIX, designed to reduce the cost of sending orders.  Additionally, in February 2025, The TRADE revealed that Rapid Addition had partnered with trading technology firm Adaptive to integrate FIX capabilities into Adaptive’s custom trading technology platforms.  The post Wedbush Securities integrates Rapid Addition’s platform to upgrade trading infrastructure appeared first on The TRADE.

Andrew Ko has been named head of Korea sales as part of the firm’s efforts to expand their APAC footprint.The role will see Ko be based out of Hong Kong, where he is set to lead the development and execution of Marex’s South Korean financial products strategy.His focus is set to be on expanding institutional client engagement in Korea across asset classes including structured equities, fixed income and quantitative investment strategies.He brings more than 16 years of South Korean financial services experience to his new position, and will report to Franck Fayard, head of APAC for Marex Financial Products.Speaking to his new appointment, Ko said: “As bond yields ease and regulatory conditions potentially relax, we expect a rebound in demand, making this an opportune time to invest in the Korean market. I’m excited to join Marex at this pivotal moment and look forward to expanding our presence by delivering innovative solutions to clients in South Korea.”Previously in his career, Ko has worked at Nomura Securities where he held the position of executive director of structured solutions sales for more than seven years.Prior to this, he also served as a vice president at Citi in Korea from October 2009 to August 2017 and before that worked as an analyst for Lehman Brothers.“Expanding cross-border coverage for South Korean clients marks a significant step in Marex Financial Products’ APAC growth strategy and global ambitions,” said Fayard.“We are delighted to welcome Andrew to the team at a time of strong regional momentum and rising client demand across Asia. His expertise in the Korean market and structured solutions will be instrumental in deepening client engagement and broadening our financial product offerings in the region.”The post Marex taps Nomura for new head of Korea sales appeared first on The TRADE.

Nasdaq has connected blockchain-based technology, the Canton Network, to its Calypso platform, facilitating end-to-end margin and collateral workflows.Magnus HaglindThe move was developed in partnership with QCP, Primrose Capital Management and Digital Asset in a bid to highlight how “integration of on-chain capabilities alongside existing institutional workflows enhances collateral mobility across all asset classes for institutional market participants”. Through the partnership Nasdaq Calypso will also expand its capabilities to support automated 24/7 margin and collateral management across assets. These include crypto derivatives, fixed income, exchange-traded derivatives, and OTC derivatives. Magnus Haglind, head of marketplace technology at Nasdaq, said: “Capital market infrastructure and the emerging digital asset ecosystem are on the cusp of a generational shift as they converge with faster settlement and 24- hour trading, driving a new operational paradigm for market participants.“Financial institutions need to improve real time risk management and mobilise collateral to optimse capital and liquidity deployment. We are excited to work with our clients to deliver improved capital efficiency through this innovative solution.”Nasdaq Calypso allows financial institutions to manage risk, margin, and collateral needs in an integrated environment.Users of Calypso include banks, insurers, and other global financial institutions looking to process front-to-back office treasury workflows, manage risk, and meet regulatory reporting obligations.  This partnership makes the case for leveraging blockchain-based technology for collateral management in order to help financial institutions meet the demands for real-time capital efficiency, according to the firms.  Melvin Deng, chief executive of QCP, explained: “Automating collateral management on-chain allows us to offer our clients enhanced security, better pricing, and the ability to deploy capital 24/7 across both traditional and digital assets.” The post Blockchain-based Canton Network connects to Nasdaq Calypso appeared first on The TRADE.

