The liquidity provider will now be able to access institutional buy-side trading desks in the European markets directly via OptimX’s platform.

“Winterflood is delighted to be working with OptimX,” Scott Lesser, head of trading solutions, Winterflood Securities, told The TRADE.

“Through the seamless technology streams of OptimX and transparent liquidity of Winterflood, this collaboration between the two firms will enable enhanced productivity and trading opportunities for our institutional clients.”

OptimX Markets is an institutional liquidity management platform. The platform is designed as an extension of buy-side trading workflows with the aim of expanding their access to actionable sell-side liquidity in increasingly fragmented European markets.

Read more – OptimX connects with Charles River to offer institutional clients bilateral liquidity

The platform aims to centralise “depth and breadth of liquidity provider flow” to help streamline buy- and sell-side interactions. Confirmed OptimX Markets sell-side partnerships include Liberum, Peel Hunt and BMO Capital Markets.

 “Winterflood Securities provides exceptional liquidity and execution services,” Peter McStay, head of EMEA at OptimX, told The TRADE. “We are excited to collaborate with Winterflood, who bring to the OptimX community a diverse and broad supply of quality block liquidity.”

The news follows an announcement by OptimX earlier this week that it had partnered with order management system Charles River in order to expand its capabilities in offering bilateral trading to buy-side users.

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Winterflood declined to comment.

The job cuts are a reflection of a wider malaise in UK equity markets. In September, Winterflood, a division of Close Brothers, said annual profits had collapsed by 75% to £3.5 million, as investors shunned mid and small-cap stocks. The market maker, which specialises in covering smaller companies, said trading activity had been subdued. The FTSE AIM All-Share index has fallen 17% year-to-date.

Parent company Close Brothers reported a 52% drop in operating profit for the year to £112 million. It said that performance had been good in the second half following a massive write-down in the first-half at its litigation funding business Novitas.

Two other traders, Ben Ralph-Davies and Joel Russell also recently left Winterflood’s London business to join rival market maker Shore Capital, according to the two sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity as the matter is private.

Ralph-Davies, Russell, and Shore Capital all didn’t respond to requests for comment by publication time.

Winterflood isn’t the only financial services firm cutting headcount in equities in London. Wall Street giant Citi and Switzerland’s largest bank UBS, both made cuts in September, as reported by The TRADE.

Winterflood was formed in 1988 and was acquired by Close Brothers in 1993.

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James Perry has joined Panmure Gordon as head of trading after spending the best part of 19 years at Winterflood as its head of small cap trading, according to an update on his social media.

Panmure Gordon had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publishing.

Perry’s appointment follows several new hires to Panmure’s stock trading division in London, in January last year, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. The bank has been adding headcount under the stewardship of chief executive Rich Ricci.

Among them was Ray Powell, an equities trader, from Shore Capital and Adam Howson, a sales trader, from Winterflood Securities.

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Credit Suisse hired Marcus Friberg as its latest credit trader, based in London. He joins Credit Suisse from ING, where he spent almost five years as a corporate bond trader. Previously in his career, Friberg spent just under three years working with Citi in emerging markets debt origination. 

Agency broker BTIG promoted Paras Shah to the role of head of EMEA credit trading. Shah joined BTIG in June this year as managing director, credit, as part of an expansion of BTIG’s fixed income credit team. Shah previously served at Citi for just over three years as head of EMEA high yield trading. Earlier in his career, he served at HSBC for seven years as a director in both high yield and sterling credit trading.

Equity trader with a decade of experience, George Wales, left Winterflood Securities to join investment bank Numis. Wales joined Numis as an equity sales trader after spending the last two years at Winterflood. Prior to joining Winterflood in 2020, Wales spent six years at RBC Asset Management as an equity trader as well as previously serving in roles across Scottish Widows Investment Partnership, CVC Cordatus, and Northern Trust Corporation.

Mizuho’s London-based head of USD rates trading, Kevin Broughton, departed the firm for Wells Fargo. Broughton joined Wells Fargo as a macro rates trader after most recently spending the last year at Mizuho. Prior to joining Mizuho in 2021, Broughton served as a senior consultant at Accenture and in rates trading roles across RBC Capital Markets, Scotiabank, TD, and Morgan Stanley. Previously in his career, he also spent a year as a broker at ICAP.

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George Wales has joined investment bank Numis as an equity sales trader after spending the last two years at Winterflood, according to an update on social media.

Prior to joining Winterflood in 2020, Wales spent six years at RBC Asset Management as an equity trader as well as previously serving in roles across Scottish Widows Investment Partnership, CVC Cordatus, and Northern Trust Corporation.

His is the second appointment at Numis after the firm also expanded its electronic sales and trading team headed by Nishad Vallonthaiel with the appointment of James Crammond earlier this month.

Crammond joined the firm as an electronic sales trader after also previously serving across Olivetree Group, Liquidnet Europe, HSBC, Apex Capital Markets and BGC Partners.

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