The US Options Price Reporting Authority (OPRA) has numerous vendors for its real-time and historical vendor, but two new entrants claim to offer value in this crowded space, as retail volumes increase.
The collaboration combines Exegy’s real-time OPRA data with BMLL’s historical datasets, aiming to streamline data alignment and reduce engineering complexity for market participants. The approach allows clients to conduct backtesting and research using BMLL’s historical data and transition to real-time trading environments without the need for complex data mapping or translation processes.
OPRA consolidates and disseminates pricing information for listed options contracts from SEC-registered exchanges in the U.S., including quotes, last sale prices, and volume data. Processing OPRA data presents significant data engineering challenges due to its volume and complexity.
Elliot Banks, Chief Technology Officer at BMLL, highlighted the significance of the integration: “We are taking Exegy’s raw unconflated data and applying the same conflation algorithm used in real-time. This ensures a seamless and consistent experience for clients transitioning between historical analysis and real-time application.”
While other vendors, such as Nasdaq, ICE, and LSEG, also offer OPRA data services, BMLL and Exegy claim that their offering distinguishes itself by providing an integrated environment that bridges historical and real-time data using a consistent conflation algorithm. This integration simplifies the workflow for market participants, enabling more effective strategy development and execution, BMLL and Exegy said.
Elliot Banks further noted: “We feel we’re democratising in the way we’ve done for Level 3 data across asset classes.”
Dominic Eccles has returned to Federated Hermes after a two-year stint at Fidelity International.
As of 31 December 2024, Federated Hermes held more than US$829.6 billion assets under management.
Eccles is based in the London office, which trades equities, fixed income, credit, FX, money markets, derivatives, commodities and treasuries. He reports to Dan Nicholls, group head of trading at the company.
Over his more than 10-year career, Eccles has been an equity trader at Woodford Investment Management and, most recently, Fidelity International. Prior to this, he was part of the investment operations team at LGIM and BP Investment Management and
Nicholls commented: “[Eccles] brings with him over 15 years of experience, which will further strengthen our trading desk. We are delighted to welcome him back to the team.”
US equities secondary trading venue IEX has appointed Steven Bonanno as chief information officer.
In the New York-based role, Bonanno is responsible for leading IEX’s technology strategy and scaling platforms as it expands.
The company is currently planning to enter the US options market, subject to SEC approval.
Bryan Harkins, group president of IEX, commented: “As we grow our existing equities business and anticipate expanding into options, building upon our strong technology foundation is more important than ever. Steve understands the complexities of building for multi-asset class operations.”
Bonanno has more than 35 years of industry experience, most recently serving as CEO of Best Execution Solutions. Prior to this, he was chief information officer at DASH Financial Technologies.
Earlier in his career, Bonanno held senior roles including global head of operational risk and alliance support at Bloomberg and chief technology officer at Direct Edge, which operated the EDGA and EDGX equity trading platforms before merging with BATS Global Markets (now Cboe Global Markets).
“As we scale and expand into options, Steve’s expertise in building resilient, high-performance trading systems will be key,” noted Rob Park, co-founder and chief technology officer at IEX.
Philip Macartney and Mark Heslop, ex-Jupiter Asset Management
Portfolio managers Philip Macartney and Mark Heslop have left Jupiter Asset Management as the company shutters their European Smaller Companies Fund.
Macartney has been at Jupiter Asset Management since late 2020, and Heslop since late 2019. The pair both joined Jupiter from Columbia Threadneedle Investments.
Earlier in his career, Macartney was an analyst at Bramshott Capital, Moore Capital Management and Columbia Threadneedle Investments. He has now joined Invesco as a deputy fund manager, on a temporary basis.
Heslop has not announced his next steps. Before Columbia Threadneedle, where he spent more than a decade, he was an equity analyst at Citi.
Another Jupiter alum, Spencer Copp, recently joined Jefferies as an equity trader. He was a senior dealer at Jupiter between 2020 and 2024, a role he also held at Merian Global Investors and Old Mutual Global Investors. Earlier in his career, Copp was an executive director at Goldman Sachs and a senior programme trader at ITG.
