On April 27—a day that saw 7.5 billion shares exchange hands in the equities markets—institutional broker BTIG raised more than $4 million for various charities at its annual fund-raising event.
Against the backdrop of the first-ever press conference by a sitting Federal Reserve chairman and the public viewing of President Obama’s birth certificate, the broker enjoyed healthy trading volumes, which helped make BTIG’s ninth annual Commissions for Charity Day a success.
Despite the distractions, the Dow Jones Industrial Average managed to post a respectable 95-point gain on positive U.S. economic news and the Federal Reserve’s announcement it would end its $600 billion bond purchase program. The charities managed to benefit from the day’s modest trading flows and mild volatility, BTIG co-founder Steven Starker said.
"The volume today was a bit lower than last year, and so was the volatility, especially after the Federal Reserve press conference began," Starker said. "But everything went smoothly. We really know how to pick the day to do this event," he said, tongue in cheek, in reference to last year’s event.
Last year’s Commissions for Charity Day was held on May 6, a day now burned into the collective memory of Wall Street as that of the "flash crash." That day, 19 billion shares traded hands amid extreme volatility in the equities markets. Thanks to that, BTIG raised more than $4 million for various charities.
As always, this year BTIG donated the commissions it earned from the 200 million shares that changed hands in its equity and equity derivatives operations. The money will be divvied up between 120 to 130 children’s charities nationwide, including A Little Hope, All Stars Helping Kids, Autism Speaks, the Deafness Research Foundation, Jacob’s Cure, St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital and the Starlight Children’s Foundation.
Since the event’s inception nine years ago, BTIG has raised $20 million.
This year’s daylong event featured Michael J. Fox, Nick Swisher, Eli Manning, Sean Avery, John McEnroe, Justin Tuck, Johan Santana, Tom Coughlin, Reggie Jackson, Joe Namath, Mark Messier and NYSE Euronext CEO Duncan Niederauer acting as sales traders, working the phones with BTIG’s clients in the firm’s New York office. In addition, Ronnie Lott, Joe Morgan and Tony Gonzalez handled orders in BTIG’s San Francisco office, and Marcus Allen was in the Los Angeles office.
Starker told Traders Magazine that former New York Jets quarterback Namath enjoyed his three-hour stint on the trading floor so much that he wanted to come out of retirement, move back to New York and grab a spot on the broker’s desk. Also enjoying the festivities was former tennis professional McEnroe, who lived up to his history as a vocal player. He was overheard yelling his trademark phrase, "Are you kidding me?!" at both clients and other sales traders. It was all in the name of fun and charity, Starker added.
Away from New York, BTIG rolled out Commissions for Charity Day internationally for the first time, in its offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney and London.
"We built our business internationally two years ago and now have two very experienced guys running it," Starker said. The two are Gary Hayes, formerly chief operating officer at Collins Stewart, who is in charge of the European desk, and Jesse Lentchner, a nine-year Goldman Sachs alum, who was recently hired to run the desk in Asia.
"Now that we have more visibility overseas, our customers there wanted to support international charities," Starker said.
Some of the international charities that received donations were Kids Company, Little Havens and Demelza Hospice Care for Children.
About 90 percent of the charities selected to receive funds come from client nominations and the balance from BTIG. Participating clients can designate how much of their commissions are paid and to which charities the money should go.
"The trading floor had an enormous amount of energy, with clients, athletes, models and actors all coming together working on the trading desk to commit to raising money for charities," Starker said. "It was a day of everyone giving for a common good cause."
