'MILE-STONE'
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
Congratulations to Andrew D. Filipek, Vice Chairman Wedbush Securities Europe
Announcement
Cooperation Agreement between WSE IPO Partner and WSE - successfully completed! [Ya-elle]
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LA Business Journal
Mr. Andrew D. Filipek and Mr. Edward Wedbush
Interview
4-22-2013
Pages 1, 68, 69
MILE-STONE
Wedbush enables higher frequency trading transaction processing.
"Wedbush Securities has launched a trading platform provider that the firm says will dramatically speed up trades for fund managers and other institutional investors, as well as give them better control over their transaction costs..."
Wedbush Opens Trading Business Unit for Investment Managers
"Wedbush Securities Inc., an investment bank founded in 1955 whose clients include dozens of high-frequency traders, created a group to give asset managers faster access to markets, according to a company executive..." Bloomberg
Bloomberg News
Wedbush Buys Lime Brokerage to Help Meet Market-Access Rules
June 13 (Bloomberg) -- Wedbush Inc. agreed to buy Lime Brokerage LLC, which provides technology to high-frequency traders and securities firms, as new U.S. regulations force it to more closely inspect clients’ orders.
Wedbush, based in Los Angeles, will gain technology and automated risk filters that help the brokerage meet market- access rules that go into effect July 14. The rules, approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in November, require brokers to ensure orders sent to exchanges and other venues comply with financial and trading risk checks and securities rules before they’re released into the market.
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Jun 14, 2011
US broker Wedbush plans expansion following Lime purchase
Wedbush, a US-based full service investment bank, has announced the acquisition of agency brokerage and high-speed trading technology provider Lime Brokerage.
The deal will lead to the integration of Lime's technology services with the Advanced Clearing Services division of Wedbush Securities, Wedbush's brokerage subsidiary, which will offer clients low-latency execution, market data and risk control solutions.
In addition, Los Angeles-based Wedbush Securities plans use Lime's technology platform to develop global multi-asset brokerage services professional and individual clients.
Jeff Bell, currently head of Wedbush Securities' clearing and technology group, will assume the position of CEO at Lime Brokerage, while Wedbush executives Gary and Eric Wedbush will join Lime's board of directors. Lime employees will remain at their current locations in New York and New Jersey, and the firm will continue to manage its existing co-location sites at US trading venues.
“This acquisition is a major advancement in our mission to deliver to our buy-side clients the highest-speed, lowest-cost DMA and algorithmic trading services in the industry,” said Gary Wedbush, executive vice president and head of capital markets for Wedbush Securities.
“Our clients and prospects will see tremendous value from the tight integration with Wedbush's clearing, execution and broader range of service offerings,” said Alistair Brown, co-founder of Lime Brokerage.
Lime Brokerage, which was founded in 2001, last year built up its services for high-frequency options trading, including the development of its Citrius low-latency data distribution platform. Brown replaced Jeff Wecker as CEO of Lime Brokerage last year, retaking the role he had held before Wecker's appointment in November 2008.
https://www.thetradenews.com/
'As a member of the Warsaw Stock Exchange and the New York Stock
Exchange Wedbush is now introducing advanced technology to the
European and Israeli financial professionals, brokerage houses and
hedge fund managers. We are offering an access to NYSE and CBOE via
Wedbush’s Warsaw Stock Exchange hub (34 milliseconds ahead of the
London Stock Exchange) at the significant lower cost.
On February 29, 2012 Wedbush introduced an ultra low-latency
electronic platform powered by Lime technology
Lime Brokerage was acquired by Wedbush in June
2011 - (see press release).
The platform has the most efficient infrastructure enhanced by the
Citrus system, capable of processing market data and the platform’s
11 algorithms at the average of 75 microseconds latency (1/75,000,000
of a second)
The business benefit of this new fast platform is that it will provide
an access to NYSE and CBOE via our hub on the WSE with the fraction of
the cost and the extreme high speed (transaction entered on WSE will
be executed on NYSE .032 sec before the one entered on the London
Stock Exchange). This direct data access to the New York Stock Exchange and the Chicago
Board Options Exchange will be available to our customers with
significant cost savings.
'We would like to engage with you to consider how we can work together
to accelerate the adoption of Wedbush’s platform in those geographies.