US investment bank Stifel has appointed Sarrah Chaker as a sales trader covering US markets to European clients, The TRADE can reveal.  In her new position, Chaker will be based out of Paris, where she will report to Seema Arora, Stifel’s managing director and head of execution services for EMEA. Arora joined the firm in October 2024, as revealed by The TRADE at the time. Chakar brings nine years of industry experience to her new position, covering both trading and sales trading across global markets.  At Jefferies, she served as a US equity sales trader from April 2020 to March 2024, executing and managing US equity trades for institutional clients.  Read more – Stifel taps Hargreaves Lansdown for new equity trader Prior to this, she also worked as a European equity trader at Barclays Investment Bank in London for 4 years.  Both Stifel and Jefferies did not comment on the move. The appointment follows news in April 2025 that Stifel was re-evaluating its UK sales trading unit, with a number of positions across cash equities expected to be cut as part of a shift in focus towards become an advisory-led business in Europe.  The firm’s plans have also saw equity sales traders Louise Brooks and Kevin James leave the business, sources close to the matter told The TRADE.  In addition, Mark Barnes, director of electronic sales trading, managing director of electronic trading, Tony Nash and managing director for electronic hybrid sales trading, Colin Robb are all believed to have left the firm.   The post Jefferies US equity sales trader joins Stifel appeared first on The TRADE.

Marex and NatWest are set to deliver a cooperative margin offsetting agreement aimed at benefitting FX clients.Terry HollingsworthSpecifically, the new service means that clients who access FX futures through Marex, and FX prime brokerage services through NatWest’s markets business will receive margin relief.Marcus Butt, global head of prime services, NatWest, said: “We are delighted to team-up with Marex to deliver this innovative new service. Clients have their preferred providers for specific services, and this solution allows them to benefit from collateral optimisation while maintaining their existing relationships.”Through the move, both Marex and NatWest are expanding their respective service offerings.Clients will have access to Marex’s broker-agnostic clearing service, which operates across equities, credit, financing, foreign exchange, and rates.Read more: Marex names new head of clearing, AmericasTerry Hollingsworth, global head of futures and OTC clearing sales at Marex, explained: “This collaboration means we are able to gain access to new clients and provide them with our best-in-class clearing service. “We are excited to be cooperating with NatWest, providing our clients with access to a margin offset for their FX prime brokerage services, complementing our own prime services offering.”The post Marex and NatWest unveil new cross margining solution appeared first on The TRADE.

Max Wildenberg has joined quantitative and systematic investment manager, Qube Research & Technologies. His new role covers business development, European equities and futures.  Wildenberg joins the firm after more than three years at Aquis Exchange, where he most recently served as an executive director from February 2025 to June 2025.  He has also held senior associate and business development executive positions at the firm.  Read more – RBC BlueBay AM’s Michael Tamou departs for quantitative investment manager Qube Previously in his career, Wildenberg also worked at CACEIS as a cost transparency analyst from August 2019 to January 2022.  His new appointment was confirmed in a social media announcement. Qube Research & Technologies had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication. The post Aquis Exchange executive director joins investment manager Qube appeared first on The TRADE.

