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January 2, 2014

Cocuzza Joins Vandham Securities

A look at the equity industry's prominent hires, promotions and other notable happenings around wall Street's trading community

By By Editorial Staff

Editorial Staff

Peter Cocuzza joins Vandham Securities, a service-disabled veteran-owned brokerage, as director of business development. Cocuzza, a 30-year veteran of the trading markets, will be responsible for expanding and developing senior client relationships in both equities and fixed income. Prior to Vandham, he was with Stone Toro Asset Management in Princeton, N.J., as a vice president of business development. Cocuzza has also been an equity trader at Oppenheimer Funds, where he spent nine years, and at Mitchell Hutchins/PaineWebber, where he spent 20 years on both the buyside and sellside.

Gerard Sweeney joined Cantor Fitzgerald as a sales trader in the broker's San Francisco office. Sweeney has worked as a sales trader at a variety of firms in San Francisco since the late 1990s, including B. Riley, Leerink Swann, Stifel Nicolaus and Legg Mason.

Scott Barraclough joined Irvine, Calif.-based Ascendiant Capital Markets as head of institutional trading in the broker-dealer's Highlands Ranch, Colo., office. Barraclough was previously a sales trader at D.A. Davidson in Denver for 10 years.

Kim Opiatowski joined the Vertical Group in New York as an analyst on the broker's event-driven/special situations desk. Opiatowski previously worked in a similar capacity at Louis Capital Markets in New York.

John Dunfee joined BestVest Investments in suburban Philadelphia as a sales trader. Dunfee was previously a partner at JFD Securities in New Jersey for eight years.

Brett Fitzgerald rejoined Dawson James Securities in Boca Raton, Fla., as a sales trader. Just prior, Fitzgerald worked as a sales trader at Livingston Monroe Capital Group, also in Boca Raton. He worked for Dawson James in 2008 and 2009 as well.

Fred Federspiel joined CyberKey Data Security as its chief executive officer. Federspiel was one of the founders and heads of Pipeline Trading, which was subject to scandal in 2011. He was fined $100,000 and admitted no wrongdoing in the Pipeline case. CyberKey enables individuals and small businesses to create a personal layer of security around sensitive data.

Jay Biancamano has helped co-founded startup Hoyvin, a vendor that filters data and information in social media for traders. He is also the startup's chief executive officer. Biancamano was a former marketing official at a number of electronic brokerages, including Liquidnet and Aritas. Hoyvin's other co-founder is John Halloran, a former technology executive at Liquidnet.

Texas-based Esposito Securities has hired Sanjeev Sunder as a sales trader in its Dallas office. Sunder, a 15-year professional, will cover quant and index hedge funds. He is also charged with driving new institutional business based on his relationships in Canada. He spent the last three years at Cormark Securities and prior to that was at BMO-both in Toronto. He reports to Erik Johnson, head of institutional sales trading.

Joe D'amico joined Ameriprise Financial Services as a financial planner in Plano, Texas. He is also studying under the certificate program in financial planning at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. D'Amico was formerly a sales trader with Cantor Fitzgerald in Dallas.