Knight Capital, a broker and market making firm, has confirmed Bradley Duke, the European head of its Knight Direct subsidiary, has left the firm.
No direct replacement for Duke has been named. His departure closely follows the exit of Joe Wald, former US-based head of Knight Direct, who left the firm last month and was replaced by Brendan McCarthy.
Knight Direct provides institutional algorithms and electronic trading tools to institutional investors. Duke was involved in building the firm’s European capabilities when he joined in July 2008, initially as head of institutional electronic sales in the region.
Prior to his role at Knight, Duke had an eight-year stint in the European institutional electronic sales and business development team at broker Jefferies.
Knight Capital has been working to rebuild confidence among its clients after an error in its market making system caused the firm to lose over US$440 million and subsequently seek recapitalisation.
While the firm’s market making business operates separately from Knight Direct, the error led to a 47.9% monthly decrease in its algo business, with 112.6 million shares executed across the US and Europe in August 2012. But according to the broker’s latest figures, volumes traded through Knight Direct rebounded by 81.8% in September to 204.7 million shares.