Feb 10, 2012
Hooper quits as Aritas plots European restructure
Marcus Hooper has stepped down
from his position as executive director and head of Europe at block trading facility Aritas, as the firm seeks to reposition its offering in
the region. Hooper joined Aritas, formerly
known as Pipeline, in 2007 when the firm began building its European business.
“It’s been a very rewarding
experience for me to establish a new business around advanced technology
under challenging market conditions,” said Hooper. “I look forward to seeing my
Aritas colleagues continue to build this business and am proud of what we
achieved together over the past four years.”
Aritas initially had plans to
launch its block trading venue as a multilateral trading facility in April
2009, but faced a series of regulatory delays that postponed its introduction
until May last year.
According to
figures from Thomson Reuters Equity Market Share Reporter, Aritas traded
€934,853 in October 2011, the last month it published trading volumes with the
data vendor. Jay Biancamano, executive chairman at Aritas, told
theTRADEnews.com in late January that the firm’s European strategy was being
evaluated.
Prior to its rebranding as Aritas, Pipeline’s US business was the subject of a regulatory investigation by the Securities and
Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC found that Pipeline failed to notify customers how their orders were being
handled, with many filled by an affiliated proprietary trading firm.
Aritas is now
starting to rebuild and will focus on revamping its Alpha Pro product, a tool
that recommends trade execution
strategies based on real-time analysis of comparable past orders and
outcomes. The block trading venue operator has also enhanced its Algorithmic
Switching Engine, which uses a range of algos to execute orders based on the
strategies suggested by Alpha Pro.
“The team in London is strong
and we expect them to play a leading role in growing our next-generation Alpha
Pro business,” said Biancamano.
Anish Puaar
+44 (0)20 7397 3817
anish.puaar@thetrade.ltd.uk