(FLASH FRIDAY is a weekly content series looking at the past, present and future of capital markets trading and technology. FLASH FRIDAY is sponsored by Instinet, a Nomura company.)
Record options activity and rapid product expansion, from 0DTE contracts to crypto-linked derivatives, are reshaping market structure. With extended trading hours, rising retail participation, and new exchange models coming online, regulatory initiatives are playing a bigger role in shaping risk management and market transparency.
James J. Angel
James J. Angel, Associate Professor and Academic Director of the FINRA CRCP Program at Georgetown University, offered a measured assessment of the current regulatory environment. “Fortunately, I don’t see our current crop of regulators having a huge agenda for the options industry,” he said. “That being said, there will be collateral damage from other regulatory initiatives.”
Angel pointed to crypto regulation as creating ripple effects. “As crypto is a big regulatory thrust right now, we can expect more rapid approval of crypto-related options,” he noted. The re-architecting of the Consolidated Audit Trail will impact options markets in both reporting requirements and fee structures.
Angel acknowledged that 0DTE options “may not cause much regulatory concern from the current SEC. However, when there is the inevitable blowout in the markets, there may be some attention paid there.” This highlights the reactive nature of some regulatory responses, with frameworks often playing catch-up to market innovations.
Defining Investor Protection
The question of balancing innovation with protection requires clarity about what investors actually need protecting from. Angel outlined a hierarchy of protections: “When we discuss investor protection, we need to be clear about what we are protecting investors from. The most important thing is to protect investors from fraud. Then we need to make sure they have the information they need to make good investment decisions. We need to protect them from the failure of intermediaries which may make their assets disappear.”
Beyond these fundamentals, he identified concerns about “abuse of selling practices that will hoodwink people into doing stupid things” and whether “investors can really understand some highly complicated products.” The most philosophically challenging question: “How much we want to protect people from their own foolishness.”
Angel noted that “we already have a well developed regime in options,” but suggested the conversation needs broadening. “However, we need to be concerned about other highly complicated products as well and should have a conversation about the right way to protect investors with these products.”
His proposed solution combines education with engagement: “As a teacher, I know that the only way to make sure that people reallllly understand something is to give them a test on it. One embodiment would be for a brokerage firm to give a 5 or 10 question multiple choice quiz before moving on to the next level.”
Angel envisions investors “leveling up” like video games, gaining experience points through quizzes and trading. “While the moralists decry gamification in investing, it can be very useful in education and reducing financial illiteracy. The natural desire for gold stars and status will lead people to do what is needed to gather the information they need.” He added that “investors can brag on Reddit that they are a ‘Level 5 Schwab’ or ‘Level 17 IBKR’ trader,” creating more educated clientele and reducing broker risk.
The Biggest Gap: Regulatory Structure Itself
When asked about regulatory gaps, Angel pointed not to missing rules but to structural dysfunction. “The biggest regulatory gap in the United States is caused by the overwhelming mess of overlapping agencies. We have well over 100 financial regulatory bodies in the United States and they don’t always play nicely together.”
He was particularly critical of the SEC-CFTC divide: “The never-ending battles between the SEC and CFTC over who regulates what are a joke. We are the only developed nation on the planet that has separate regulators for commodities and securities.” The historical reason? “The only reason we have a separate regulator today is that the SEC chair in the early 1970s, Ray Garrett, did not want the job of regulating the Chicago futures pits and lobbied Congress NOT to get jurisdiction over them.”
Prof. Angel called for comprehensive reform: “We need to think not only about SEC/CFTC and CFPB, but also the role of SROs, the states, and insurance and banking. It’s a heavy lift, but as they say, the longest journey starts with a single step. If we don’t start the conversation, we will never fix the mess.”
He cited the proposed GENIUS Act as exemplifying the problem: “It gives stablecoin issuers the choice of literally(!) 55 different regulators to choose from. What could go wrong?”
“If we get the regulatory structure right, then the regulators are likely to make better decisions,” he concluded.
DTCC and EY Share Insights on 24×5 Equity Trading, Revealing Up to 10% of Total Equity Volume Projected to Be Traded During Overnight Sessions by 2028
New York/London/Hong Kong/Singapore/Sydney, December 4, 2025 ‒ DTCC, the premier market infrastructure for the global financial services industry, and Ernst & Young LLP (EY US) today announced the publication of their research findings on 24×5 trading, titled “The Shift to 24×5 Trading: What It Means for U.S. Equity Markets.” The report details the industry’s transition toward near-continuous trading, operational and risk implications, and strategic considerations for market participants in preparation for the change.
Key findings include:
Impact to volumes: Most surveyed firms expect overnight trading volumes to gradually rise. By 2028, 1%–10% of total equity volume is projected to be traded during the overnight sessions, boosting global market access.
Retail and institutional participation: Retail investors are expected to initially drive overnight trading, with institutional participation assumed to rise during market stress and as infrastructure develops. Over half of survey respondents foresee greater institutional activity in volatile periods.
Market harmonization and safeguards: Extending trading hours requires aligning market safeguards, such as circuit breakers and surveillance, and updating SIP data feeds to a 24×5 model for real-time accuracy and market stability.
Risk, margin, and liquidity: Extended hours add complexity to risk, margin, and liquidity management. Almost 60% of firms plan technology and risk upgrades.
Global demand, especially from APAC investors, and regulatory permissibility are key drivers for the move to 24×5 equity trading. The convergence of securities and crypto brokerages is also influencing expectations for near continuous access. Firms are encouraged to assess their readiness, participate in industry forums, enhance risk management and operational capabilities, and critically evaluate their global footprint and vendor dependencies.
“As interest in near round-the-clock trading of U.S. equities grows, we are meeting this demand by extending our clearing hours to support our clients and further strengthen the safety and soundness of the markets,” said Val Wotton, DTCC’s Managing Director and Global Head of Equities Solutions. “DTCC is committed to leading large-scale, industry-wide initiatives that deliver positive change for the industry and the investing public. We look forward to continuing to work collaboratively across the industry towards a successful implementation.”
“Extending trading hours represents a significant step for U.S. equity markets, aligning market structure with the expectations of an increasingly global, always-on investor base,” said Mark Nichols, Principal and Capital Markets Strategy & Market Structure Leader, EY US. “Through this collaboration with DTCC, we aim to equip market participants with clear, actionable insights on navigating the complex firmwide implications and operating model considerations of a 24×5 trading environment — helping the industry collectively build a more accessible and resilient marketplace.”
In March 2025, DTCC announced NSCC’s plans to extend clearing hours to support 24×5 trading, from Sunday at 8:00 PM ET to Friday at 8:00 PM ET, targeted for implementation in Q2 2026.