Seilern investment, with US$ 2.5 billion under management, has promoted John Grand to head of trading.
After six years at the firm as a equity trader, he has been internally promoted. He started his career at J O Hambro in operations before moving to Barings investment management as a equity trader.
Gaelle Jarrousse Ducomble has joined Goldman Sachs in London as Executive Director in FIG Specialist Sales, moving from Kepler Cheuvreux, where she held a similar role for nearly eight years.
Jarrousse Ducomble specializes in covering the banking sector.
Prior to Kepler, she held senior specialist sales roles at Macquarie Group, Mediobanca, and Morgan Stanley.
She holds a Master of Science in Finance (Magistère BFA) from Université Paris Dauphine.
ESMA is attempting to address the downward spiral in liquidity of smaller-cap European stocks. The challenge: fund managers expect research coverage before they invest, but coverage dried up post-MiFID. One solution is to combine payment for research with execution, but for some unloved companies, the issuers themselves must pay to be covered.
Issuer-sponsored research (ISR) is financial analysis commissioned and directly funded by issuers themselves, particularly smaller firms that lack sufficient independent analyst coverage. Post-MiFID II regulation, the requirement for asset managers to separate payments for execution and research (the ‘unbundling’ regime) caused a dramatic reduction in coverage of smaller European companies, exacerbating liquidity problems. In a related consultation on MiFID II research provisions dated 28 October 2024, ESMA acknowledged that allowing joint payments for research and execution services could revitalise research coverage but recognised the need for clear guidelines to manage conflicts of interest and ensure transparency.
In this context, ESMA’s recent consultation specifically on ISR proposes adapting the French Charter—a structured code of conduct outlining conditions for ISR—to the broader EU market, naming this approach “Option 3”. Option 3 aims to ensure ISR transparency, reduce conflicts of interest, and standardise contractual terms, remuneration structures, and disclosure requirements across Europe.
AlphaValue, a French independent research provider, underscored the issues with traditional research models in its answers to the consultation: “While the problem always existed, it has become worse over the past few years with the rising share of passive investing (doesn’t pay for research) and the flows out of small and mid-cap funds towards large caps. The available wallet for Small and mid-cap research is simply too small.” AlphaValue concluded “having sponsored research is better than no research.”
However, German respondents uniformly rejected ESMA’s preferred Option 3, strongly advocating for maintaining their national standards and contractual freedom. The German Association of Investment Professionals (DVFA) opposed additional EU-wide regulations: “We do not consider the introduction of a code of conduct expedient, especially as existing regulations are sufficient. We think the existing freedom of contract between issuers and research providers should remain in place.”
The German fund industry association, BVI, similarly dismissed the proposed changes: “We do not see any additional value to introduce a completely new code. Existing national codes should in practice be sufficient beyond current regulations.”
By contrast, French stakeholders strongly aligned with ESMA’s Option 3, which mirrors their existing national framework. AMAFI, the French sell-side market association, advocated clearly for the proposal: “We fully support leveraging the successful French Charter. Existing contracts should be grandfathered to avoid disruptions, maintaining equivalence with regulatory standards already present under MiFID II and MAR.”
BNP Paribas also expressed clear support for Option 3: “We support the ESMA initiative, taking the French Charter as a base, as it already provides clear standards that effectively address independence and conflicts of interest, with only minor necessary adaptations for broader European applicability.”
Support for Option 3 extended beyond France, with pan-European bodies such as Euro IRP, representing independent research providers, underscoring the approach’s balanced nature: “Euro IRP agrees with Option 3. A tightened code of conduct as proposed by ESMA is welcomed, provided it does not restrict independent research providers from participating. Sponsored research remains essential for market competition and coverage of smaller issuers.”
Elsewhere across Europe, the consensus favoured balanced, proportionate regulation. Italian and Spanish regulators called for simplicity and flexibility to support SMEs. The Austrian Federal Economic Chamber endorsed upfront payments but also recommended flexibility for smaller issuers. Nordic respondents agreed on structured independence standards yet opposed overly stringent disclosure obligations.
