Block trading is traveling across the Pond.
Los Angeles-based JonesTrading, a firm dedicated to helping the buyside find block liquidity, said it was going to open a London office as part of a strategic initiative to expand its services to Europe.
Packy Jones, chief executive at JonesTrading, told Traders that the move comes in response to client demand for regional expansion of the firm’s relationship based model for block trading and execution services as well as for the firm’s ancillary capital market and independent research services.
JonesTrading via its International Limited subsidiary, has been an FCA registered broker since 2002.
The new office, to be located in London, will be fully operational by the second quarter. The traders located there will be charged with focusing on cross border trading between Europe and the U.S. and trading blocks in European ordinary equities. The office will be led by Gary Cunningham.
Cunningham, a trading veteran with over 30 years of experience in the UK and U.S. equities markets, has worked at the London Stock Exchange, BZW, Robert Fleming and ABN Amro. Most recently he was chief executive of Execution LLC’s U.S. based brokerage operations.
Over the course of the last several years JonesTrading expanded its international footprint, which began with initiatives in global trading based in the U.S., as well as an expansion into trading Asia securities. A staffed office in London is the next logical step, Jones said, in the ongoing process of growing the international operation.
