The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that Gregg Berman has been named Associate Director of the Office of Analytics and Research in the SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets.
Berman has been a senior advisor to the Director of the Division of Trading and Markets since June 2010, and joined the SEC staff in October 2009 as a senior advisor in the Division of Risk, Strategy, and Financial Innovation.
In his new role, Berman will oversee the newly established office to conduct research and analysis that will help inform the Commission’s policies on markets and market structure.
“Gregg’s analytical expertise and market background make him a tremendous asset for our new Office of Analytics and Research,” said John Ramsay, Acting Director of the Division of Trading and Markets. “In his time at the SEC, Gregg has worked on many complex issues, including an analysis of the causes of the May 6, 2011, ‘flash crash,’ on rulemaking to create a Consolidated Audit Trail, and on the many new rules for derivatives trading required by the Dodd-Frank Act.”
The new office will provide expertise in quantitative data analysis, trading, portfolio management, and risk management, and will examine a wide variety of topics, ranging from market structure to new products and rule filings by exchanges.
The use of data analysis to help inform the Commission’s policy decisions is central to the office’s mission and will be aided by the SEC’s recent acquisition of an advanced market data system from New Jersey-based high-frequency trading firm Tradeworx. The HFT-sourced data system will for the first time allow the staff to analyze trading using the same tools and technologies used by some of today’s most sophisticated market participants.
The need for an office of analytics and research came about after the SEC learned it was unprepared to sift through the mountains of market data in the current high-speed, rapid-trading marketplace of today. That was evident when it had difficulty understanding what happened in the market on May 6, 2010-the day of the “flash crash.”
The thinking goes that examining trade data following an adverse market event would help the agency reconstruct events, root out their causes and make market structure improvements. The group will also examine policy, market structure and other issues.
Berman told Traders Magazine last year the SEC is looking to solicit applicants from both Wall Street and major universities such as MIT, Georgetown, UCLA and Princeton. A financial engineering background is highly desired.
Before coming to the SEC, Berman was a co-founding partner of New York-based RiskMetrics Group, which focuses on risk management, corporate governance, and financial research and analysis. He Berman served in various roles during his 11 years at the firm, most recently as the head of its global risk business.
Berman holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and doctorate in physics from Princeton University.
