Chris McConville

The firm has said that the new offering, called KCx Spark, adapts to modern trading, and addresses market needs including securing best execution, reducing latency, managing impact and adapting to fast-changing conditions by efficiently routing orders across venues.  

Chris McConville, Kepler Cheuvreux’s global head of execution services and trading, said: “KCx Spark is the first module launched on KCx Omni, our next-generation, event-driven execution platform integrating algo engines, OMS, EMS, TCA analytics, portfolio optimisation, and IOI workflows.” 

The new SOR also leverages advanced quant models and level 3 data from historical market data and analytics provider, BMLL Technologies, with the aim of enhancing algo performance.  

Kepler Cheuvreux has also said that clients will be able to use KCx’s employment of time-order delivery to mitigate latency arbitrage.  

Read more – Kepler Cheuvreux’s KCx launches MENA execution access 

BMLL Technologies chief executive, Paul Humphrey, said in a statement on social media: “BMLL is proud to support Kepler Cheuvrex’s KCx Spark, their new SOR with accurate and timely data powering quality execution. We obsess over the detail of the data, ensuring its quality so our clients do have to, allowing them to focus on innovation and R&D to improve performance.” 

Read more – Kepler Cheuvreux launches Asia-Pacific direct market access 

The new offering follows a drive in expansion for KCx in recent months. In January 2025, the division expanded its execution access to the Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA), following the announcement on new direct market access (DMA) capabilities in the Asia-Pacific markets in December.  

The post Kepler Cheuvreux’s KCx introduces new smart order router appeared first on The TRADE.

A spokesperson from Stifel confirmed a change to its footprint in cash equities is likely as part of a shift in focus towards become an advisory-led business in Europe, with capital raising capabilities for mid-market issuers.  

Stifel has also highlighted that it anticipates continuing to offer execution services and distribute its US research along with additional select industry-specific products to UK and EU-based clients.  

The TRADE understands the moves could see the firm exiting both mid-cap and large-cap trading and has prompted the departure of many senior staff members, including UK market maker for Stifel Nicolaus Europe, Robert Tappin, along with Peter Chapman, who holds extensive experience across large cap sectors.  

Both individuals have previously worked in equity trading roles at Cazenove. Tappin has worked for Stifel since 2017 and also held an equity trader position at Macquarie Group. Chapman has been at Stifel since 2020, and prior to this, he was a European equity trader at UBS for 15 years.   

“We don’t take lightly any decisions that impact our associates,” said the spokesperson. 

“Proposed changes often require that we make difficult choices, but we believe it’s important to focus our efforts and resources in areas where Stifel can be more competitive to best serve our clients.” 

Stifel’s strategy re-evaluation follows the acquisition of technology and healthcare focused European middle market investment bank, Bryan Garnier, which was announced in January 2025.  

The TRADE understands that Stifel is now likely to align the European equities business with its focus on key sectors like healthcare, tech and financials. 

Job cuts 

The firm’s plans have also seen equity sales traders Louise Brooks and Kevin James leave the business, sources close to the matter told The TRADE. Brooks departs after 14 years working with the firm, while James’ exit follows 34 years’ experience in the equity sales industry, in positions at UBS and Panmure Gordon & Co.  

Departures have also been prompted across the electronic and DMA team. 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.  

All three individuals hold extensive industry experience across firms including HSBC, Lehman Brothers, Deutsche Bank and Autonomous Research.  

Stifel declined to comment on specific personnel.  

Read more – Stifel makes a number of job cuts to its equities business in London 

The latest development follows jobs cuts to Stifel’s London equities business in 2023, which saw numerous cuts to equity research roles, as well as the departures of managing director in equities trading, Daniel Arnold and Adam Lawson, director in specialist technology sales.  

The post Stifel mulls UK sales trading exits as cash equities job cuts bite appeared first on The TRADE.

Hidden Road’s new status as a FINRA-member will allow the firm to offer new and existing institutional clients with services in fixed income assets, including regulatory-compliant prime brokerage, clearing and financing.  

The approval also builds on Hidden Road’s recent expansion of its fixed income prime brokerage platform, which saw the firm sign a deal in June 2024 to distribute Trading Technologies’ (TT) multi-asset trading platform to its clients.  

Hidden Road’s fixed income prime brokerage platform currently spans fixed income repo and global funding services.  

“Our broker-dealer registration is a significant step in the development of Hidden Road’s fixed income prime brokerage platform and bolsters our capabilities in traditional financial markets,” said Hidden Road president, Noel Kimmel.  

