For more than three decades, Joe Wald has combined trading and technology with an entrepreneurial mindset. From his early days co-founding EdgeTrade to his current venture, Mosaic Platforms, he has kept entrepreneurship at the core of his career.
Wald joined The Open Order Podcast, a Traders Magazine production, to talk through that journey.
Wald grew up in an entrepreneurial household in Brooklyn, New York, and credits that experience with sparking his interest in building businesses. “For me, entrepreneurship wasn’t just about starting a business,” he said. “It was about identifying inefficiencies, challenging the status quo, and creating something that made people’s lives or businesses better.”
That instinct carried into his finance career. While still in college, Wald began working at a broker-dealer that became a hub for innovation. Soon after, he co-founded EdgeTrade, at a time when algorithmic trading was still in its early stages. “That was the ‘lemonade stand’ moment for me,” he said. “Except instead of paper cups, it was algorithms, routers, and market structure.”
The company evolved over a decade and was acquired by Knight Capital in 2008. Wald later co-founded Clearpool, developing a modular, customizable algorithmic trading platform that gave broker-dealers transparency and control. Clearpool was acquired by BMO in 2020.
However, not every venture has been a straight line. Wald acknowledged some of the misses along the way, such as building products before the market was ready. “Timing, storytelling, and team alignment are just as critical as product-market fit,” he said.
Wald also discussed intrapreneurship — bringing an entrepreneurial mindset into large firms such as Knight and BMO — and emphasized that conviction and team balance are key to moving from idea to execution. “I think another most important key is surrounding yourself with people who balance your strengths and blind spots. Entrepreneurship isn’t a solo sport. It’s a team effort, and the right partners can turn risk into reward.”
Looking ahead, Wald is channeling those lessons into Mosaic Platforms, his current entrepreneurial venture. He described it as an effort to “unlock the full picture of trade performance,” a response to what he sees as markets too narrowly focused on speed and short-term outcomes.
“Markets today focus on child order speed and short-term outcomes, not whether the entire trade was good for the investor or liquidity provider,” he explained. “At Mosaic, we’re not just building another venue — we’re creating a virtuous cycle where both sides win and where the best trading behavior is rewarded by design.”
