Francesca Mace Wilson, associate EMEA equity trader, Columbia Threadneedle Investments
Francesca Mace Wilson has joined Columbia Threadneedle Investments as an associate EMEA equity trader. She reports to Michael Johnson, head of EMEA equity trading.
Based in London, she will also lead the internal coordination of capital markets in Europe.
As of December 2024, Columbia Threadneedle Investments holds US$645 billion in assets under management.
Mace Wilson has more than a decade of industry experience, and has spent the last five years at Capital Group as an investment control analyst, taking a senior role in 2022. Earlier in her career, she was a trading assistant for FX sales trading at HSBC.
Equity trader Ciro Ambrosio has been named director of electronic sales trading at Piper Sandler.
Based in New York, he reports to head of market structure and electronic trading strategy Rich Steiner.
Piper Sandler reported US$1.5 billion in net revenues for 2024, up 13% from 2023’s results.
With more than two decades of industry experience, the majority of Ambrosio’s career has been spent with RBC Capital Markets. He was vice president of electronic sales trading between 2011 and 2014, and a director between 2017 and 2025. During the interim, he was vice president of electronic sales trading for KCG Holdings (acquired by Virtu Financial in 2017).
Earlier in his career, Ambrosio was an electronic sales trading associate at CIBC Capital Markets.
Piper Sandler did not respond to requests for comment.
Iress is selling QuantHouse to market data provider BAHA Tech Holding in a €12.5 million cash transaction.
The deal is expected to close by the end of 2025.
The decision to sell the low-latency market data business, established in 2005, follows an ongoing strategic review at Iress. Earlier this year, Iress sold its superannuation business to global financial services provider Apex Group. In both cases, the company has stated that it does not believe it is the “ideal owner” for the businesses being offloaded.
QuantHouse serves the low-latency HFT market, competing with providers such as Exegy and Magmio.
Marcus Price, Iress Group CEO, commented: “Iress is focused on strengthening and growing our core business operations in Wealth and Trading & Market Data. While QuantHouse has been a valuable part of our business, we recognise its future potential will be best realised with an owner committed to investing in its global expansion.”
QuantHouse will operate as an independent unit at BAHA.
Existing QuantHouse market data feeds will continue to be fed into Iress’s software for five years after the transaction. Iress will continue to provide market data services through its trading and market data business.
A 12-month transition programme will see Iress continue to provide some services to QuantHouse as BAHA assumes ownership.
Nomura is set to acquire three Macquarie public asset management businesses in an all-cash US$1.8 billion deal.
The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2025.
The Japanese bank will take over Macquarie Management Holdings, which owns Macquarie’s public asset management business in the US, Macquarie Investment Management Holdings Luxembourg, and Macquarie Asset Management Holdings Austria.
Through the expansion, Nomura’s assets under management (AUM) for its investment management division will rise from US$590 billion to US$770 billion. A total 35% will be held by ex-Japan clients.
According to Morningstar asset flow data, Macquarie US funds held US$9.3 billion AUM at the end of March 2025. The bulk of this came from the Small Cap Core equity fund (US$6.9 billion), while the remainder was made up of municipal bonds and a taxable bank loan bond.
“This will be transformational for our investment management division’s presence outside of Japan, adding significant scale to the US, strengthening our platform and provisioning opportunities to build our public and private capabilities,” stated Kentaro Okuda, Nomura president and group CEO.
“The acquisition will align with our 2030 global growth and diversification ambitions.”
Macquarie’s businesses will continue to grow under Nomura’s management, with plans in place to increase AUM scale and diversify offerings. Nomura’s asset management services will be made available to business clients.
Current management for the businesses will retain their roles, led by Shawn Lytle, president of the Macquarie funds and head of Americas for Macquarie Group. He is supported by John Pickard, chief investment officer for equities and multi-asset, Greg Gizzi, chief investment officer for fixed income, and Milissa Hutchunson, head of US wealth.
Elsewhere in its global expansion, Nomura recently appointed Douglas Stewart to lead distribution for EMEA and Latin America.