The intent is to enable local brokerage houses to offer products and
services currently available only to top major wire houses in the 3
major markets in Europe.' [YR]
Mar 01, 2012
Wedbush offers HFT infrastructure for institutional investors
US full-service investment bank Wedbush Securities has launched its execution solutions group (WESG) and ultra-low latency trading platform, powered by technology from high-speed trading technology provider Lime Brokerage, which the firm acquired in June last year.
The new platform uses the Lime Brokerage technology to give institutions access to the same micro-second trading system used by high-frequency traders.
Wedbush has stated its intention is to help institutions discover superior liquidity by trading significantly faster and with greater scalability.
“Institutions have long wanted market access on par with the automated traders and we’ve fixed that problem by opening up our platform to both the buy-side and sell-side,” said Jeff Bell, COE of Lime Brokerage.
Lime algorithms will be available via WESG, including liquidity seeking and benchmarking algos such as VWAP, TWAP, percentage of value and implementation shortfall, as well as custom-made algos developed by the Lime Brokerage team together with clients.
WESG has also set out new cost-plus and fixed pricing models that it hopes will help institutional clients that are struggling with lower commission revenues and higher operating expenses. Users will be able to pay for research services directly through Wedbush Securities or via commission sharing agreements.
“Fixed pricing leverages the efficiency in our technology, execution and clearing businesses,” said Kevin Beadles, head of execution solutions group for Wedbush Securities. “The transparency provided by our models allows clients to better manage their expenses and order routing decisions, which provides best execution while also potentially allowing them to realize significant cost savings.”
Founded in 2001, Lime Brokerage also provides the Citrius low-latency data distribution platform, as well as services for high-frequency options trading. In September 2010, Lime launched high-speed options execution capabilities, with "through-box" latency in the low double-digit microseconds (1/1,000,000th of a second). In May 2010, Lime also rolled out LimeInside, an exchange co-located sponsored access service for high-frequency traders. LimeInside lets high-frequency trading firms co-locate at major US trading venues without the potential for exceeding trading limits or violating other regulatory requirements imposed on the sponsoring broker.
Lime also provides equity options data for high-frequency options traders, offering non-members of the Chicago Board Options Exchange direct access to the exchange's data via its low-latency Citrius options data platform since August 2010.
The firm's strategy of deploying low-latency infrastructure beyond HFT firms has been part of Lime's game-plan since before Wedbush's involvement. In Q3 2010, then CEO Jeff Wecker said Lime was increasingly engaged in sales calls with traditional brokers that wanted to offer faster connectivity to their clients.
"Why does every broker-dealer have to invent its own high-speed, high-volume connectivity to the market?" Wecker said at the time.
***
MILE STONE
Global strategic alliance
Wedbush - Warsaw Stock Exchange
I. Participation of the Company in IPOs and SPOs (former and predicted)
In 2012 Wedbush Inc. has completed its international expansion to Poland and the EU.
On July 19 2012 Wedbush Europe Ltd. (subsidiary of Wedbush Inc.) commenced its operation on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.
On October 01 Wedbush Europe Ltd has also acquired a seat on the LSE. We have completed a clearing and settlement arrangement with the Bank PEKAO in Warsaw. Due to the technical issues however, our trading activities on the floor of the WSE has been postponed until the first qtr. of 2013.
II. Activities undertaken by the Company promoting the Polish capital market
In this reporting period we have advanced cooperation’s with the premier Polish financial institution - Wroclawski Dom Maklerski (WDM), a member of the WSE. In September 2012 WDM Capital [now Quark / Graviton] participated in the Wedbush Life Science Conference in New York and have
visited the Wedbush Global Headquarters in Los Angeles. I have introduced the management of WDM Capital to several IR companies representing hundreds of small and mid cap companies in Life Science, Resources and Energy sectors. Currently we are advancing negotiation with a number of companies, which are interested to expand to the CEE market. Since joining the WSE IPO Partner program, I have introduced the opportunities on the Warsaw Stock Exchange to over twenty IR and PR companies in the US and Canada representing over 500 public companies worldwide.
III. Actions planned for 2013 requiring the participation of the WSE representative
In 2013 we are planning to commence the following business on the WSE:
- Provide visibility in the US for companies listed on the WSE
- Provide research and access to capital for the companies listed on the WSE
- List foreign corporation on the WSE Big Board and on the New Connect
- Increase the liquidity and trading volume on the WSE by providing a direct access to the WSE for US investors.
