Knight Boosts Options Staff With Six Traders From Newedge

(Bloomberg) -- Knight Capital Group Inc., which executes the most U.S. equity orders by volume, hired six options traders from Newedge Group and Pali Capital to expand its equity derivatives business.

The team will be led by Adam Templeton and Ryan Sylvester from Newedge, where they were co-heads of the strategic options group, according to Reginald Browne, Knight’s co-head of listed derivatives. The Jersey City, New Jersey-based firm also hired Brad Manuilow of Newedge and James Murphy, Robert Mabry and Jeffrey Fittipaldi of Pali Capital, bringing its listed derivatives staff to about 30 in the U.S. and Europe.

“We wanted to bring on a team that could give clients exposure by using either equities or options,” Browne said in an interview yesterday. “Our customer base is a natural user of options, and we want to give them the chance to trade with Knight so we can be a one-stop shop.”

Knight is expanding its options group after U.S. trading rose to a seventh straight annual record last year. The total number of contracts on stocks, indexes and exchange-traded funds changing hands on U.S. options exchanges rose 0.8 percent to 3.61 billion in 2009, according to Chicago-based Options Clearing Corp. Bats Global Markets, owner of the fourth-largest U.S. stock trading venue, received regulatory approval last month to open the eighth U.S. options exchange.

Joint Venture

Templeton and Sylvester, both 33, will report to Browne, who runs the firm’s listed derivatives group with Eric Lichtenstein and Darren Taube. Browne, Lichtenstein and Taube were among 13 traders and salespeople who Knight hired in June from Paris-based Newedge, the brokerage joint venture of Societe Generale SA and Credit Agricole SA’s Calyon unit.

Pali, the New York-based broker-dealer that had been in merger talks with Braver Stern Securities Corp., said Feb. 16 that it will shut after the discussions broke down last month. Richard Anthony, who had been the firm’s head of global derivatives, resigned in December to join BGC Partners Inc., taking about 10 traders with him.