The full white paper is available for download at DTCC’s website.
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Research Methodology In support of this paper, DTCC surveyed 95 participants from 84 firms, including 72 NSCC members.
About DTCC With over 50 years of experience, DTCC is the premier post-trade market infrastructure for the global financial services industry. From 20 locations around the world, DTCC, through its subsidiaries, automates, centralizes, and standardizes the processing of financial transactions, mitigating risk, increasing transparency, enhancing performance and driving efficiency for thousands of broker/dealers, custodian banks and asset managers. Industry owned and governed, the firm innovates purposefully, simplifying the complexities of clearing, settlement, asset servicing, transaction processing, trade reporting and data services across asset classes, bringing enhanced resilience and soundness to existing financial markets while advancing the digital asset ecosystem. In 2024, DTCC’s subsidiaries processed securities transactions valued at U.S. $3.7 quadrillion and its depository subsidiary provided custody and asset servicing for securities issues from over 150 countries and territories valued at U.S. $99 trillion. DTCC’s Global Trade Repository service, through locally registered, licensed, or approved trade repositories, processes more than 25 billion messages annually. To learn more, please visit us at www.dtcc.com or connect with us on LinkedIn, X, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.
Riti Samanta, Global Co-Head Fixed Income, Systematic Fixed Income Portfolio Manager, at Russell Investments, brings nearly 25 years of experience blending quantitative rigor with portfolio management. In a conversation with Traders Magazine, she discusses how Russell Investments approaches portfolio resilience, the practical application of systematic methods in fixed income, and why the convergence of AI-driven financing and blurring public-private credit markets represents one of the most significant developments ahead.
As Co-Head of North America Fixed Income at Russell Investments, how do you approach building resilient portfolios in the current macroeconomic landscape?
Riti Samanta
The main approach I take in this environment starts at the top of the fixed income portfolio. Any broad fixed income portfolio has three major risks: interest rate or duration, credit risk and liquidity risk. When we construct a portfolio, one key question we always ask is: What is the overall relationship between interest rate duration and credit risk? Those remain two significant risks in fixed income, and all the macroeconomic uncertainty like tariffs, the path of rates, growth, inflation, and labor market data filters through that lens of interest rate and credit spread risk. Liquidity is another major one that is always in the background and that we have to manage regularly as market conditions or events impact liquidity conditions.
When we talk about resilience, we’re really trying to combine risks that have the potential to diversify one another—credit risk and interest rate risk generally have that property over longer periods of time. For example, the MOVE Index as a measure of bond market volatility and 10 year rates have come down this year, while credit spreads are extremely tight—around the 1st percentile over the past 20–25 years in investment-grade credit. When spreads are that tight, the risk is clearly to the downside because they’re bounded at zero. On the rates side, we likely have one or two cuts ahead of us, though the path will be very data- and policy-dependent.
So resilience, in practice, comes from understanding how these three primary risks are evolving. We keep a close eye on the level of diversification especially between duration and credit risk and monitor the factors driving their correlation so the portfolio can hold up across different macroeconomic outcomes.
Can you walk us through how your team integrates systematic strategies into fixed income management at Russell Investments?
We integrate systematic strategies in two main ways: through systematic methods used in portfolio construction and through factor-based strategies in managing specific sectors of fixed income. On the construction side, using systematic approaches means evaluating the trade-offs between different potential exposures and bringing those into a mean-variance-optimized framework. It’s a scientific way of weighing risks and potential returns across components.
A big focus for us is ensuring these approaches aren’t a black box. Systematic methods shouldn’t work only under one objective function or only in certain market environments. We’re very aware that the relationship between credit and interest rate risk can shift, including periods when the correlation turns positive. Because portfolio outcomes are judged over short, medium, and long horizons, we stress-test our systematic process across many objective functions, time periods, and regions.
The second way we apply systematic approaches is in managing exposures such as credit. We run relative-value active strategies across investment-grade, high yield, global credit, and both short- and long-duration credit. We rely on factors that we believe have a consistent risk premium and extract them using systematic portfolio construction methods applied to the bond universe. The advantage is that we can tightly control risks and ensure exposures remain within defined tolerance bands relative to the benchmark, enabling a very risk-aware and disciplined credit portfolio.
What differentiates Russell Investments’ fixed income philosophy from others in the industry, particularly in the North American market?
One of the biggest differentiators at Russell Investments is our open-architecture approach. Having worked at two other organizations, I can appreciate how powerful it is to access the entire global landscape of managers, styles, and internal strategies when building portfolios to meet client outcomes. Fixed income is a complex space, and deep expertise often sits in highly specialized subcultures within organizations, so having access to that level of talent is really powerful.
Another key point of differentiation is how we approach clients. Because of Russell’s consulting background, there is a very keen orientation towards improving client outcomes and solving client problems in creative ways across teams. People here are naturally oriented toward thinking about the client’s objectives from a total-portfolio perspective and bringing all of our tools and insights together in innovative ways.
This approach has led us to create some truly unique products in the marketplace—whether it’s open-architecture OCIO solutions, the unique ETF structures we’ve been able to launch, or more efficient ways of implementing portfolios across manager positions in both equity and fixed income. There is clear evidence that these differentiating elements have meaningfully impacted client performance and range of possibilities.
With interest rates, inflation, and geopolitical tensions reshaping fixed income markets, what trends do you believe will define the next 12–18 months?
I think one of the trends that is really interesting, especially in bond markets, is the confluence of the AI revolution and the way that financing is happening across both private and public credit. Recently we saw the Meta deal come to market in a blended offering of public and private debt that was made available to institutional investors. There almost isn’t a clear demarcation anymore between private and public markets, so understanding how the two are integrated, where it’s prudent to draw financing from one versus the other, and how to construct portfolios that use both in a liquidity-sensitive way is, in my mind, one of the most important developments in the investing space over the next year to year and a half.
The other broader trend is occurring in the global rates markets where we are now starting to see material divergence between the path of rates in the US vs. UK or Japan, for example.
Fixed income investors can take advantage of these divergent paths through relative value trading in rates and more broadly the divergent growth and inflation paths underlying these rate narratives creates a broader set of opportunities in both global rates and credit investing.
How is Russell Investments leveraging data science, AI, or machine learning in its fixed income processes and risk management?
We use data science and machine learning as tools to support portfolio management. Because systematic credit strategies require processing enormous amounts of data, data science becomes essential. We rely on SQL, database tools, and programming languages like Python to manage and analyze that information.
We also use optimization techniques for portfolio construction, which require coding and software to test different outcomes. Machine learning enters the picture as an extension of econometrics: exploring statistical relationships, including nonlinear patterns, using tools like neural networks. But we maintain a strong bias toward economic intuition and clear priors. As fiduciaries, we must be able to explain why a model behaves the way it does, so we always pair more complex approaches with simpler models to justify the added complexity.