If there’s anything The TRADE has learned over the last five years, it’s that we’re only ever a stone’s throw away from the next event that will send the market into hyperactivity. The macroeconomic climate is turbulent to say the least, and the sentiment across the markets seems to be ‘don’t sweat the small stuff too much’, as there’s bigger fish to fry.Ongoing industry themes continue to develop and shape the way that we operate day to day. Outsourced trading mandates have continued to trickle in, we’ve seen the arrival of long-awaited updates to regulation around research in Europe and the UK, and the growth of the bilateral segment has continued to dominate industry discussion.This edition of The TRADE Magazine explores all this, including news reviews, unpacking key buy-side discussions at TradeTech 2025, the rebundling conundrum, and more. It also features the latest news and people moves, the hedge fund results from our 2025 Algorithmic Trading Survey and swathes more content for you to sink your teeth into. Starring on our cover and as our Meet the Desk interview for this edition is T. Rowe Price’s Toby Baker and M&G Investments’ London-based equities dealing desk, respectively. You’ll also find a Big Interview with Janus Henderson Investors’ fixed income trader and former Rising Star of Trading and Execution Khursheda Fazylova.We’ve had a changing of the guard here at The TRADE, for those of you that joined us at TradeTech, you’ll have met our new reporter Natasha Cocksedge. If you haven’t had a chance to meet her yet, flip to the back of this edition where you’ll find a short welcome note from her. In the same vein, some of you may have seen The TRADE and its sister publication Global Custodian were acquired by Finelight Group earlier this month. It’s been an exciting and eventful few months both inside and outside of The TRADE.Take a look below for more detail on the Q2 content:Buy-side cover interview – FX: The linchpin between asset classesAnnabel Smith sits down with head of foreign exchange trading at T. Rowe Price, Toby Baker, to unpack why he chose a career in FX, the asset class’s role in the wider markets and the innovations he expects to make waves on the trading desk in the near future.News review – The rebundling conundrumAs regulators’ to and fro between research bundling and unbundling comes to an end with the recent joint payment option news, Claudia Preece rounds up the current state of play when it comes to the payment for research discussion and delves into the market reaction following the UK watchdog’s recent decision.Meet the Desk – Every order has a homeAnnabel Smith sits down with M&G Investments’ London-based equities dealing team – 2024 winners of the coveted Trading Desk of the Year award – to unpack their development, and the importance of adaptability and evolution to ensure continued success in the markets.  News review – TradeTech 2025: The buy-side perspective Natasha Cocksedge explores the key buy-side topics discussed on and off stage at TradeTech Europe 2025, covering topics including bilateral liquidity, data and the rise of AI, and the possibility of 24-hour trading.  The Big Interview – Janus Henderson Investors’ Khursheda FazylovaClaudia Preece sits down with Khursheda Fazylova fixed income trader at Janus Henderson Investors, to unpack her journey to the trading desk and the important lessons learnt, how the Janus Henderson fixed income desk has handled the macro volatility so far in 2025, and what the future outlook is for traders’ day to day as the work/life balance conversation ramps up. The Algorithmic Trading Survey Hedge Funds 2025 – Algo trading growth streak continues as providers see record high hedge fund ratings In this year’s iteration of The TRADE’s Algorithmic Trading Survey: Hedge Funds,  providers have continued the trend of growth which began last year following two  consecutive years of decline from 2022 to 2023.  Closing Bell – Hello from The TRADE’s new reporter Having joined The TRADE in April, Natasha Cocksedge reflects on her first few months in the industry, and what’s to come.Read the full issue here.The post The TRADE’s Q2 Magazine: Now available online! appeared first on The TRADE.

big xyt has dropped out of the bidding process to become the EU’s consolidated tape provider for equities and ETFs. The decision was driven by a lack of necessary financial backing to continue in the race, big xyt confirmed, adding that they had engaged with key industry stakeholders and carried out a comprehensive internal review to reach this conclusion. The withdrawal comes two months after the firm announced its intention to bid in April 2025, stating that the bid specifically addressed key concerns of data quality, cost and independence.  It also indicated that it had received “overwhelming” support from the industry to go ahead in the process.  “While we had not originally planned to enter the race, we stepped up late in the process in response to concerns about competition, governance and data quality,” said Robin Mess, chief executive of big xyt. “Our proposal was shaped by a belief that the CTP should serve the entire industry – with robust governance, a focus on data quality and independence at its core. However, this vision requires strong, coordinated support across market participants, which could not be secured at this time.” Watch now – big xyt reflects on growth over the past year as it looks forward to 2025 Withdrawal takes effect immediately, and The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has already received formal notification.  The firm has said that despite its withdrawal, it understands the importance of bringing a consolidated tape to Europe, and will continue working towards its goal of providing its global clients with transparency and accessibility within financial markets.  The move also now leaves EuroCTP as the only confirmed bidder for the tape, led by chief executive Eglantine Desautel.  big xyt’s departure follows ESMA’s announcement in June 2025 that it had launched the first selection procedure for the shares and ETF consolidated tape provider (CTP). The end date for interested parties to submit requests to participate is 25 July, and after this, the watchdog will assess these against the exclusion and selection criteria before inviting successful candidates to submit their applications.  The post big xyt drops out of equities consolidated tape race appeared first on The TRADE.