Professional analyst associations across Europe supported enhanced transparency but diverged on contractual specifics and payment terms. Financial institutions and industry associations consistently favoured greater contractual freedom, reflecting concerns over flexibility and practicality.
Investor-centric bodies advocated for immediate transparency and strict conflict-of-interest management to protect investor interests.
Eumedion, representing institutional investors dedicated to long-term investment, highlighted transparency’s critical role: “We would strongly advise to require any issuer-sponsored research to be made public immediately, at no additional costs to investors, irrespective of whether these investors have a client relationship with the research provider.
Teun Johnston has been named CEO of Artemis Investment Management, effective April.
Artemis holds £28.5 billion in assets under management.
On future plans, Johnston said: “We will seek to further enhance Artemis’ strengths in ongoing collaboration with our supportive strategic partner, AMG, with a focus on broadening our client base internationally and diversifying our investment offering.”
He replaces senior partner Mark Murray as head of the company. Murray will retire in June.
Johnston has more than 30 years of industry experience, most recently serving as CEO of Man Group GLG, the company’s discretionary investment manager. He left the company during a reorganisation in January 2024, which also saw GLG combine with other investment teams.
Earlier in his career, Johnston spent two years at Oakley Capital as head of investments.
Citadel Securities, Susquehanna, Jane Street, and Virtu offered retail customers of brokers a combined US$3.2 billion improvement on pricing compared to public venues during 2024, according to Global Trading analysis of best execution filings.
US retail brokers such as Robinhood have become notorious for selling their order flow to large market makers.
In return, these market makers are required to provide best execution for retail traders. Evidence of their compliance and performance can be gleaned from regulatory filings. So-called “price improvement,” defined as the difference between the execution price offered by the market maker and the quoted price on public exchanges, must be disclosed under SEC Rule 605.
Yet these disclosures, aggregated across hundreds of thousands of trades, reveal substantial differences between market makers in execution quality, trading strategies, and areas of expertise.
Effective Spread represents the difference between the execution price of a trade and the midpoint of the National Best Bid and Offer (NBBO) at the time of execution. A lower effective spread indicates superior execution quality, as it implies that traders are receiving prices closer to the mid-market price.
Dollars Saved quantifies the tangible benefit retail traders gain from market makers’ price improvements relative to public exchanges. It effectively captures the direct economic advantage transferred from the market maker to the retail investor.
Across the period from February 2024 to January 2025, retail investors trading through these four market makers saw average monthly savings of approximately $267 million, underscoring the significant scale and economic impact of price improvement. This translates into an total of more than $3.2 billion saved for retail traders across the entire year.
Trading activity was equally robust, with the market makers collectively handling over 567 billion shares during the year. This volume indicates substantial retail engagement, highlighting the critical role these market makers play in facilitating market liquidity.
Virtu distinguished itself by consistently providing the lowest effective spread among its peers, averaging $0.004 per share. This indicates a strategic focus on highly liquid and stable stocks, where competition and efficient markets lead to narrower execution margins.
Susquehanna (G1SUS), in contrast, achieved the highest average dollar saved per share, at around $0.0085. This suggests that Susquehanna specialises in trading environments characterised by greater volatility and lower liquidity, where opportunities for price improvement—and therefore potential dollar savings—are more pronounced.
Citadel Securities and Jane Street occupied intermediate positions, successfully balancing tight execution spreads with substantial dollar savings. Citadel, for instance, averaged effective spreads around $0.005 per share while providing considerable savings. Jane Street delivered an effective spread averaging $0.0052 per share, maintaining a solid middle-ground performance. Citadel traded 150 billion shares and saved retail traders over $900 million during this period, while Jane Street dealt around 110 billion shares, achieving savings close to $650 million.