Beyond that, AI plays a role in productivity—tools like Copilot help refine text, assist with research, or translate between coding languages. These are smaller but still meaningful efficiency gains for the team.
How do you see clients’ expectations evolving around fixed income?
In terms of client expectations, I think what’s really exciting about managing fixed income in today’s world is that yields are truly back. You can earn yields of around 4.6% on AAA corporates and close to 7% in high yield. Being able to earn that in high-quality, default-remote credit has reshaped the fixed income landscape. Clients are naturally attracted to these characteristics, but they’re also extremely discerning. Many clients are using data science and AI tools themselves, and they expect us to be transparent about how we use these tools and how they impact performance and productivity.
I think with quant fixed income, what’s interesting is how much these concepts have been socialized across the industry. Whether it’s managing assets in a systematic credit framework or using quantitative methods for portfolio construction, the general level of familiarity and comfort with these models has changed a lot over the last 10 to 15 years. Clients have seen good performance with them in different areas, and they’ve developed a real sense of comfort and robustness around these approaches.
Because of that, conversations about systematic fixed income today have become far more sophisticated. People want to talk about what these methods mean in practice, how they’re used, and their merits and limitations, rather than simply asking how they differ from fundamental credit selection. It’s been a meaningful shift, and clients continue to raise the bar for transparency and evolution in how we use these techniques.
What have been some of the pivotal moments in your career journey as a woman leading in systematic fixed income at a global firm like Russell Investments?
With nearly 25 years in fixed income, some of the most pivotal moments in my career came when I found roles or opportunities that were genuinely intellectually interesting to me and working with people who challenged and supported me.
In every firm I’ve been part of, I’ve had the chance to build something new. I think that’s partly my constitution and a function of people meeting me on the other side of the table and being willing to help me do that. At Russell Investments, it has been exciting to bring together open architecture with quantitative and systematic methods on a platform of this scale. I’ve been fortunate to have leaders who support that vision.
On a personal level, one major turning point was when I had my son. I have a 15-year-old now, and at the time I was also at a point where the opportunity came up to move from managing a quant team to a portfolio manager role. That was something I had been looking to do for some time, but, as life would have it, that opportunity arrived literally at the same moment I had my first child. So I had to really ask myself whether I wanted to take that on or choose a different path.
I was very fortunate to have a supportive partner at home and manager at work, and I did take on the role. It was difficult, particularly from a work–life balance perspective, and I fully respect that others might have made a different choice, but that decision opened the door to many opportunities. I discovered that I enjoyed managing money and working with clients, and I was able to bring my cross-asset thinking and quantitative background into that work, which eventually led me into a very fulfilling path in systematic fixed income.
Another pivotal moment came later in my career. I was a strategist and managing money, but I felt I was capable of something else. The firm I was at was going through a restructuring, and I had to look for another opportunity. I even thought about leaving the industry entirely and started doing some consulting projects in sustainability and other topics that interested me. But once again, something drew me back in, and the role at Russell Investments came about with a broader remit and an orientation toward building solutions for clients. It was exactly the kind of work I felt suited for at that point in my career.
What changes have you seen in the industry when it comes to gender diversity, and where does the work still need to be done?
Early in my career, the only people I saw doing the kind of work I wanted to do were almost always white men. The few women I did encounter in those roles often seemed quite worn down by the process, not because they weren’t capable, but because the path had clearly taken a lot out of them. It was a very small sample, of course, but it didn’t give me many examples of what I might want to grow into.
That has really changed. Now I speak at various conferences and am involved in different industry organizations, and when you look around large asset management firms today, you see a meaningful cohort of senior women across investing, sales, wealth, operations—many of whom came through completely different paths. Recently, for example, our CIO and President, Kate El-Hillow, was named one of American Banker’s Most Powerful Women in Banking, and being in a room with those nominees was incredibly inspiring.
It’s much more balanced now, and that creates real role models for younger women at many different levels and in many different parts of the organization. It gives them the ability to look across the firm, pick and choose what resonates, and think about where they want to position themselves as they move forward.
In your view, what are the most effective ways firms can cultivate a pipeline of diverse talent, especially in quantitative and fixed income roles?
I think one of the most effective ways to cultivate diverse talent ties back to having women at different levels of the organization. When you’re moving up through your career, you naturally look for role models—we all collect bits and pieces of people and imagine which parts we could see in ourselves. If you don’t have a broad set of examples, it’s hard to picture yourself in those roles.
At Russell Investments, our analyst program is very well balanced in terms of gender, and as you move from analyst to senior analyst to associate and senior portfolio manager, there is solid representation of women. I can think of women at my firm managing money, managing senior client relationships, working as quants, analysts, and on the trading desk. That breadth really helps maintain a strong pipeline.
The biggest challenge is the drop-off that often happens when women have children or other caregiving responsibilities, and supportive teams and benefits are crucial at that stage. What makes it harder today is the higher turnover in our industry—people earlier in their career move roles more often, which can weaken the longer-term social contract that allows firms to invest in someone through a period of reduced capacity. I’ve benefited from that kind of support, and I think it’s essential for keeping the pipeline strong.
How do you personally mentor or support the next generation of women in finance, and what impact do you hope to make?
In terms of personal mentorship, I mentor several women in a more individual capacity. I serve on the investment committee of my undergraduate college, Reed College. It is a liberal arts college in the Northwest and not a typical training ground for careers in asset management so there I help students—many of whom come from nontraditional paths—explore careers in finance. I also have an informal cohort of women I’ve met and sustained over the years across organizations. As a first-generation immigrant who came here as a student, I try to focus especially on men and women who are earlier in their careers or who might not necessarily have the access of more conventional backgrounds.
I speak regularly at industry conferences, and that often leads to meaningful conversations and connections. I have had some truly transformative mentors in my career and I’m very conscious of how important that support has been. I want to ensure I’m giving that back to the broader community and helping create opportunities for others.
FactSet and Arcesium Debut Tech To Unite Front, Middle, and Back Office Workflows for Asset Owners and Managers
Amid Industry-Wide Battle Against Opacity, FactSet and Arcesium Deliver End-to-End Unification of Asset Management Lifecycle Across Public, Private, and Alternative Markets
NORWALK, Conn., Dec. 3, 2025 — FactSet (NYSE:FDS) (NASDAQ:FDS), a global financial digital platform and enterprise solutions provider, and Arcesium, a leading global financial technology firm for the investment industry, today announced a strategic partnership to deliver a unified investment management offering designed to seamlessly integrate front, middle, and back office asset management workflows across public, private, and alternative markets. This partnership addresses the growing demand for solutions that unify workflows, connect fragmented data, and enable firms to navigate the increasing complexity of modern investing.