“As a FINRA member, we will be able to bring our best-in-class, technology-driven fixed income service offering to an expanded universe of institutional clients. Our business has tremendous momentum, and we look forward to continuing to provide superior execution and support to our clients amidst today’s exceptionally dynamic market environment.” 

The move comes following Hidden Road’s announcement at the beginning of April that it would be acquired by digital asset infrastructure provider Ripple in an agreement valued at $1.25 billion. 

Read more: Ripple becomes first crypto business to own a global multi-asset prime broker as it picks up Hidden Road for $1.25 billion 

The deal is set to close in the coming months, subject to regulatory approval, and will mark one of the largest acquisitions in digital assets, with Ripple becoming the first crypto business to own a global multi-asset prime broker.  

The acquisition will see Hidden Road transfer its post-trade activity to XRPL, while Ripple is expected to offer custody services and Ripple Payments, the crypto business’ cross-border payment solution, to Hidden Road’s clients.  

The post Hidden Road receives FINRA broker-dealer approval appeared first on The TRADE.

Tabled as part of a consultation paper launched on 15 April, the European watchdog has asked participants how effective they believe the order protection rule is for guaranteeing the best price for clients/investor protection, speed of execution, level of execution fees, split of liquidity, interconnection between trading venues, efficiency of the price formation process, modernising trading protocols and trading.

Implemented as part of Reg NMS in 2005, the US order protection rule mandates that orders be executed on exchanges that show the best price. Orders are re-routed to other competing venues if it cannot be executed at what is considered the best price.

The European Commission’s consultation has asked participants for their assessment of EU infrastructure to cater for the rerouting of orders to venues offering the best price – as per the requirements of the rule. It has also asked respondents to note if they think the geographical positioning of venues would pose an issue, and what the necessary arrangements and costs could be.

Those responding are also invited to give their opinion on the effectiveness of best execution rules in Europe, requiring them to list whether the EU or the US framework is most effective for obtaining the best results for clients.

Brought in under Mifid II, the best execution obligation requires that firms take all necessary and reasonable steps to ensure the best result for an order.

The European Commission’s consultation touches on a wide range of market areas as part of its objective to gather stakeholder feedback on obstacles to market integration across the EU. When it comes to trading specifically, the paper has a heavy focus on market harmonisation, with many sections dedicated to the potential benefits and feasibility of creating more integrated markets in Europe.

Numerous questions relate to what respondents believe could be barriers to integration across the 27 member states and their markets. It also asks respondents to assess both direct execution and indirect execution of orders, as well as the various fees charged for connections to venues across member states.

The 375-question strong consultation also assesses several other market areas including dark trading levels.

The paper asks participants why they think dark trading is growing, whether that be regulation, liquidity fragmentation, order flow competition, technological developments, or the growth of ETFs and passive management. Participants are also prompted on their thoughts on reference price waiver is fit for purpose and asks them to assess the current criteria for reference price.

The return of VWAP crossing?

Notably, the consultation asks if trading venues should be allowed to use the negotiated price waiver to execute negotiated transactions that take place with the assistance of a system or trading protocol operated by the trading venue.

Read more – ESMA thwarts European trajectory crossing plans with last minute rule change

The consultation follows European regulators’ decision at the end of last year to bring an abrupt and unexpected end to a group of trading venue’s plans to launch trajectory crossing in the region with a last-minute rule change. Said venues had been planning to use the waiver as the basis for their models.

Featured in its final report on equity transparency, published in December, the European Securities Markets Authority (ESMA) added an additional line to its text surrounding the specific characteristics of negotiated transactions, preventing exchanges from using the model on their own behalf. The rule change put a stop to exchanges’ plans in Europe.

The decision has received significant hit back from several parties – namely the venues looking to launch these products in Europe.

However, Tuesday’s consultation suggests the European Commission could be open to reassessing.

24-hour trading, the consolidated tape and the close

The extension of market trading hours for equities has become a hot topic in the US in recent months. While a handful of technology providers have offered out of hours trading for several years now, the decision by several incumbent exchanges to begin exploring implementing an extension of trading hours suggests the theme is becoming mainstream in the US.

Europe, however, seems to tell a different story. A few years ago, European participants were petitioning for the shortening of market hours. As US venues apply to regulators for the lengthening of their trading day, their European peers have shown little to no sign of following suit.

The European Commission’s consultation released on Tuesday asks respondents how positive they deem extended trading hours/24-hour trading to be for the development and competitiveness of EU markets, also asking if it is “advantageous” or “risky”.

When it comes to the tape, the Commission has also asked participants opinions on several technical elements including how effective lifting the anonymity of the EBBO, the importance of expanding the depth of the EBBO displayed, and the speed at which core market data should be disseminated by the tape.