The data revealed clear specialisations among market makers. G1SUS frequently prioritised trading in volatile or less liquid stocks, accepting wider effective spreads—sometimes exceeding $0.01 per share—as a trade-off for delivering higher price improvements, often above $0.009 per share, to retail clients. G1SUS’s total volume for the period exceeded 140 billion shares, contributing over $1.2 billion in dollar savings. Virtu, meanwhile, was clearly more comfortable operating in stable, liquid markets, achieving superior execution quality with narrower spreads but lower average dollar savings, typically around $0.003 per share. Virtu traded 160 billion shares, saving retail traders about $450 million overall.
In the most actively traded stocks and the high-profile ‘Magnificent Seven’ (Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta, Nvidia, and Tesla), Virtu again led in execution quality, recording effective spreads averaging just under $0.004 per share across approximately 65 billion shares traded, saving around $180 million. Susquehanna notably excelled in providing greater dollar savings in complex and volatile stocks such as Tesla and Nvidia, saving traders on average over $0.01 per share, equating to about $320 million across 45 billion shares traded, reinforcing its expertise in handling challenging market conditions.
Average dollar (cent) saved and effective spread for select market makers in TSLA from Feb 2024 to Jan 2025
Leveraged ETFs
Notably, among the ten most actively traded stocks handled by these market makers were leveraged exchange-traded products (ETPs) such as SOXS, TQQQ, and SQQQ, popular vehicles among retail traders for speculative bets on market direction. SOXS provides triple-leveraged inverse exposure to semiconductor stocks, TQQQ offers triple-leveraged long-exposure to the Nasdaq-100, and SQQQ provides triple-leveraged inverse exposure to the same index. Trading activity in these leveraged ETFs was remarkably high, collectively accounting for approximately 45 billion shares traded during the period. Effective spreads on these products varied significantly, from as narrow as $0.003 per share with Virtu to above $0.008 per share with Susquehanna. Susquehanna demonstrated notable performance in volatile conditions, delivering substantial average dollar savings of $0.009 per share, totalling approximately $150 million. Virtu maintained the lowest effective spreads, consistent with its preference for liquid and stable trading conditions, with total savings around $50 million on similar volumes.
As the only publicly traded entity among the four market makers, Virtu Financial provides transparency into the economic scale and profitability associated with its market-making activities. During 2024, Virtu executed an average daily volume of 554 million shares specifically under Rule 605 disclosures, peaking at 612 million shares daily in the fourth quarter. This represents but a tiny fraction of the actual volume of shares traded by Virtu which stood at 12.2 billion shares on average daily in 2024. This translates into daily average adjusted net trading income (NTI) from market making increasing from US$4.5 million in Q1 to US$5.5 million in Q4.
Virtu’s financial results also highlight significant expenses related to Payments for Order Flow (PFOF), brokerage, exchange, and clearance fees. These totaled $674 million for the year, with $207 million incurred specifically in the fourth quarter. Although Rule 605 disclosed activities represent a substantial and measurable segment, it is crucial to acknowledge they form only part of Virtu’s and other market makers broader and more opaque market-making and execution services, particularly in derivatives markets and other asset classes.
John Fawcett, head of equities engineering, Citadel
Robinhood’s director of product management for brokerage API has jumped to Citadel, taking on the head of equities engineering title.
Citadel Securities has a close relationship with Robinhood, paying $191 million per quarter for equities and options order flow, according to regulatory filings.
John Fawcett replaces Juan Leon, who left the company in June 2024 to operate boutique consultancy firm LightWake.
Citadel confirmed, but declined to comment further, on the appointment. Last September, it also hired William Pan as an engineering lead for the equity business.
Fawcett has more than 25 years of industry experience, and has been at Robinhood since 2020 covering brokerage data products and leading the trading platform and clearing product management team.
Earlier in his career, he founded investment algorithm development platform Quantopian and research management solution provider Tamale Software, which was acquired by SS&C Advent in 2008.
ESMA is attempting to address the downward spiral in liquidity of smaller-cap European stocks. The challenge: fund managers expect research coverage before they invest, but coverage dried up post-MiFID. One solution is to combine payment for research with execution, but for some unloved companies, the issuers themselves must pay to be covered.
