Peter Randall, the new CEO of pan-European trading venue Equiduct, has said his main priority will be to make sure the firm’s value proposition is clearly understood by market participants.
Randall was appointed as Equiduct’s CEO and the co-CEO of Börse Berlin on 18 December, succeeding Artur Fischer, who will remain in his position as co-CEO at Börse Berlin.
Following an investment by Citadel Securities, the market-making and trade execution division of Citadel Investment Group in July this year, the exchange now has a clear retail focus, which Randall believes will be the next battleground for alternative venues.
“Multilateral trading facilities have changed the European landscape in terms of institutional flow and I think Equiduct is in a good position to do the same in the retail market,” Randall told theTRADEnews.com. “We are hoping to attract not only those firms who serve retail investors, but also institutions who want to diversify the flow they interact with.”
Equiduct has struggled to gain any meaningful market share since its launch in March 2009, trading just €177,583 in November, according to Thomson Reuters. Volumes have picked up since however, and the platform has traded just over €20 million up to 17 December this month, a trend Randall will hope to continue.
“Equiduct has great technology, great backing from Citadel Securities, and a great opportunity to build a presence in Europe,” said Randall.
Specifically, Randall’s main focus will be to ensure potential clients understand the advantages of integrating Equiduct’s virtual best bid and offer (VBBO), the firm’s proprietary calculation of the best price for a stock across all European trading venues, with its low-latency matching engine.
“Equiduct has all the right tools and products and now it is about the ability to position that in a rapidly changing environment and present it to our customer base.”