Cloud-native data and investment management platform, FINBOURNE Technology has integrated with AI safety and research company Anthropic in a push to bring AI agent offerings to financial operations.  Tom McHughThe partnership leverages Anthropic’s AI assistant Claude, and combines its Model Context Protocol (MCP) with FINBOURNE’s APIs to securely allow AI agents to access live investment data, automate workflows and take real-time action across complex financial situations.  The firms have said that the integration will address challenges posed by traditional AI architectures, such as stale data, rigid integrations and poor scalability, and enable for real-world AI adoption.  “MCP is driving a groundbreaking shift in how large language models interact with enterprise tools,” said Tom McHugh, FINBOURNE chief executive and co-founder. “This transformation unlocks enormous potential for secure human-AI collaboration – where agentic AI respects and operates within your existing controls, just like a trusted member of your team.” Claude’s MCP was launched in November 2024, with the aim of providing a solution to connect AI systems to enterprise tools and data, to ultimately help frontier models produce stronger responses.  Sid Dash, chief researcher at Chartis said: “Its [FINBOURNE’s] innovative platform brings trustworthy, agentic AI into real-world financial operations – with the governance, interoperability, and data integrity that regulated environments demand.” The integration follows a growth in agentic AI developments in the industry in recent months. In May 2025, Broadridge Financial Solutions enhanced its OpsGPT interface by incorporating AI agents to support operations teams in converting data into actionable insights and covers fails research, inventory optimisation and email integration automation. The post FINBOURNE integrates with Anthropic’s Claude to provide AI agent offering appeared first on The TRADE.

MIH has received a $40 million investment from Warburg Pincus to expand its global reach.Lee BeckerAside from supporting MIH in its plans to build a diversified revenue stream which stems from across multiple geographies, the capital is also set to partially finance MIH’s acquisition of The International Stock Exchange (TISE).“The expansion of our relationship with Warburg Pincus through the new investment is an important validation of our international growth strategy,” said Thomas Gallagher, chair and chief executive of MIH.“The acquisition of TISE allows us to further expand our global footprint and provides additional opportunities to leverage our relationships with existing US members and accelerate our international growth.”  The move follows on from the $100 million investment into MIH in August 2024, which was led by Warburg Pincus’ capital solutions team.Initiatives supported by the injection included the launch of the MIAX Sapphire options exchange, as well as the build-out of a physical trading floor in Miami, and the development of the MIAX Futures Onyx trading platform, among other initiatives.“We are pleased to bolster MIH’s international expansion with this additional investment and it is a clear indication of our support for MIH and its growth initiatives,” said Lee Becker, managing director, Warburg Pincus. “The acquisition of TISE is a key component of MIH’s global platform that enhances future growth opportunities.” The post MIH receives $40 million capital injection from Warburg Pincus appeared first on The TRADE.

Liquidity provider BlockFills has been integrated into connectivity and brokerage technology solutions provider Your Bourse in a bid to bring new liquidity opportunities to brokerages and institutional investors.Elina PedersenSpecifically, BlockFills will serve as a liquidity provider to brokers on the Your Bourse platform, while BlockFills’ network of liquidity providers has been expanded and diversified through the move.Elina Pedersen, co-founder and chief revenue officer of Your Bourse, explained: “Having BlockFills on board provides our clients with direct, low-latency access to institutional-grade crypto spot and derivatives liquidity, alongside the FX, metals, and indices flows they already route through our platform.“Your Bourse clients can now seamlessly access the full suite of BlockFills products across all major asset classes in seconds.”Those connected to Your Bourse can establish an enterprise-level trading relationship to leverage BlockFills’ liquidity and execution services “in a matter of days,” according to the two firms. The offering includes continuous around-the-clock two-sided streaming liquidity, anonymous order entry and execution, and no buy or sell limits. Read more: BlockFills to list crypto derivatives products from CME GroupNick Hammer, chief executive and co-founder of BlockFills, said: “We’re excited to align with Your Bourse in an effort to simplify the process in which institutional traders access deep digital asset liquidity and reliable 24/7 pricing for digital asset trading products, including CFDs. “Our partnership combines professional-grade strength with the agility to seize market opportunities and comes at an important time in digital assets innovation as we continue to see more institutional players enter the space.”The post Your Bourse integrates BlockFills to enhance liquidity for brokers appeared first on The TRADE.

