Market maker Old Mission has obtained a brokerage license modification for its Old Mission Markets’ subsidiary from Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, which will enable Old Mission Markets to begin offering trading services directly to buy-side institutions and ETF issuers later this year, complementing the firm’s existing market making business conducted through the Old Mission Capital broker-dealer.
Founded in 2008, Old Mission has grown, providing trillions of dollars in on-screen liquidity since the firm’s inception, across virtually every exchange-listed asset class globally, the firm says. The firm says that leveraging its advanced technology infrastructure and quantitative techniques, Old Mission has built a reputation for being willing to take short and long positions in many of the hardest-to-price and most illiquid ETFs.
Two industry veterans have been hired to drive the growth of the new institutional services business. Bryan Christian, formerly Head of US Sales at Cboe Global Markets, has joined the firm as Managing Director, Head of Business Development and Strategy. Harry Whitton, who mostly recently worked in ETF Sales Trading at Virtu and before that held senior sales positions at other leading firms in the ETF industry, has joined as Senior Vice President, Head of ETF Sales and Trading.
“The seismic changes underway in the industry – in particular the rotation of assets from mutual funds to ETFs, the continued tightening of spreads and the increasing focus on execution quality – all play directly into our core strengths,” said Old Mission co-founder and CEO Joe Guzowski. “The launch of an institutional client-facing business later this year is a natural evolution of our firm, and we could not be happier to have two industry professionals as well-respected as Bryan and Harry lead it.”
“Most of the industry’s largest institutions and ETF issuers have benefited over the last decade from the high-quality liquidity Old Mission provides, often in their hardest-to-trade names,” said Christian. “We look forward to Old Mission now being able to work directly with these clients by offering unmatched prices and service levels, ultimately helping them succeed in the increasingly competitive ETF space.”
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