“Feedback from our clients across the industry consistently highlights data fragmentation as the leading operational challenge facing asset managers today, with some estimates showing that regulatory compliance costs for global asset managers have doubled over the past decade,” said David Mellars, SVP, Senior Director, Middle Office Product Management at FactSet. “These pressures are driving significant changes in how firms approach both innovation and everyday operations, and FactSet’s partnership with Arcesium is in direct response. Combatting fragmentation and unifying the entire deal lifecycle, inclusive of back office accounting solutions, is an essential step for the industry, especially as capital markets rapidly evolve, regulations shift, and competition intensifies across asset classes. This is more than an integration; it’s a shift toward connected capital, where data, technology, and innovation converge to redefine the future of investing.”
Integrating analytics engines, data pipelines, and AI-powered workflows, this end-to-end solution enables deeper due diligence, and streamlined portfolio monitoring and reporting across asset classes. Buy-side teams can efficiently ingest, model, and analyze diverse asset types—including illiquid and bespoke investments—yielding a “single source of truth” for investment and compliance teams.
Comprehensive Coverage Across All Asset Classes: Rather than focusing primarily on public markets or requiring disparate systems for private and alternative assets, the FactSet-Arcesium solution is purpose-built to provide seamless integration of workflows across public, private, and alternative asset classes, ensuring unified operations and reporting.
For asset owners and managers—including pension funds, family offices, and hedge funds—the convergence of public and private markets is accelerating dramatic shifts in capital allocation and industry competition. FactSet data illustrates that private credit has become a standout segment, with record fundraising climbing from $198 billion in 2023 to $210 billion in 2024, and $124 billion raised in just the first half of 2025, according to FactSet estimates. Industry concentration is escalating: FactSet data indicates that mega-managers now secure 46 percent of capital raised, despite representing only 2.4 percent of managers, intensifying competition for high-quality assets.
As global private capital continues to grow, asset owners and managers must contend with rising data and transparency demands, and increasingly complex portfolios, a challenge addressed by unified solutions like FactSet and Arcesium’s partnership, enabling smarter navigation of today’s multi-asset landscape.
Truly End-to-End Platform: Front, Middle & Back Office Connected
By leveraging FactSet’s global data infrastructure and Arcesium’s cloud-native technology, the partnership delivers superior data consistency and advanced analytics within a flexible, interoperable platform, uniquely addressing the challenge of integrating critical middle and back-office functions, such as accounting and compliance, that have historically been underserved or siloed. This empowers asset managers to streamline operations, automate processes, and adapt rapidly to evolving regulatory demands without vendor lock-in.
“Integrating Arcesium’s comprehensive post-trade platform with FactSet’s robust investment analytics has significantly enhanced our operational efficiency. This seamless integration allows us to streamline portfolio management, improve performance analytics workflows, and make more informed investment decisions,” commented Neal J. Wilson, Co-Chief Executive Officer and Co-Chief Investment Officer, EJF Capital.
This platform combines FactSet’s advanced front and middle-office analytics and portfolio management tools with Arcesium’s proven back-office technology, including IBOR (Investment Book of Record), ABOR (Accounting Book of Record), and Reference Data solutions. By bridging the gap between public and private assets, the platform delivers a single source of truth that simplifies processes, enhances transparency, and accelerates decision-making.
“In an increasingly complex and interconnected financial landscape, firms require sophisticated, unified solutions to navigate evolving market dynamics and regulatory demands,” said Mahesh Narayan, SVP, Head of Commercial Partnerships at Arcesium. “By combining Arcesium’s deep operational and data management capabilities, including our UBOR and Aquata platforms, with FactSet’s comprehensive front-office suite, we are delivering a truly holistic and future-proof solution. This partnership will enable our clients to achieve unprecedented levels of data integrity, accelerate their data strategies, and unlock new growth opportunities across all asset classes.”
About FactSet
FactSet (NYSE:FDS | NASDAQ:FDS) supercharges financial intelligence, offering enterprise data and information solutions that power our clients to maximize their potential. Our cutting-edge digital platform seamlessly integrates proprietary financial data, client datasets, third-party sources, and flexible technology to deliver tailored solutions across the buy-side, sell-side, wealth management, private equity, and corporate sectors. With over 47 years of expertise, a presence in 20 countries, and extensive multi-asset class coverage, we leverage advanced data connectivity alongside AI and next-generation tools to streamline workflows, drive productivity, and enable smarter, faster decision-making. Serving approximately 9,000 global clients and over 237,000 individual users, FactSet is a member of the S&P 500 dedicated to innovation and long-term client success. Learn more at www.factset.com and follow us on X and LinkedIn.
About Arcesium
Arcesium is a global financial technology company delivering pre- and post-investment and enterprise data management solutions to some of the world’s most sophisticated financial institutions, including private market firms, hedge funds, and institutional asset managers. Expertly designed to achieve a synchronized golden source of data throughout a client’s ecosystem, Arcesium’s cloud-native technology is built to systematize the most complex workflows and help clients achieve scale.
Today, Arcesium services over $5.3 trillion in gross AUM and over $1.2T in sell-side capital balances and has modelled over 160+ million investments to date. Arcesium was built from a platform developed and tested by investment and technology development firm, the D. E. Shaw group, and launched as a joint venture with Blackstone Multi-Asset Investing. J.P. Morgan, another large client, later made a strategic investment in the company, helping Arcesium further its mission: to power the entire investment lifecycle. Arcesium currently has a staff of over 2,300 software engineering, accounting, operations, and treasury professionals. For more information about Arcesium and its capabilities, visit www.arcesium.com and follow the firm on LinkedIn.
Institutional players to embrace extended trading hours, crypto present in many trading strategies, data volume surges, and AI shakeout
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
St. Louis, New York – 3 December 2025 – 2025 proved to be a pivotal year for global capital markets. Surging market data volumes, constrained data center capacity, and shifting liquidity patterns created persistent pressure on trading infrastructure and workflows. Against this backdrop, Exegy, a leader in market data and trading technology, is sharing its outlook for the forces that will shape 2026.
David Taylor, CEO of Exegy, said: “Over the past year, we’ve seen clear shifts in how liquidity forms, how data moves, and how firms think about their technology stack. In 2026, we expect those trends to continue. Extended trading hours in U.S. equities are gaining traction, and with that comes a noticeable increase in retail influence on liquidity and price formation. Data volumes will keep rising as well, and more importantly, the variability of those volumes will increase — creating the kind of unpredictable spikes that strain legacy systems. We also expect crypto to appear more broadly as part of institutional cross-asset strategies, which will drive demand for more integrated access across traditional and digital markets. All of this points to a year where firms will need to stay adaptable and make thoughtful decisions about their infrastructure.”