- Organize investors’ conferences in the USA for the WSE listed companies.
- Introduce the opportunities on the WSE to US fund managers, portfolio managers, brokers as well as wealthy individuals.
- Provide access to Wedbush’s hi frequency trading platform powered by Lime technology.
(Photos belong to Mr. Andrew Filipek)
===================
Warsaw, 17 January 2013
Appointment of Adam Maciejewski as President of WSE Management Board
- On 17 January 2013, the Extraordinary General Meeting of the Warsaw Stock Exchange has appointed Adam Maciejewski as President of the Management Board of the Warsaw Stock Exchange
- The General Meeting has decided to dismiss Ludwik Sobolewski from the Exchange Management Board
Wedbush Buys Lime Brokerage to Help Meet Market-Access Rules
June 13 (Bloomberg) -- Wedbush Inc. agreed to buy Lime Brokerage LLC, which provides technology to high-frequency traders and securities firms, as new U.S. regulations force it to more closely inspect clients’ orders.
Wedbush, based in Los Angeles, will gain technology and automated risk filters that help the brokerage meet market- access rules that go into effect July 14. The rules, approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in November, require brokers to ensure orders sent to exchanges and other venues comply with financial and trading risk checks and securities rules before they’re released into the market...[article posted below]
Feb. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Wedbush Securities Inc., an investment bank founded in 1955 whose clients include dozens of high-frequency traders, created a group to give asset managers faster access to markets, according to a company executive.
The Los Angeles-based company introduced a new business unit called the Execution Solutions Group to deliver trading technology to investment managers buying and selling directly in the markets, Jeff Bell, an executive vice president at Wedbush Securities, which has about 900 of parent company Wedbush Inc.’s approximately 1,000 employees, said in a phone interview. The system has about 10 institutional clients, including some of the bank’s legacy customers, he said.
“We’re taking a high-frequency trading infrastructure used by automatic, systematic traders and opening that up to institutions” on what’s traditionally called the buy side, which includes hedge funds, mutual funds and asset managers, Bell said. “That’s a common complaint among the buy side and critics of high-frequency trading -- that these guys have capabilities that aren’t available to institutions.”
Trading rapidly has become more important as orders have spread out across 13 U.S. equities exchanges, several alternative venues and a few dozen private broker-run markets. Regulatory changes since the mid-1990s spurred competition and led exchanges to become more electronic, with orders dispersed across venues instead of centralized on the New York Stock Exchange or handled by dealers on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
Wedbush was the third-largest provider of orders on Nasdaq last month for that exchange’s listed companies, after Morgan Stanley in New York and Bank of America Corp. in Charlotte, North Carolina, according to data published by Nasdaq OMX Group Inc.
From July 2010 through June 2011 it was the number-one provider of liquidity for Nasdaq companies, the data show.
Equities Volume
About 55 percent of U.S. equities volume comes from firms using high-frequency or computer-driven trading strategies, Adam Sussman, a partner and director of research at Tabb Group LLC in New York, said in December. Wedbush estimated last August that about 75 percent of equities volume came from automated firms in the first third of that month when the Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, or VIX, climbed to an average of 32.69 and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index slid 13 percent.
The VIX’s average over the past 10 years is 21.84, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The gauge measures the cost of using options as insurance against declines in the S&P 500.
Lime’s Technology --- Wedbush will use technology from Lime Brokerage LLC, a platform it bought last June that offers execution services to almost 90 automated traders including those employing high-frequency strategies to profit from price differences or anomalies in the market. Bell, who runs the clearing business at Wedbush Securities, which processes transactions for about 140 firms including about 40 high-frequency or automated trading firms, is also chief executive officer of Lime, an affiliate owned by the parent company.
Asset managers sending orders through the Execution Solutions Group will use the firm’s high-speed trading servers, market data and network that relays orders to exchanges or other venues, Bell said. He declined to predict how many clients the unit may have by the end of the year.
Customers using Wedbush’s new execution services offering can pay for it through a traditional per-share fee or on a cost-plus basis that allows a lower payment per share while passing on the trading fees that exchanges charge and the rebates they provide to those supplying bids and offers, Bell said.
