The former head of Knight Capital’s algo business Joseph Wald has joined global trading services provider GAIN Capital.
Wald, who resigned in the wake of last year’s high profile trading error at Knight Capital, joins Gain Capital as head of institutional and will run the firm’s GTX business. He will report directly to CEO Glenn Stevens.
GAIN Capital provides online trading services including market access and automated traded execution services across asset classes for both retail and institutional clients. The GTX arm of the business is an independent FX electronic communication network used by hedge funds and institutional clients.
At Knight Capital, Wald ran Knight Direct, which offers algorithmic trading strategies to institutional investors. The firm came close to extinction last August after a rogue algo led to a US$440 million loss. The firm, which is now in the process of being taken over by market maker GETCO, was only saved when a consortium of clients and competitors injected money back into the business.
Before Knight, Wald co-founded and ran EdgeTrade, an agency brokerage and developer of algo trading and direct market access software for equity markets. Wald moved over to Knight when EdgeTrade was acquired by the market maker in 2008.
“Joe is a talented visionary with the proven ability to grow trading volumes and build innovative product and service offerings for leading institutional platforms,” said Stevens. “Institutional trading is an important part of our growth strategy and having Joe lead this part of the business will help us build on the success we’ve had to date.”