Nomura will be US wealth distribution partner for Macquarie Asset Management and provide seed capital to a number of Macquarie Asset Management alternative funds for US wealth clients.
The two companies have established a working group to identify further opportunities for collaboration.
Equity trading revenues picked up in US investment banks over the first three months of 2025 in light of energetic pre-US tariff activity, with the push for top spot becoming a three-horse race.
JP Morgan saw the greatest success story, with an 87% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) hike in equities financing and market making revenues to US$3.81 billion. This also represented a 41% year-on-year increase, from US$2.7 billion in Q1 2024, and put it in competition with battling titans Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.
US bank equity trading revenues
Goldman continued to edge ahead of Morgan Stanley in overall equity trading revenues – but the gap between the two investment banks, which have been in close competition since Q2 2024, is narrowing. Morgan Stanley reported more than a 50% QoQ increase in revenues, up 78% to US$4.1 billion. The YoY change was far more subdued, however, up just 4% from the bank’s strong lead over competitors in Q1 2024.
Goldman’s steady performance over recent quarters resulted in a 21% revenue increase in Q1. Although the most marginal of the banks referenced here, the firm’s steady performance over recent quarters meant it remained the frontrunner, with a reported US$4.19 billion in equity trading revenues. Its progress was more clearly seen when YoY results were considered, with its 35% increase in revenues the second largest of the cohort.
In the last three months, Goldman CEO David Solomon commented: “We started to see growth showing and slowing in late January and early February. We obviously saw significant moves in equity markets as people positioned for a different kind of trade policies during March, and we saw significant moves in the March period, which actually led to higher activity for us in a variety of ways.”
Bank of America and Citi followed similar trajectories, with revenues rising in tandem but overall performance leaving them well behind the three leaders of the pack. BofA’s revenues rose 48% to US$2.19 billion over the quarter, and 15% YoY. Citi was up 36% QoQ and 25% YoY to US$1.5 billion.
During an earnings call, BofA was questioned on their competitive capabilities.
“This has been a relentless climb up the ladder,” responded Brian Moynihan, CEO. “The idea is to keep gaining share, but at a pace that capitalises on the volume of revenue into the business and grows from there, as opposed to grabbing it and giving it back and grabbing it and giving it back. Expect us to keep gaining share. We’ll keep closing the gaps.”
On investor behavior, Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser observed that clients are wary of making big moves in an uncertain environment after March’s turmoil. “At the moment, [we’re] still seeing deals happening. Even over this last weekend, we were pretty busy. But I would say that most clients are pausing their plans. No one is taking bets in the market right now.
“We’re seeing them prep for more headwinds, so we’re seeing some bolstering of already strong balance sheets.”
Jeremy Barnum, chief financial officer at JP Morgan, agreed that corporate clients were adopting a “wait and see” approach to markets post-US tariffs.
Less concerned by macro conditions is Solomon, who is confident in Goldman’s strength going forwards. “We’re early in the quarter, and so far the business is performing very well and clients are very active,” he affirmed.
Considering global uncertainties, “the animal spirits are still there, insofar as folks are trying to not get caught offsite. We’re seeing natural volatility,” he continued. “The question over time will be, at what point does the uncertainty result in a knockout of the new issue business? Volumes will slow on the back of just a continued sense of uncertainty, and then you see gapier markets and lower volumes. [At the moment] we’re not seeing that.
“For all of the concerns about what could come down the road in the real economy, the market making and the ability to transact to clients as they up-and-down their leverage levels has been very orderly.”
“Markets are off, but clients remain very much engaged,” concurred Ted Pick, Morgan Stanley CEO. “A bear case would be a weaker economy, weaker sentiment. But that’s not where we are.”
Fraser agreed: “There are a lot of complicated dynamics happening, but it is pretty orderly out there on the trading side. We’re seeing clients taking the opportunity to de-risk, so that if we have more turbulence ahead everyone’s in a stronger position for it. But it’s early days. We’ve got to see how this unfolds.”