Keeping Rebates
The cost-plus service allows hedge funds and other clients to keep the rebates their orders generate on exchanges when they wait passively for trades and pay when they grab orders others have provided to the market at specified prices, Bell said. Users of the service must pay the fees and get the credits they qualify for themselves on exchanges that have tiered pricing based on volume, Bell said.
“Trading would be fairer if the execution costs of brokers could be directly passed on to customers,” Justin Schack, managing director for market structure analysis at New York-based Rosenblatt Securities Inc., said in a phone interview. “That’s a real source of conflicts of interest.”
The conflicts result because brokers have choices about how to execute customers’ orders and where to send buy or sell requests, Schack said.
Order Routing
While they have an obligation to get clients the most advantageous overall transaction based on existing market conditions, brokers whose systems decide where to send pieces of larger orders may consider factors including price, the number of available shares, stock volatility, the fee or rebate for trading on a particular venue, and the likelihood of getting an execution. They may also take into account how the stock price reacts to their trading on particular venues.
Earning a rebate or paying a lower fee may influence some brokers’ routing choices, just as partial ownership of an exchange may affect the decision to convey orders to particular markets, Schack said. Pricing is one of the main ways stock exchanges compete for orders from brokers as they seek to increase their share of trading in a U.S. stock market that has fragmented into as many as 50 different venues.
Customers that trade a lot can also pay Wedbush Securities a fixed amount every month and buy and sell as much as they want, Bell said. He declined to say how much the broker charges.
“These are meaningful changes,” Bell said about Wedbush’s pricing plans for asset managers. “A lot of these execution services have become commoditiezed and pricing at some brokers is not very client-friendly.”
***
Los Angeles, CA and New York, NY – January 26, 2015 –
Wedbush Securities, one of the nation’s leading financial services providers, is pleased to announce that it will now be providing correspondent clearing services for
Lightspeed Trading, a subsidiary of
Professional Trading Solutions, Inc.
Wedbush Securities provides specialized execution, clearing, and custody solutions to full service and independent broker dealers, underwriting firms, market makers, and proprietary trading broker dealers. As a leading provider of clearing services for more than 35 years, the firm’s strong financial position and broad capabilities make it a secure, trustworthy partner for its diverse client base. Wedbush is a highly regarded clearing firm that has grown significantly due to its strong operational controls, disciplined financial management, advanced technology, and risk management solutions.
“We look forward to working with Wedbush and are enthusiastic about what this new clearing relationship will offer our sophisticated, active traders,” said Andrew Brenner, President of Lightspeed Trading. “Our clients will not see any fee increases as a result of this partnership, and will continue to have access to the same robust trading platforms.”
Wedbush Securities and Professional Trading Solutions, formerly Lightspeed Financial LLC, first established a relationship in 2009 when Wedbush started offering its proprietary trading clients access to Lightspeed Trading, Lightspeed Trader, and Lightspeed Risk. Working with Lightspeed has given Wedbush the ability to offer its clients a more robust, holistic trading experience, while meeting client needs and maintaining a competitive edge in the marketplace.
“We are pleased to expand our relationship with Lightspeed Trading and look forward to this enhanced partnership in clearing,” said Rob Paset, Senior Vice President, Wedbush Securities, Correspondent Services. “Our stability, consistency, broad capabilities and client-focus provide value that is unparalleled, and we remain committed to providing the best clearing services designed to fit each client’s specific needs.”
About Lightspeed Trading, LLC
A subsidiary of Professional Trading Solutions, Inc – Lightspeed Trading, LLC, is a FINRA and NFA member and a fully disclosed introducing broker-dealer based in New York City and Chicago. The Company offers securities and direct access brokerage, trading and advanced order routing services to their clients utilizing Lightspeed’s software products. Lightspeed Institutional is a division of Lightspeed Trading, LLC.
About Wedbush Securities
Founded in 1955, Wedbush Securities is a leading financial services firm that provides brokerage, clearing, investment banking, equity research, public finance, fixed income sales and trading, and asset management to individual, institutional and issuing clients. Headquartered in Los Angeles, with over 100 registered offices, the firm focuses on relentless service, client financial safety, continuity, and advanced technology. Wedbush Securities is the largest subsidiary of holding company
WEDBUSH, Inc., which also includes affiliated firms
Wedbush Asset Management,
Wedbush Capital Partners,
Wedbush Opportunity Partners, and
Lime Brokerage LLC.
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