Extended trading hours in US equity markets
As major U.S. exchanges explore expanded trading windows, we expect institutional skepticism toward 24/7 trading to ease in 2026. Retail investors remain the primary driver, with rising APAC and EU demand pushing brokers to support execution outside the traditional U.S. session. This retail activity is creating a natural pathway for broader institutional involvement.
We are already seeing early signs of this shift. Several Japanese non-bank liquidity providers have begun participating on 24X, the first fully regulated 24-hour U.S. equities exchange—indicating growing institutional engagement alongside retail demand.
This evolution expands the liquidity cycle and introduces new overnight price signals that institutional desks will need to incorporate into their workflows. It also exposes a structural gap: Reg NMS does not apply to extended or overnight trading. As retail participation increases during these hours, we expect mounting pressure to evaluate whether these protections should extend across a 24-hour market.
The maturing of crypto
As U.S. regulators show broader acceptance of digital assets, we expect institutional strategies to continue expanding across the full spectrum of traditional and crypto markets. Firms are increasingly looking to bridge spot crypto, tokenized assets, and traditional securities within unified workflows. At the same time, crypto-native players are seeking greater participation in established markets, reflected in the continued use of bitcoin futures and other regulated products on traditional venues such as CME. These cross-asset interactions have already contributed to mergers and acquisitions in the space, and we expect further consolidation in 2026 as firms aim to provide seamless access across both digital and traditional asset classes.
Volumes and surges of data
Market data volumes have risen steadily over the past several years, but the more pressing challenge is the increasing variability of that traffic. Geopolitical events, global participation, and highly automated strategies continue to produce sharp, unpredictable spikes that strain legacy systems. In 2026, we expect both overall volumes and intraday burstiness to grow, widening the gap between firms that have invested in higher-capacity, resilient infrastructure and those still operating on platforms not designed for this level of volatility. Firms that modernize early will be positioned to absorb these surges; others will likely face mid-year disruptions that force reactive upgrades.
Sell-side competitive edge
Sell-side institutions operating trading desks, brokerages, dark pools, and ATSs will face continued shifts in 2026 as market structure evolves, and new participants enter the space. With additional buy-side firms exploring direct market access models, competition is broadening and prompting firms across the industry to reevaluate where they differentiate and how they allocate technology resources. For many mid-tier sell-side institutions, 2026 will be a year of strategic decisions—balancing client service, execution quality, and investment in infrastructure to remain competitive in a more diversified landscape.
Shakeout in the AI market
2026 will be the year the AI market resets. After a surge of creativity and rapid investment, we expect firms to shift from experimentation to proof of value. Many AI business models will not make that transition. Capital will consolidate around solutions that deliver measurable outcomes, and the rest will fall away.
The most profound change in capital markets will occur in wealth and asset management, where AI can directly shape portfolio construction and client engagement. Meanwhile, AI will continue automating middle- and back-office functions and accelerating the adoption of tokenized, fractionalized securities. The result will be a smaller, more focused ecosystem — and a clearer divide between AI that is compelling and AI that is merely novel.
Exegy provides trading-technology infrastructure to firms across the latency spectrum, including Tier 1 global financial institutions. As the industry prepares for another year of rapid change, Exegy remains committed to working closely with clients and investing in innovation informed by a deep understanding of market challenges. To support ongoing dialogue around these themes, Exegy has launched a bi-yearly Executive Outlook newsletter, where our leadership team shares market observations and forward-looking insights. Subscribe here.
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About Exegy Inc.
Exegy is a global leader in low latency market data, trading, and execution technology, delivering innovative, end-to-end solutions that power the world’s capital markets. Backed by Marlin Equity Partners, Exegy delivers comprehensive, end-to-end infrastructure solutions to a broad spectrum of market participants, including buy-side and sell-side institutions, trading venues, and independent software vendors.
Designed for scalability, resilience, and operational efficiency, Exegy’s high-performance solutions leverage fully managed, purpose-built appliances, FPGA-accelerated systems, and advanced enterprise software. As the only global provider offering a full spectrum of latency solutions, Exegy enables clients to optimize performance, reduce complexity, and gain a strategic advantage in today’s complex trading landscape.
With a client-centric approach and a commitment to continuous innovation, Exegy’s global team delivers expert solutions tailored to meet the evolving needs of the financial industry.
LONDON – 03 December 2025: ION, a global leader in trading and workflow automation software, high-value analytics and insights, and strategic consulting to financial institutions, central banks, governments, and corporates, announces that its Fidessa trading platform now supports Request for Quote (RFQ) functionality, including an integration with the Tradeweb electronic trading platform, for Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). This collaboration enables mutual customers of Tradeweb and ION to access Tradeweb’s ETF RFQ workflow within their existing Fidessa environment.
Tradeweb operates a global electronic trading network of over 3,000 clients, including the world’s largest banks, asset managers, hedge funds, insurance companies, wealth managers, corporate treasurers and retail clients. This integration enhances the trading experience for equities firms by creating a more seamless and automated workflow between Fidessa and Tradeweb.
Through this integration, users of both Tradeweb and Fidessa can benefit from competitive pricing and workflow efficiencies supported by Tradeweb’s automated RFQ functionality and straight-through processing tools. This enhanced automation streamlines the entire trade lifecycle – from execution to settlement – reducing manual intervention and improving operational efficiency for institutional investors.
By connecting Tradeweb’s ETF RFQ capabilities with Fidessa’s platform, customers gain access to a wider pool of global liquidity providers in a more streamlined way. This integration provides several key benefits, such as:
Increased automation and efficiency: Tradeweb customers can now manage their ETF RFQs directly on their Fidessa trading screen, streamlining processes and minimizing trade errors. They can also automate their ETF RFQ flow by setting parameters for quote requests, provider selection, and price acceptance.
Modernized workflow: Integration with Tradeweb’s functionality provides more transparency and better trade execution insights, streamlining the process for liquidity access.
Heightened risk management and compliance: Firms executing trades on behalf of clients have regulatory obligations to achieve the best possible execution. Fidessa’s support for Tradeweb ETF RFQs strengthens compliance by offering a transparent and auditable trail of quote requests and pricing.
Adam Gould, Global Head of Equities at Tradeweb, said: “We are pleased to collaborate with ION to deliver a more automated, optimized solution for ETF trading. This integration gives customers efficient access to Tradeweb’s advanced RFQ functionality, competitive pricing and deep pool of liquidity providers in a seamless and streamlined way. By leveraging Tradeweb’s ETF RFQ functionality, ION clients will unlock greater transparency, richer data insights and enhanced best-execution in their ETF trading strategies.”