Centrally the European watchdog has asked whether systematic internalisers (SIs) should contribute to the tape and which amendments to their regulatory framework would be required to effectively include them as contributors of equity pre-trade data.

The consultation also explores bilateral trading levels, single market marker venues and ghost liquidity, as well as, closing auction activity, with several questions asking participants why they think the close has grown so much and what fees they are charged on competing venues.

Respondents have until 10 June to submit their feedback to the watchdog. Meanwhile, an online questionnaire through which participants can respond to the consultation will be available as of 22 April 2025.

The post European Commission exploring US-style order protection rule among other market reforms appeared first on The TRADE.

Speaking at a Bloomberg Intelligence market structure conference on Wednesday, Alex Dalley, head of European cash equities at Cboe, confirmed that the venue had processed more than a trillion message events on its options market in the US earlier in the week, a clear sign of the intense market activity. 

Read more – The TRADE predictions series 2024: Market volatility

When it comes to the current state of play on desks themselves, the buy-side wants to buy, but the sell-side doesn’t want to sell, one trader tells The TRADE – a sentence not often heard across the industry.

Reportedly, the sell-side are going flat, not shorting or blocking and instead sitting in a bid to protect their book. Simultaneously, on the buy-side traders are trying to find opportunities in a barren landscape. 

Notably, recent BMLL data examining the impact of the US tariffs on market structure and how people traded showed a dramatic fall in the time that orders are resting on the book before being filled.

BMLL explained that “the same dramatic reduction is seen across Europe (~35 seconds to ~6) and the US (~25 seconds to ~7), reflecting the global impact of the tariffs,” as players look to rapidly execute volume.

When it comes to strategy, it’s difficult to blame the sell-side for this approach of protecting their books, especially given the fact that the buy-side generally has a longer-term view on trades.

One sell-side trader echoes this, confirming that instructions have been clear on the desk to keep risk very low, with instances of not showing prices to the ‘wrong’ types of clients due to the opacity of the current landscape.

Despite this, several across the street have used to current state of turmoil following the US to reinforce the importance of relationships – in particular in times of high volatility.

Though technological innovation is on an upwards trajectory with no sign of slowing down and traders’ roles continue to change, recent events have demonstrably made clear that this human touch factor is unlikely to go extinct.

Read more – The desk of the future: ‘AI conductors’ vs the traditional trader?

One trader concurs, explaining that there is a clear, unavoidable difference in rejecting an electronic order and saying no directly to an individual, explaining that in some recent instances, where the firm perhaps wouldn’t usually have said yes to a price, they have for a specific client – even if considered a loss.

For the buy-side, it’s hard to criticise why the other side aren’t meeting them – conscious that it’s an opportunity and thus have no real motivation to sell. It comes down to the simple fact that if the sell-side don’t have a view on something they simply will not price it, says one trader.

Demonstrably, when the market panics, nobody wants to take a side because of the fact it can so easily move in either direction. Of course, that does nothing to comfort clients who are more cognisant than ever of the importance of their managers’ roles in the current climate. 

The market volatility is also true of trading strategies themselves, with day to day and intraday activities swinging dramatically, The TRADE understands.

One source confirms that certain days in the past week have been completely risk off, with things changing radically just a day later, with yesterday’s sellers becoming today’s buyers – and struggling on both counts in many instances. 

Clearly, the situation is akin to a waiting game, at least for now, with desks on tenterhooks as concerns US decision making.

Another source confirms the reality of the buy-side is selling, explaining that though of course these firms are prepped to absorb some losses, some assets which have traditionally been used to hedge are no longer perhaps as viable as once before. 

The message of course being clear – that we may be entering a pivot era away from US exceptionalism and the consideration of the region as a safe haven.

As Charles Younes, deputy CIO at FE fundinfo explained on Wednesday: “We recently moved from an overweight to an underweight position on US equities, and the latest market developments have reinforced that decision. The equity sell-off has now extended into the bond market, with US Treasuries selling off overnight and the US dollar also under pressure.”

“US assets – long viewed as global safe havens – are now being repriced as sentiment deteriorates. This is not about fundamentals, which remain broadly intact, but about rising uncertainty and diminished visibility. Investors are increasingly demanding a premium to hold US-based assets.

“[…] In this environment, we believe a more defensive posture is not only prudent but necessary.”

Fake news

On Monday, the markets were sent into a tailspin as an unverified report that the US president was planning a 90-day pause on proposed tariffs momentarily sent stocks shooting back up.