Vicky Mok has joined investment management firm Millennium as a fixed income trader.  The move sees London-based Mok leaving her most recent position as vice president of hedge fund sales at Deutsche Bank, which she had held from July 2022 to March 2025.  Prior to her time at Deutsche Bank, she served at Goldman Sachs for more than seven years, and held the position of vice president of futures sales and trading from December 2020 to July 2022.  Read more – Trader of the Year: Millennium’s Charlotte NuttingMok has also worked in associate and analyst roles at the firm. She confirmed her appointment in a  social media announcement. Millennium declined to comment.  The post Millennium selects hedge fund sales specialist for fixed income trading role appeared first on The TRADE.

Digital Asset has raised $135 million in a strategic funding round led by DRW Venture Capital and Tradeweb Markets, with a range of other banks and market infrastructure providers also participating.   Yuval RoozThe fintech said the funding will accelerate institutional and decentralised finance adoption on the Canton Network, the public permissionless Layer-1 blockchain that offers configurable privacy and institutional-grade compliance at scale. The network launched two years ago with the support of the likes of BNP Paribas, Cboe, Deutsche Börse Group and Goldman Sachs. BNP Paribas and Goldman Sachs were also among those backing Digital Asset in the latest funding round, alongside Citadel Securities, Optiver, and Virtu Financial. Digital Asset said the capital will expand the integration of hundreds of billions of real-world assets (RWAs) onto Canton, building upon its deployment of diverse asset classes, including bonds, money market funds, alternative funds, commodities, repurchase agreements (repos), mortgages, life insurance, and annuities.  The raise also deepens the relationship with several firms already part of the Canton Network and its Global Synchronizer Foundation, including, BNP Paribas, DRW, Goldman Sachs, Liberty City Ventures, QCP, and Tradeweb, all of whom have played various roles in either the testing, governance, infrastructure, or app development on the Network since its inception.  Canton has experienced rapid growth over the past year, with nearly 400 ecosystem participants on the network. “This funding milestone validates the inevitability of what we envisioned years ago: a privacy-enabled public blockchain designed specifically for institutional adoption,” said Yuval Rooz, founder and chief executive of Digital Asset.“Canton is already actively supporting numerous asset classes–from bonds to alternative funds–and this raise will accelerate onboarding even more real-world assets, finally making blockchain’s transformative promise an institutional-scale reality.”The post Digital Asset raises $135m from backers including BNP Paribas, DTCC and Goldman Sachs appeared first on The TRADE.

Citi has named Nathan Swami as Singapore head of markets, replacing Smith Smithangura who is retiring in June after more than 15 years with the firm. The move will see Swami stepping up to position effective immediately, and he will simultaneously continue his current role as head of FX trading for APAC, which he has held since September 2019. He holds 17 years of experience with the firm and has also served in leadership positions including head of FX options trading, head of FX trading for APAC and chief executive of CIBSL. Before his time at Citi, he worked as an FX options trader at Lehman Brothers in London. In an internal memo seen by The TRADE, Sue Lee, head of markets, Asia South Cluster and Tibor Pandi, Citi country officer and banking head Singapore, said: “Given Singapore’s role as a key trading hub for Citi in the region, we are confident that Nathan will use his experience and leadership to partner across all our products and sales teams to deliver best in class solutions to our clients and continue to grow our business.” Swami succeeds Smith, who during his 15-year tenure with the firm, has served in various roles including as the ASEAN head of investor sales and head of markets for Singapore. Prior to his time at Citi, he also served as director of fixed income institutional sales and official institutions ASEAN at Barclays Bank, and as a vice president at Credit Suisse.  “We are incredibly grateful for Smith’s dedication, expertise, and positive influence, which have greatly enriched our organisation. We wish him all the best for his future endeavors,” said Lee and Pandi. The departure and promotion follow recent appointments in the APAC region for Citi in recent months. In June 2025, the firm named Benny Aroeman as its new head of markets for Indonesia in a push to bolster the firm’s client solutions and markets business. Additionally, Citi named Christopher Chang as its new head of markets solutions for financial institutions for Asia South and Asia North in April 2025, effective in July.   The post Citi APAC FX trading head takes the helm as Singapore head of markets retires appeared first on The TRADE.