Robert Cioffi, Global Head of Equities Product Management at ION, said: “ION is proud to support innovations like Tradeweb’s RFQ functionality to help our mutual customers provide exceptional services to their clients. This partnership advances the automation of ETF RFQ flow, making it easier than ever for Fidessa users to tap into diverse liquidity sources and achieve superior execution outcomes.”
– ends –
About ION
ION Group provides mission-critical trading and workflow automation software, high-value analytics and insights, and strategic consulting to financial institutions, central banks, governments, and corporates. Our solutions and services simplify complex processes, boost efficiency, and enable better decision-making. We build long-term partnerships with our clients, helping transform their business for sustained success through continuous innovation. For more information, visit https://iongroup.com/.
About Tradeweb Markets
Tradeweb Markets Inc. (Nasdaq: TW) is a leading, global operator of electronic marketplaces for rates, credit, equities and money markets. Founded in 1996, Tradeweb provides access to markets, data and analytics, electronic trading, straight-through-processing and reporting for more than 50 products to clients in the institutional, wholesale, retail and corporates markets. Advanced technologies developed by Tradeweb enhance price discovery, order execution and trade workflows while allowing for greater scale and helping to reduce risks in client trading operations. Tradeweb serves more than 3,000 clients in more than 85 countries. On average, Tradeweb facilitated more than $2.4 trillion in notional value traded per day over the past four fiscal quarters. For more information, please go to www.tradeweb.com.
For further information, contact: press@iongroup.com
All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their registered owners.
Forward-Looking Statements
This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Statements related to, among other things, our outlook and future performance, the industry and markets in which we operate, our expectations, beliefs, plans, strategies, objectives, prospects and assumptions and future events are forward-looking statements.
We have based these forward-looking statements on our current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections. While we believe these expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections are reasonable, such forward-looking statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control. These and other important factors, including those discussed under the heading “Risk Factors” in the documents of Tradeweb Markets Inc. on file with or furnished to the SEC, may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Given these risks and uncertainties, you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this release are not guarantees of future events or performance and future events, our actual results of operations, financial condition or liquidity, and the development of the industry and markets in which we operate, may differ materially from the forward-looking statements contained in this release. In addition, even if future events, our results of operations, financial condition or liquidity, and events in the industry and markets in which we operate, are consistent with the forward-looking statements contained in this release, they may not be predictive of events, results or developments in future periods.
Any forward-looking statement that we make in this release speaks only as of the date of such statement. Except as required by law, we do not undertake any obligation to update or revise, or to publicly announce any update or revision to, any of the forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, after the date of this release.
Finimize survey shows optimism cooling as investors shift from hype to hedging, with more reducing risk and diversifying their exposure
Bubble aware but staying invested: 61% say AI valuations look stretched, but 67% plan to maintain or increase exposure
Cautious confidence: Over 60% expect markets to rise in the next 12 months, but more investors are holding cash and waiting for pullbacks
Beyond Big Tech: 47% favour AI infrastructure plays such as data centres, energy and cloud, whilst 17% are actively reducing concentration in Magnificent Seven
03.12.25 – LONDON: Retail investors are displaying market maturity as they cool on the AI rally whilst remaining confident in its long-term potential, with 61% believing AI valuations are overstretched, but 67% planning to maintain or increase their exposure according to Finimize’s latest Modern Investor Pulse survey released today.
Navigating the AI bubble
This quarter’s findings from a survey of 2,160 global retail investors reveal a nuanced approach to what many see as an overheated sector. Rather than selling when valuations look stretched, one in three (33%) AI investors are hedging their optimism by adding defensive positions, such as gold, bonds or cash alongside tech holdings.
The diversification extends beyond defensive plays. Whilst Nvidia remains the most popular retail stock pick overall, AI investments are spreading beyond the usual suspects, with 47% favouring AI infrastructure such as energy, power, data centres and cloud computing. Significantly, 17% are actively reducing their concentration in the Magnificent Seven.
Carl Hazeley, CEO at Finimize, said: “Retail investors recognise that AI stocks are expensive, but they’re not abandoning ship. What’s changing is the mindset – people are holding their positions and managing risk more carefully. They’re thinking beyond the obvious plays that dominated 2025 headlines and looking at where the real value is in the AI value chain.”
Cautious confidence heading into 2026
The measured approach to AI reflects broader sentiment across asset classes, with investors remaining upbeat but clearly more selective than previous quarters.
Just over 60% expect markets to be higher over the next 12 months, showing that optimism has eased (down from 67%). This cooling is evident across the board – bitcoinconfidence still exceeds stocks but is also softening.
A third of respondents are planning to take less risk over the next three months, with 30% building cash reserves or waiting for pullbacks before investing.
Meanwhile, investment activity is slowing, with 36% planning to invest more overall than in the previous quarter – down from 39% – as investors demonstrate increased selectivity about timings and opportunities.
Hazeley added: “What we’re seeing is retail investors are showing a more balanced approach at record-high markets. They’re building cash and slowing their investment activity, which takes discipline.
“They’re not abandoning their positions, but they’re not chasing every rally either. They’re waiting for the right opportunities and taking a strategic, long-term approach.”
About the Modern Investor Pulse
The Modern Investor Pulse is a quarterly survey capturing insights from Finimize’s global community of retail investors. For access to the full survey data, please reach out to our press team.
About Finimize
Finimize empowers retail investors with concise insights from world-class analysts. With over one million subscribers to its newsletter and mobile app, Finimize boasts one of the largest retail investor communities globally. Over 70,000 members attend its events annually. Finimize for Business supports over 350 financial institutions in engaging modern investors and creating content that drives engagement, revenue, and retention. Through its network of partners, Finimize content reaches over 40 million individual investors worldwide.
Cboe to Offer Nearly 24-Hour Trading for Russell 2000 Options, Expanding Global Access to U.S. Small-Cap Equities
· Russell 2000® Index (RUT) options to trade nearly 24×5 during Cboe’s Global Trading Hours
· Expansion that may allow European and Asia-Pacific traders to more easily manage U.S. small-cap exposure
· Initiative is part of Cboe’s ongoing efforts to expand global access to its proprietary U.S. equity index options
CHICAGO, Dec. 2, 2025 — Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (Cboe: CBOE), the world’s leading derivatives and securities exchange network, today announced plans to extend trading hours for its Russell 2000 Index (RUT) options suite to nearly 24 hours a day, five days a week, beginning February 9, 2026.