One trader tells The TRADE that everything started rolling and continued to for around 20 minutes with those trading jumping in and starting to buy before realising the lack of validity of the claims. 

With the market at its most sensitive, some names have been hammered by this incident, with some hedge funds taking the opportunity to fish for assets.

The original source was put down to a misunderstanding – though some reputable financial news services had already reported, fuelling the fire of the chaos. 

Following the reports, Karoline Leavitt, the White House’s press secretary confirmed that it was “fake news”.

Demonstrably, as capital continues to rotate globally, there’s much more yet to come…

Speaking to The TRADE, Nandini Sukumar, chief executive of the World Federation of Exchanges, highlighted that the industry can expect this instability to continue for the foreseeable.

“It’s a time of great volatility, but that’s what public markets are here for: to allow investors to take a view on the global economy, political directives, and geopolitics, and to manage their risk effectively. In times like this, the operational resilience of market infrastructure really proves its worth. Things will continue to be volatile until we have clarity.”

The post Buy- and sell-side in stand-off as US tariffs waiting game continues appeared first on The TRADE.

Amit Bhuchar

The investment will provide infrastructure, expanding TransFICC’s electronic trading capabilities in a bid to enhance venue and workflow support.  

Other investors in the funding round include BlackFin Tech, AlbionVC, Citi, HSBC, Illuminate Financial, ING, and Commerzbank Group’s early-stage investor and innovation unit, neosfer. 

To date, the combined investments raised totals $50 million. 

Amit Bhuchar, head of FICC liquidity solutions, Citadel Securities, said: “Citadel Securities has a long history of developing innovative solutions to help our clients and partners address their most complex liquidity and execution challenges.  

“We are pleased to partner with TransFICC to shape the future of fixed income market making through increased automation, connectivity and efficiency.” 

According to TransFICC, the technology aims to address challenges presented by the increased adoption of algo tools, all-to-all markets and the rise of fixed income ETFs that are driving demand for automated solutions. 

TransFICC, which specialises in low-latency connectivity and workflow services for fixed income and derivative markets, launched its TransACT (Automated Customer Trading) service in 2024, which automates request for quote (RFQ) negotiation workflows for banks trading on dealer-to-client (D2C) venues.
 
Read more – TransFICC to bid for fixed income consolidated tapes

In November 2024, the firm announced its intentions to bid to be a consolidated tape provider (CTP) for fixed income, ahead of expected confirmation and authorisation of the new CTPs in Q4 of this year. 

In the same month, Broadridge Financial Solutions’ LTX partnered with TransFICC at the end of last year to enable more efficient venue onboarding via its One API for eTrading platform 

TransFICC co-founder Tom McKee said: “Fixed income trading firms need to support and expand venues and workflows while maximising efficiency. However, the time and development costs of connectivity can be significant.  

“At TransFICC, our intention is to enhance our venue and workflow support so that clients can connect more quickly and at a lower cost.” 

The post Citadel Securities leads $25 million Series B investment in TransFICC appeared first on The TRADE.

The pilot demonstrated the ability for market participants to instruct a same-day repo with a specified start and end time through BNY’s triparty platform – whereby the allocation and return of eligible collateral is settled and matured intraday against payment.  

“We are continuously evolving BNY’s platform infrastructure to unlock new trading patterns for the market,” said Gesa Johannsen, executive platform owner, global collateral, BNY. “Complementing our new early morning maturity option for triparty transactions in the US, our intraday triparty repo solution is an important step towards providing more flexible liquidity management possibilities to our clients, enabling them to more efficiently fund their day-to-day operations.” 

The intraday repo solution is designed to enable market participants to source liquidity for specified periods of time without the need to borrow for a full 24-hour period. For lenders, such as Swiss Re in this case, the solution can provide an opportunity to generate additional income on excess, idle cash. 

Richard Hochreutiner, head of global collateral at Swiss Re, said: “This is a great way to deploy any otherwise dormant intraday cash and to contribute to market liquidity. Using BNY’s platform seamlessly builds on existing infrastructure and documentation.” 

In April, Banco Santander and Rabobank also completed an intraday triparty repo transaction, executing trades in both directions — borrowing and lending — through BNY’s collateral platform.  

In March, the custodian also announced a partnership with GLMX to enable buy-side clients to direct repo trades at the point of execution to BNY Mellon’s triparty platform.   

The two firms said the integration comes off the back of growing demand from clients seeking to expand their BNY Mellon triparty usage beyond uncleared margin into repo financing, helping them to capture more benefits from being on the collateral platform.  

The post BNY facilitates first intraday repo trade through triparty platform appeared first on The TRADE.