Gianluca Biagini and Ron Lefferts, co-CEOs, global data & analytics, LSEG
LSEG has appointed Gianluca Biagini and Ron Lefferts co-heads of the global data and analytics division.
Based in London and New York respectively, the pair report to LSEG CEO David Schwimmer. Within their roles, they are responsible for the growth of the company’s financial database service Workspace – the successor to Eikon, which is being withdrawn effective 30 June.
The new platform offers integration into Microsoft products, interoperability with Teams and Microsoft 365 aiming to improve workflow.
LSEG’s main competitor in this space is Bloomberg, with the Bloomberg Terminal reporting more than 350,000 subscribers as of 2022. LSEG Data & Analytics most recently reported 40,000 customers.
Biagini, currently a senior vice president at S&P Global Market Intelligence, will join the company in August. With almost 30 years of experience, he has been a partner at IHS Markit and global head of data solutions at Bloomberg.
Lefferts has been with LSEG since 2021, first as group head of strategic accounts and latterly as group head of sales and account management. Across his 25 year career Lefferts has held senior roles at companies including IBM and Merrill Lynch.
Depth of order book collapsed as liquidity providers fled unprecedented volatility, Global Trading analysis shows.
In a market rocked by tariff uncertainties and extreme volatility, the liquidity of e-mini-S&P 500 index futures, traded on CME, showed an extraordinary collapse in order book depth over the two-week period before 11 April. The reduction in liquidity of US stocks over the same period was more modest, Global Trading analysis shows.
Detailed measurements averaged over 15 minutes period between 24 March and 11 April show that during normal trading hours, from 2pm to 10 pm BST, liquidity resting across the first 10 ticks on the bid and offer of the CME lit order book experienced a dramatic withdrawal in just a matter of days.
Using Level 2 order book data, this liquidity is expressed in the number of limit order contracts placed on the bid and offer side within the first ten ticks away the market price. Multiplied by the contract value and index price, this gives a dollar amount for available S&P futures liquidity.
Robust liquidity beforehand
From 24 March to 28 March, liquidity on the bid and ask on cash equity open was around US$250 million and up to US$350 million on the cash close. In contract terms, that represents between 800 to 1100 limit order contracts resting passively in the book.
Available futures liquidity started to decline abruptly on 31 March, showing a decline between US$150 million to US$250 million by the end of trading.
A collapse after ‘Liberation Day’ However, the real change came after the US introduction of tariffs on 2 April, or ‘Liberation Day’. This led to a substantial decline in passive liquidity as measured by limit order depth.
On 3 April, during the 15 minutes after the cash open, resting liquidity on the first ten ticks on the bid and ask was only around US$100 million. This drought worsened despite the administration U-turn on some tariffs, with the VIX index reaching highs of 57 and staying above 30.
By 10 April, resting liquidity on open and close was barely 10% of what it had been only ten days prior. With liquidity on the first 15 min post cash open at US$40 million on the bid US$48 million on offer, respectively US$ 45 million on bid and US$34 million on offer in the 15 minutes into the close of US equities, liquidity resting in the order book has all but disappeared.
While passive liquidity waned, the need for liquidity increased. Contracts traded rose by more than 60% between 25 March and 7 April, from 1.02 million to 3.5 million contracts traded on the day. This liquidity supply-demand imbalance on CME contributed to volatility.
When contacted by Global Trading for comment on the findings, CME stated: “Our markets are operating with exceptional resilience in a period of tremendous uncertainty and record volumes.”
A less pronounced change in stocks Global trading also looked at the evolution of US cash equities liquidity, as measured by available limit order offer and on demand 10 basis points away from the NBBO.
While this analysis was only conducted using daily average data, it shows the average liquidity on the 100 biggest US stocks by market cap followed a similar pattern as the S&P 500 index future albeit in a less pronounced manner:
Average daily 10 bp away from NBBO resting liquidity in 100 largest US stock by market cap, data from BMLL Vantage
Data indicates resting liquidity over 10 basis points above and below the NBBO in cash equities diminished approximately 75% after 2 April for the 100 biggest stocks.