Susquehanna Institutional broker dealer Susquehanna International Securities has appointed Matt Coupe to its fixed income trading team. Coupe most recently served at Barclays as global head of cross asset market structure, departing the bank last year after a nine-year stint. In his new role, Coupe will be responsible for working with market participants to help them “capture unique opportunities” on securities trading platforms. Coupe has also worked in various roles across NICE Actimize, Redkite Financial Markets, FTEN, Turquoise and Ullink. Commenting on his appointment, Coupe said he was “thrilled to be joining Susquehanna; it is a company which I have long admired, and it is a firm that is constantly evolving and developing alongside the changes that we are seeing in market structure.” During his career, Coupe has served on several industry committees, including the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) Secondary Markets Advisory Committee, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Global Market Structure Sub-Committee, and the board of the Financial Markets Standards Board (FMSB). SEC David Saltiel, The US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) acting director of the trading and markets division is set to leave the regulator.  Saltiel will depart 4 July 2025 having served as acting director since December 2024. He also previously served a separate stint as acting head of the department in 2021. SEC chair Paul Atkins said: “Throughout his career at the SEC, David’s steady leadership has clearly demonstrated his commitment to the core mission of the agency, the highest ethical standards, a dedication to rigorous data-driven policymaking, and a strategic mindset. David’s contributions have made our markets stronger. The SEC will lose an outstanding resource; nevertheless, I wish him the very best in his next pursuits.” The SEC’s existing employee, Jamie Selway is set to take over from Saltiel as head of the division from July.  Saltiel’s tenure at the watchdog includes a stint as deputy director of the trading and markets division, and before that as associate director of the division’s office of analytics and research since 2016.  Prior to the SEC he served as chief economist for the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board.  Speaking about his departure, Saltiel said: “I want to thank Chairman Atkins, all the commissioners, and my colleagues in the division as well as across the SEC. The staff in the division are smart and dedicated people of integrity. It’s been an honour to work with them and learn from them.” Duco Duco has appointed Anthony Northam as the firm’s new chief operating officer. He joins from London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), where he served as group head of customer strategy and solutions for more than four years. He also played a key role in the integration of Refinitiv into LSEG, covering managing director positions. Speaking to his appointment, Northam said: “I look forward to leveraging my experience in scaling operations and building market presence to help Duco reach its next phase of growth and deliver even greater value to our customers.” Northam brings more than 25 years of experience in financial data, technology and capital markets to his new position, which will see him working out of London. Earlier in his career he has served at Thomson Reuters, based out of Singapore, where he headed up market development roles for Asia.  Michael Chin, chief executive at Duco, said: ”Anthony’s proven track record in scaling operations and driving strategic growth at leading financial data and technology organisations will benefit Duco as we rapidly expand our footprint across the capital markets ecosystem.” The post People Moves Monday: Susquehanna, SEC and Duco appeared first on The TRADE.

BlackRock equity trading vice president Zachary Goodwin has left the firm to join investment management firm CPP Investments, The TRADE can reveal.According to an update on his social media, Goodwin joins CPP Investments based in Toronto, Canada after seven years with BlackRock.Goodwin originally joined BlackRock as an ETF and index investments analyst in the firm’s global markets business after previously operating in various summer analyst internships at BlackRock and Lewith & Freeman Real Estate.Read more – The TRADE announces the Rising Stars of Trading and Execution North America for 2024He was recognised as a Rising Stars of Trading and Execution in November last year at The TRADE’s inaugural Leaders in Trading New York awards night alongside individuals from T. Rowe Price, Balyasny Asset Management, Fidelity Investments and MFS Investments.The post BlackRock equity trading VP departs for CPP Investments appeared first on The TRADE.