The addition makes the bank the ninety second trading member on SIX’s platform.

Co-head of cash markets at SIX, Gregor Braun, said: “We are delighted to welcome Barclays Bank PLC as our newest trading participant on our platform. 

“We look forward to supporting Barclays in leveraging the exceptional liquidity and quality of our order book for Swiss securities and wish them successful trading. Their presence on SIX underscores the attractiveness and robustness of our market infrastructure.”

SIX claims to provide access to more than 60,000 securities, including names such as Nestlé, Roche, and Novartis.

Barclays said the move aligned with its plans to become “a UK-centred leader in global finance”.

The addition follows a busy few months for SIX across several of its business areas. The exchange moved to acquire Aquis in November last year, expanding its pan-European reach.

Read more – SIX agrees to acquire Aquis Exchange

The deal – which would grow SIX’s trading, data, listings and technology businesses – is currently awaiting regulatory approval.

SIX posted positive full-year results for 2024, with total operating income up 4.6% to $1,798.76 million, bolstered by a strong performance in its exchanges segment.

Its exchanges unit – comprised of SIX Swiss Exchange, SIX Digital Exchange and Borsa Madrid (BME) – generated operating income of $383.26 million, up 2.6% compared to the previous year, with the firm highlighting the business unit’s new organisational structure – adopted in June 2024 – wherein the exchange took on an asset-class-based approach.

The post Barclays Bank latest trading participant to join SIX platform appeared first on The TRADE.

The roll out is imminent and will take place gradually over the next few months, Optiver confirmed.

The move comes as part of the natural progression of the business, Optiver’s head of European equity market structure, Anish Puaar, told The TRADE.

“Our direct counterparty business is growing and the SI is a more familiar framework for that liquidity provision,” he said.

“The way that we trade with our buy-side counterparties now won’t change at all. Our core offering of showing two way prices through to buy-side EMSs doesn’t change in any way. We’re just now doing it in an SI capacity.”

“It is just a more familiar workflow for the buy-side institutions that we trade with.”

Puaar further added that the decision will allow Optiver to expand the number of stocks it can offer up liquidity for, ultimately expanding the strategies it can offer to buy-side firms.

“That [offering more stocks] helps us to expand the strategies we can offer in terms of trading baskets for example. There’s a wider universe and we can cater to different types of baskets for example. It makes a lot of things around the edges a bit cleaner.”

“There’s more flexibility there versus off book on exchange. When you’re reporting to an exchange you’re bound by that exchange universe. You can do more with an SI in terms of universe stock universe.”

The move will change the way that Optiver reports its trades. Prior to the decision, the market maker has printed its volumes in the off book on exchange segment. Going forward as an SI, Optiver’s trades will be reported as part of the SI bucket.

There are several changes to the SI regime pending in Europe following the Mifid II review. Puaar confirmed Optiver is currently focused on ensuring its new offering meets the new requirements.

“There’s a lot coming up in terms of changes to SI rules so we went through a lot of work to ensure we’re fully compliant and ready for what’s coming in terms of changes to SI thresholds, for example,” he said.

The post Optiver to convert to a systematic internaliser appeared first on The TRADE.

The SPIRE platform – established back in May 2017 by BNP Paribas, Citi, Credit Suisse and JP Morgan – now has 18 dealers on the platform.

Others include Barclays, Goldman Sachs, Crédit Agricole CIB, Morgan Stanley, BofA Securities Europe, HSBC, Societe Generale SA, and NatWest Markets, Santander, UBS and Credit Suisse.

Fabian DePrey, global head of structuring at RBC Capital Markets, said: “As SPIRE’s only Canadian dealer, we are pleased to bring a new footprint and credit profile to investors. Our global structuring and product teams bring expertise, liquidity and solutions capabilities to the platform.

“SPIRE is an important complement to our issuance and repack offering, and we look forward to integrating it into our broader solutions offering.”

Specifically, SPIRE allows repackaged notes arranged by the members to be issued in standardised formats.

Through the programme, investors are able to gain exposure to returns from various underlying collateral assets and customisable payoffs.

“We are pleased to join our peers in supporting the continued development of the repackaging markets for the benefit of global institutional investors,” Sian Hurrell, head of RBC Capital Markets Europe and global head of sales and relationship management. 

“We believe that RBCCM’s client-focused strategy and experienced trading and structuring capabilities will make a positive contribution to the SPIRE platform.” 

Natixis, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft, Nomura, UniCredit Bank are also involved on the platform.

The post RBC Capital Markets becomes first Canadian bank to join SPIRE multi-dealer platform appeared first on The TRADE.