Citadel Securities, the largest US market maker, Jane Street declined to comment. Jump Trading, Optiver, Headlands did not respond to request for comments.
Although data for April is not yet available, volume in VIX futures was subdued up to the end of March, staying below 2024 levels.
Demand for VIX futures rose significantly over the last month, with volumes hitting 637,030 on 31 March. However, these figures were still well below those seen in August 2024, which peaked at 856,900, or even the 679,920 recorded on 12 April 2024.
The value of the VIX index at close, however, has skyrocketed, hitting 52.33 on 8 April. This far exceeds the 38.57 recorded for 5 August last year.
Cboe was criticised after the event by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), which stated that the VIX index was overly reliant on market maker quotes for pre-hours trading.
The group saw record highs in US overnight trading activity in Q1 2025, with average daily trading volumes for proprietary products up 36% year-on-year to 124,600 contracts. Between 2022 and 2024, average daily volumes on the US EDGX Equities Exchange trading venue’s early hours trading sessions also saw a spike – up 135%. Cboe subsequently launched 24-hour trading for stocks listed on EDGX earlier this year.
In a bid to meet derivatives demand, Cboe has expanded its coverage with the launch of S&P 500 equal weight index (EWI) options on its network.
EWI options can be used for hedging and directional trades based on macro trends and broader equity market dynamics. With a mid-sized notional value, based on 1/10th of the value of the S&P 500 EWI, these options will be accessible to both retail and institutional investors as a complement to Cboe’s existing S&P 500 Index (SPX) options, Cboe stated.
“Investors [are] turning to options at record levels to help manage US equity market exposure and volatility,” commented Catherine Clay, global head of derivatives at Cboe. “We expect these options to cater to both retail and institutional investors looking to diversify and implement a variety of trading strategies, ultimately providing them greater choice and ability to tailor their exposure to fit their needs.”
In a geographical expansion, Cboe has also opened a Hong Kong base for its derivatives market intelligence and content business, responding to significant demand for US market access from APAC clients.
Wei Liao will lead the franchise.
The derivatives market intelligence business aims to support investors’ understanding of cross-asset market dynamics, with this expansion providing the means for regionally specific trend coverage.
On the regional expansion, Mandy Xu, global head of derivatives market intelligence at Cboe, commented: “APAC is a key region where options and futures are gaining rapid momentum among both institutional and retail investors, and with that, we see a significant opportunity to serve this market through expanded data access and client education.”
Liao has more than 15 years of industry experience, specialising in macroeconomic research, trading and portfolio management. She joins Cboe from CQS Asset Management, where she was a portfolio manager. Prior to this, she founded and managed derivatives-focused hedge fund Watercourse Macro.
ESMA has tidied up rules on volume caps, systematic internaliser (SI) reporting, circuit breaker mechanisms, and tweaked execution policy standards but missed an opportunity to use its CTP proposals to enforce consistency.
In the first of two reports published on 10 April, the European Securities and Markets Authority confirmed an industry-friendly approach to execution policy. It simplifies the categorisation of financial instruments into ten distinct asset classes. and requires firms to also adopt comprehensive monitoring processes, assessing their executed trades against reliable market data.
In its report, ESMA introduced new guidelines for assessing execution quality. Beyond simplifying the classification of financial instruments, firms must implement monitoring criteria, including predetermined thresholds for price deviations, the minimum percentage of traded volume meeting market reference prices, and the minimum number of compliant transactions.
Moreover, ESMA requires an annual evaluation of execution policy effectiveness—or immediate assessment if monitoring indicates possible shortcomings—hoping to uphold high standards of transparency and investor protection, while keeping administrative demands proportionate
Unlike in the US, these evaluations will not take the standardised shape of SEC Rule 605 or 606 and fall short of enabling the wider public to scrutinise effectively order flow routing and execution quality across all possible counterparties.