ION has partnered with GFO-X, the UK’s first regulated and centrally cleared trading venue for digital asset derivatives. Francesco MarginiThe collaboration will see ION powering market access, clearing and margin processing for GFO-X’s ecosystem, through the provision of software and infrastructure.  The firm has said that the move is set to meet the increasing institutional demand for secure and compliant crypto futures and options. GFO-X will also be supported by ION’s front-to-back cleared derivatives technology, such as XTP Execution, XTP Clearing, and the firm’s trade-processing platform, XTP. Francesco Margini, chief product officer for cleared derivatives at ION Markets said: “The GFO-X launch demonstrates the industry’s strong appetite to trade crypto derivatives across different regions and jurisdictions, and to trade all these products from a single technology platform.” Read more – GFO-X names ABN AMRO Clearing, IMC, Standard Chartered Bank and Virtu Financial as strategic partners ahead of launch The offering will also provide access for intermediaries and their end-clients to trade on GFO-X alongside other crypto derivatives products offered at other US exchanges.  The partnership follows the launch of GFO-X which opened for trading Bitcoin index futures and options on 9 May, with the aim of bridging the gap between traditional finance and digital assets, with further crypto derivatives growth anticipated.  “Our partnership underscores our vision of creating a highly regulated and efficient market structure that meets the needs of large institutional participants,” said Arnab Sen, chief executive at GFO-X.  “We believe that this collaboration will drive significant growth and diversification in the digital asset derivatives market, providing our clients with unparalleled opportunities.” The integration follows news that in June 2025, Trading Technologies (TT) had provided its clients with a connection to GFO-X, allowing clients trading on GFO-X to make use of TT features, such as execution algorithms, APIs and charting and analytics.  The post ION unveils partnership with GFO-X appeared first on The TRADE.

Broadridge has named Kenneth MacHarg as its new managing director, global head of futures and options trading, effective 23 June.  The move will see MacHarg leading Broadridge’s futures and options (F&O) platform as part of a push to enhance the solution’s leadership.  He will also be based out of New York in the role and report to Frank Troise, president of Broadridge Trading and Connectivity Solutions.  “The F&O platform’s modular and flexible deployment capabilities are a powerful step forward for the industry, and I look forward to collaborating with our clients and teams to drive continued growth, operational excellence, and innovation in the listed futures and options marketplace,” said MacHarg. Read more – Broadridge expands product management team with Barclays and Virtu Financial hires He most recently served as managing director, global head of futures execution product and head of North America futures and derivative clearing at JP Morgan Securities.  Prior to this, MacHarg held responsibility for the electronic trading product for equity derivatives in senior vice president roles at Barclays Capital from September 2008 to October 2010, and Lehman Brothers from May 2006 to September 2008. “We have a strong F&O business and are committed to building for the future with a team and platform that matches the ambition and sophistication of our clients,” said Troise.  “Ken will play a pivotal role in accelerating innovation, enhancing flexibility, and delivering a consistent, high-performance client experience our clients expect across global markets.” The post JP Morgan derivatives expert joins Broadridge as global head of futures and options trading appeared first on The TRADE.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has today launched the first selection procedure for the shares and ETF consolidated tape provider (CTP).Interested parties have until 25 July to submit requests to participate in the selection procedure.Following this, the watchdog will assess these against the exclusion and selection criteria before inviting successful candidates to submit their applications. Read more: Buy- and sell-side unveil recommendations for proposed equities and ETF consolidated tape structureIn a statement, the watchdog reiterated that the main aim of the CTP is to enhance market transparency and efficiency through the consolidation of both pre- and post-trade data into a single and continuous electronic stream.“This consolidated view of market activity should help market participants to access accurate and timely information and make better-informed decisions, leading to more efficient price discovery and trading and contributing to the Savings and Investment Union (SIU),” said ESMA.Read more – Consolidated tape: Avoiding a ‘garbage in and garbage out exercise’ The Regulated Technical Standards (RTS) adopted by the European Commission on 12 June 2025, is set to be used as the basis for the assessment of some criteria. This is specifically when it comes to specifying the input and output data of consolidated tapes, the synchronisation of business clocks, and the revenue redistribution by the CTP, as well as the obligation to make market data available to the public on a reasonable commercial basis. ESMA has confirmed its intention to come to a decision on the selected applicant – who will operate the CTP for a five year period – by the end of 2025.The post ESMA launches CTP selection for shares and ETFs appeared first on The TRADE.