RUT options are currently available for trading during regular U.S. hours, from 9:30 a.m. ET to 4:15 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday. With the planned addition of an overnight session during Cboe’s Global Trading Hours (GTH), RUT options (including the RUT Weeklys options) will also trade from 8:15 p.m. ET to 9:25 a.m. ET the following morning, Monday through Friday. As investors globally increasingly seek to access U.S. equity market exposure, the ability to trade RUT options nearly around the clock is expected to help them respond to market-moving events, adjust positioning, and manage risk with greater precision in real time.
Cboe currently offers several flagship index options including S&P 500 Index (SPX), Mini-SPX (XSP) and Cboe Volatility Index (VIX) options during its GTH session. The addition of RUT options to GTH will expand this lineup, giving investors even more tools to access U.S. equity large cap, small cap and global equity market exposure – ultimately, potentially creating more trading, hedging, and liquidity opportunities during this overnight trading session.
Demand for overnight trading is evident in the growth of Cboe’s GTH sessions, which have experienced record volumes in 2025, up 179% year-to-date compared to full year 2022 as global appetite for U.S. markets has grown and Cboe expands its product availability to meet this demand.
“Extending trading hours for Cboe’s Russell 2000 Index product suite will be another significant milestone in our efforts to expand access to U.S. index options for investors worldwide,” said Rob Hocking, Global Head of Derivatives at Cboe. “With nearly round-the-clock availability, Cboe will help empower market participants to further diversify, manage and hedge their U.S. equity and volatility exposures–covering both small caps and large caps–at their discretion. We look forward to continuing to collaborate with FTSE Russell to deliver meaningful solutions to our growing global customer base.”
The Russell 2000 Index measures the performance of U.S. small-cap equities across sectors and has long served as a barometer of small-cap performance. As of the end of November, average daily volume in Cboe’s RUT options has grown to nearly 75 thousand contracts, up 66% compared to full year 2022, as more traders look to manage risk and implement daily options strategies. The Russell 2000 Index has historically been more volatile than large-cap measures and more sensitive to interest rates – making RUT options a potentially effective tool to trade small-cap volatility and secular trends.
To track implied volatility for the Russell 2000, Cboe publishes the Cboe Russell 2000 Volatility Index (RVX), a VIX-style measure of 30-day expected volatility. Similar to realized volatility measures, RVX has historically been higher than the VIX Index, reflecting the unique risk profile of small-cap stocks.
“Cboe’s decision to offer nearly 24-hour trading for Russell 2000 options is an exciting development for global investors,” said Shawn Creighton, Director of Index Derivatives Solutions at FTSE Russell. “The Russell 2000 Index is a recognized benchmark for U.S. small-cap equities, and expanded access will give market participants worldwide greater flexibility to manage risk and capture opportunities as markets move.”
Exclusively listed on Cboe Options Exchange, Russell 2000 Index (RUT) options and Russell 2000 Index Weeklys (RUTW) options are cash-settled, European-style options, meaning there is no risk of early exercise and no need to deliver or receive unwanted shares. Cboe offers a range of expirations—including every weekday, end-of-month, and quarterly—allowing investors to implement a diverse range of trading strategies.
In addition to offering GTH hours for RUT options, Cboe proposes to add Curb Trading Hours – an additional trading session that will run from 4:15 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday.
For more information on Russell 2000 Index options, visit RUT Index Options.
Traders Magazine visited TMX Group at its new New York City office in Lower Manhattan on November 18.
It was a wide-ranging discussion that covered the office itself, the exchange operator’s ongoing expansion in the U.S. market, and the broader business.
TMX executives present were John McKenzie, CEO of TMX Group, and three TMX business heads: Peter Conroy, CEO of Global Insights; Tom Hendrickson, President of VettaFi; and Heidi Fischer, President of AlphaX US.
Tom Hendrickson, John McKenzie, Heidi Fischer, and Peter Conroy at the TMX office in New York on November 20, 2025. (Traders Magazine photo)
What follows is a Q&A with John McKenzie, edited for length and clarity.
Talk a bit about the new office?
JOHN: It was only two years ago that I was down here having dinner with all of our New York staff, and we fit around a table in a restaurant. There were eight of us. It’s been extraordinary going from there to here, in terms of the investments we’ve made in the US market. We now have a full-fledged headquarters in New York, with multiple business lines. This office is a microcosm of our global strategy, in terms of building out in a lot of different areas.
We have our energy team from Trayport here, to continue to build out the US market for energy screens. Our data team is here, including new US businesses that we’ve acquired – Wall Street Horizons for corporate actions, and now VettaFi, which does advanced investor analytics. And we have AlphaX US, our ATS marketplace, on the ground here.
The New York office can support about 200 people, but we are a mixture of in-office and remote. This will be the fourth-largest of our 10 offices, behind Toronto, London, and Montreal, and we expect New York to be one of the fastest-growing offices.
All the business pieces in New York are under the execution of what we call TM2X, which is our aspiration to kickstart the next doubling of the franchise, to grow globally and build long-term relevance. It took 14 years to grow from half a billion to a billion. We expected the next billion in five to seven years – we’re almost five years into the strategy and we’re almost there.
Our execution strategy is firing well. More than half of the business of TMX is outside of Canada, and the two largest growth areas are the US and Europe. We’re also looking to continue to shift the business into more recurring data and information revenue.
What have been highlights in your five years as CEO?
JOHN: Much of what we built into the plan, from business, results, and people standpoints, have been achieved. We’re twice the size in terms of people. Our geographic reach is twice what it was before. We were growing 3% to 4% prior to this, we’ve been growing high single digits and more recently low doubles. Our price-to-earnings used to trail US exchanges by six or seven, but now we trade at a premium.
Last year, we put three franchises – Trayport, VettaFi, and Datalinx into one place, Global Insights. We did this to get the value of cross-selling across different pieces, and going deeper with clients by being better able to provide more of an enterprise solution.
From a parent company standpoint, we’re thrilled with AlphaX US. The team has hit every milestone that we were looking for, in terms of delivery times, regulatory approvals, tech build out, client adoption, and market share. And the bonus is that the prove-out of this platform is the test bed of our next-generation platform for TMX at large. So Heidi Fischer and her team have taken the best pieces of DNA of our equity platform and our derivatives platform, delivered it in a new architecture through the cloud, and this now becomes the framework for how we modernize our marketplaces in the future.
Also, this was just our first step into US marketplaces. This was never meant to be the end-all be-all, one ATS with one book. It was always our first entry in, and we’ve got a lot of great ideas on what we’d like to do over the next few years.
Overall, the question for us is: what’s next? I think the biggest challenge, and this is what keeps me up at night, is the pace of change in the industry. What got you here isn’t necessarily what’s going to get you to the next level. The challenge, whether it’s cybersecurity, or AI, or 24-hour trading, or tokenization, is making sure that we are ready, and that it’s actually a meaningful trend and not a fad.
