Quantitative Brokers Opens London Office, Hires Hedge Fund Vet

The New York-based algo brokerage has opened a UK office and hired Jonathan (Jonty) Field to lead its EMEA arm.

New York-based Quantitative Brokers has opened a London office and hired Jonathan (Jonty) Field, a hedge fund veteran, to lead its EMEA business.

See who got what new job in our On The Move January 2014 Slideshow now.

The 35-year old Field joins QB from AHL, a European hedge fund where he led the Trading Analytics team. He has spent the last decade developing algorithmic execution strategies, including the tools to monitor and systematically benchmark execution performance.

The appointment of Jonty Field to head up our presence in the region reflects QBs commitment to meeting the intensifying European buy-side interest in best execution for interest rates, said Christian Hauff, CEO of Quantitative Brokers. Optimal trade execution and reducing slippage is no longer the preserve of the equities markets and this mindset will continue to spread rapidly across the global interest rate and futures markets in the months and years ahead.

Hauff and his partner, mathematician Robert Almgren founded QB in 2008.

QB appears to be experiencing solid growth. According to a recent press statement, the algo broker-dealer is expanding into fixed income markets and it claims that client trading grew 400 percent in 2013.

According to a media representative, QBs success in the futures markets is unmatched in the industry. As a result, QB is looking to provide the same trading benefits to the cash fixed income markets. This person added, Cash fixed income has traditionally been traded on request-based OTC markets but executable pricing is becoming increasingly available to the buy-side (eg CFTC rules for derivatives). This is creating the opportunity for the buy-side for the first time to be able to optimize trading and measure best execution.

QB has focused on algorithms for interest rate futures, which include what it calls the industrys first, FIX accessible multi-leg algorithm, LEGGER, which supports inter-commodity execution. QB plans to enter the cash fixed income market later in 2014.

Its headquarters are based in midtown Manhattan.