Despite such shortcomings, ESMA places its faith in the quality of industry disclosures. “From the policy perspective, order execution policies should effectively enhance the execution quality for retail and professional clients,” EMSA said.
Dashing any hopes that its consolidated tape proposals will improve the consistency of best execution disclosure, ESMA explicitly states that “it is not the intention of the draft RTS to introduce a de facto mandatory consumption of consolidated tape data. Firms are free to source the data they deem useful for the purposes of best execution, if it provides a reliable and truthful presentation, in terms of completeness and accuracy of the data, of the execution prices obtained in the market”.
Responding to Global Trading, an ESMA spokesperson referred to a 16 December report on equity transparency, which modified flags in post-trade reporting. These include, for example, a field specifying for bilateral trades if they were Benchmark (‘BENC’), Portfolio (‘PORT’), Reference Price Transaction (‘RFPT’) etc. However, this revised framework stops short of enabling greater public scrutiny into how bilateral orders are routed, or execution quality, leaving concerns around bilateral execution transparency largely unaddressed.
In its second report on SI notification, volume cap and transparency calculations (RTS 3), and harmonisation of circuit breakers (new RTS 7a), ESMA presents a new reporting regime.
The new reporting regime transitions the responsibility of trade data publication from SIs to DPEs clearly identified in a publicly accessible ESMA registry. This change aims to improve transparency and accountability, though questions remain the re too on whether the market will gain granular visibility of individual DPE contributions to APA-reported volumes—particularly significant given that APA (Approved Publication Arrangement) data represented 20-25% of total European equity volumes last year, according to BMLL Vantage.
Additionally, ESMA confirms moving from the double volume cap (venue-level at 4% and EU-wide at 8%) to a unified EU-wide cap at 7%, utilising transaction reporting data under Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR) Article 26. This transition reduces firms’ administrative burdens by eliminating legacy daily reporting obligations and retiring outdated data collection systems.
The recast RTS 7a on circuit breakers standardises their deployment across both dark and lit trading venues, granting trading venues flexibility in choosing suitable volatility management mechanisms—including trading halts and/or price collars—while mandating periodic reviews and public disclosure of key operational parameters.
ESMA has submitted these proposals to the European Commission, recommending adoption within three months.
StoneX Group has agreed to acquire futures brokerage and clearing firm RJ O’Brien & Associates (RJO).
RJO generated approximately US$766 million in revenue in 2024, while StoneX Group reported US$1.7 billion in net operating revenue over the year. The group currently has a market cap above US$3.5 billion.
All RJO’s global businesses will be merged into StoneX. Gerry Corcoran, chairman and CEO of RJO, will take on a senior leadership role at StoneX following the acquisition.
Sean O’Connor, executive vice chairman of StoneX, commented: “[This establishes] us as a leading global derivatives clearing firm and reinforcing our position as an integral part of the global market structure across asset classes.”
By January 2025 results StoneX was the 16th largest futures commission merchant (FCM) in the US by total funds, according to CFTC data.
The approximately US$900 million deal is expected to close in H2 this year. The purchase will be made up of cash and shares of StoneX common stock. The company will use bridge financing for the cash portion, and plans to issue US$625 million in long-term debt before closure.
StoneX will also assume up to US$143 million in RJO’s debt through the transaction, with Bank of America providing debt financing.
Corcoran said: “RJO’s clients will continue to enjoy the same enduring relationships with the brokers they know so well and the high level of service they know they can expect from us. In addition to all the products we offer today, our clients and brokers will have a plethora of new products and services across asset classes available at their fingertips, bringing meaningful new trading and hedging opportunities.”
Broadhaven Capital Partners is RJO’s financial advisor, and Mayer Brown LLP its legal advisor. Bank of America is acting as financial advisor for StoneX, with Davis Polk & Wardwell as legal advisor.
ESMA has tidied up rules on volume caps, systematic internaliser (SI) reporting, circuit breaker mechanisms, and tweaked execution policy standards but missed an opportunity to use its CTP proposals to enforce consistency.