What were the primary accomplishments in 2025 and what are the initiatives for 2026?
JOHN: Building out here in the US market, for both years. We knew we could compete in the US, but having the organization have the courage to build it and see its success is a massive highlight for us, and we’re going to keep building.
The second piece is about replatforming the clearing and settlement infrastructure for the Canadian marketplace. We’re probably ahead of DTC now in terms of doing the technology reload for clearing, which is critical, because it allows us to do more for the trading community such as supporting collateral management and new product creation in post trade. This part of the franchise was more of a sleepy utility, but now it’s part of the growth story.
Will TMX continue to be acquisitive?
JOHN: We’ve been pretty busy on that front, with a combination of some larger-scale deals and a number of tuck-ins. I expect we’ll continue to do that. The nice thing is now we have platforms like VettaFi and Trayport, where we can acquire new products and capabilities and distribute them to the client base. We’ve also built a corporate solutions business alongside our capital raising business that helps issuers with everything they need to be public companies. That’s another solution where we can acquire capabilities and then distribute them.
How do you determine what to invest in, and what might be ‘shiny new things’?
JOHN: That’s a good question, because with some changes you don’t know whether they’re real changes or if they’re just the technology of the day. For instance, when we talk about tokenization, we’re talking about the next evolution of blockchain, which is a conversation we’ve been having for 15 years in terms of what will be the meaningful use case. Another example is 24-hour markets. It’s not clear there’s demand for that today, but should the market move, we want to be able to move fast. It’s a similar situation with private markets.
So we’re continuing to invest where we think there’s opportunity. With tokenization, we’re looking at capabilities there because we have the clearing house as well. We can actually build from the clearing house side to create the ability to house and clear private markets, private companies, through tokenized securities. We’re building strategies around that, but that is more of a build than an investment.
In terms of the investment area, we’re very much focused on things that we can bring into our ecosystem and scale up. So a bit less on the speculative side, we’re bringing in more indices that we can scale up across our network. We’re bringing in new data assets that we can scale up. Everything we invest in has to have an integration and scale-up strategy to it, and that’s where we will deploy capital.
How are you engaging with retail investors?
JOHN: That’s on our market information and education side. The vehicles we have through VettaFi give us the ability to talk to an audience, particularly around the ETF market, and the properties we have through TMX Money, which is essentially our Yahoo finance platform, allow us to get more insights and research out to a retail audience.
We have landing pages to help people understand ETFs, structured products, and Canadian Depository Receipts. We see our role in the education and access piece for retail, and then having more retail-oriented products.
Any additional thoughts?
JOHN: We’re continuing to invest in the listed market. We’re seeing IPOs again, and we’re continuing to invest not just on the capital raising side, but also the ability to support companies that are capital raisers, whether public or private.
So when you look at our three pillars – global insights, global markets and capital formation – 44% of the capital formation revenue comes from what we call corporate solutions, which is everything we do to facilitate companies to raise money. This incudes transfer, agency, trust capabilities, employee plans, and disclosure tools – all that is now almost half, and it’s our objective to be more than half. There’s been a trend of companies staying private longer and raising more private money, and we’re building up more capabilities to serve those companies, and build relationships for if and when they do go public.
When the New York Stock Exchange launched NYSE Texas in Dallas earlier this year, it marked more than just a new trading venue, it represented a statement about where financial innovation and economic growth are happening in the U.S. In a recent episode of the Inside the ICE House podcast, NYSE Texas President Bryan Daniel offered insights into the exchange’s strategic vision, its advantages in the market, and how it fits into Texas’s broader economic transformation.
Bryan Daniel
Daniel, appointed to lead NYSE Texas earlier this year, brings extensive experience in public policy and economic development in Texas. When asked what NYSE Texas represents, Daniel framed it as the “natural progression” of Texas’s 20-year focus on building a sustainable business community. “NYSE Texas represents real progress in creating a business community that becomes very sustainable for the state. So businesses can come there, they can be successful. They can do expansions there, while creating jobs for Texans,” he explained.
According to Daniel, NYSE Texas enters the market with distinct advantages. First, it’s the first and only stock exchange incorporated in Texas with headquarters in Dallas, positioning it as “genuinely part of the Texas business community”. Second, its timing aligns with a critical moment when numerous Texas companies are ready to go public. “There’s a lot of companies in business in Texas that employ a lot of Texans who are right at that point when they need to grow,” Daniel noted.
The third advantage is substantial: NYSE Texas doesn’t need to build infrastructure from scratch, he stressed: “You don’t have to build these things from scratch. This technology works every day for a whole lot of people around the world,” Daniel said. The exchange leverages proven technology, while adding what Daniel calls “Texas barbecue flavor” to create something distinctly regional yet globally capable.
Texas houses the largest number of NYSE-listed companies among all 50 states, representing nearly $4 trillion in market value, Daniel said: “The best goal we could have is to get every one of those companies to do a list, and we’re working toward that.” The exchange began operations in late March and has been steadily adding dual listings, he added.
He further said that NYSE Texas’s partnership with the National Cricket League illustrates its strategy of embedding itself in Texas’s evolving cultural landscape. The 10-day tournament attracts global attention through ESPN broadcasts, and NYSE Texas secured jersey sponsorship. “NCL is part of the Texas landscape. We wanted to be part of that Texas landscape. I don’t think it in any way gave us any pause that much of the audience might be outside of Texas,” Daniel explained. The partnership reflects understanding that Texas’s business community is inherently global, and cricket’s international following aligns with that reality.
Daniel’s two decades in Texas economic development and workforce policy provide insight into what makes the state attractive. “The real secret of the state of Texas is we have an common sense, easily understandable set of rules and regulations for businesses. It does not change rapidly. It will change with the time slowly. It makes it very constant, very understandable, and there’s no volatility to that whatsoever,” he said.
Unlike many states that use top-down economic development approaches, Texas allows cities to compete for businesses, with the state stepping in only when companies narrow their choice to a specific location. This approach creates organic growth and ensures companies find locations that truly fit their needs, he said.
Daniel defines success for NYSE Texas through both quantity and quality: the number of listings matters, but so does having iconic Texas brands choose to align with the exchange. “Success will also be read as you know, these Texas companies, these iconic Texas brands, want to be a part of this brand. They want to align themselves with this thing,” he said.
Looking five years ahead, Daniel envisions NYSE Texas as “an established marketplace where a founder can confidently take their company public, really realize the opportunities from the public markets.”
The goal is creating a robust venue that allows venture capital to recycle into the next generation of Texas innovators. “If we’re doing just that one thing, then ultimately we will have been a net positive on the state’s economy, and that’s really where we want to position ourselves.”
