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US Equity Market Macrostructure Evolution: The Temple of Financial Fantasy – Executive Summary

In this 118-page, 145-exhibit case study – “US Equity Market Macrostructure Evolution: The Temple of Financial Fantasy” – Alphacution presents its case for how the adoption of technology by a subset of leading proprietary trading firms have leveraged the regulatory framework over the past 20 years to permanently alter and distort the US equity market to the point of a farcical rivalry between two separate and distinct “stock markets” that are animated by two competing realities. The first reality is...

By Paul Rowady | July 10, 2025 | Open

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Headlands Technologies: Return of the Pioneers – Executive Summary

In this 33-page, 32-exhibit case study, “Headlands Technologies: Return of the Pioneers," Alphacution details the profound paradox of one of the newest liquidity providers in US equities while simultaneously being one of its most consequential pioneers. Follow Matt Andresen's journey from Island ECN to the early incarnation of Citadel Securities to the launch of Headlands, where he and team spent a decade - racking up success after success as a liquidity provider in other products, asset classes, and regions -...

By Paul Rowady | April 6, 2025 | Open

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US Equity Options – Top 100 Institutional Customer List, Q3 2024 – Executive Summary

In this 27-page, 20-exhibit case study, "US Equity Options - Top 100 Institutional Customer List, Q3 2024," Alphacution ranks a group of 111 institutional US equity option participants - including banks, brokers, hedge funds, asset managers, and proprietary trading firms - by 5 factors, including total notional long option value, long option positions, average long notional option position value, long option contracts, and average long option contracts per position (aggregated per underlying) - all of which, as of September 30,...

By Paul Rowady | January 6, 2025 | Open

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US Equity Option Market Makers: Core Strategies and Market Shares, 2019-2023 – Executive Summary

In this 187-page, 213-exhibit, 45,000-word case study, "US Equity Option Market Makers: Core Strategies and Market Shares, 2019 - 2023," Alphacution publishes its most comprehensive analysis to date based on the modeling of 17 proprietary trading firms who serve variously as market makers in US equity derivatives across the backdrop of 5 interconnected product classes in futures and options. The objective of this research project was to shed new light on US equity option market mechanics by exploring the products,...

By Paul Rowady | October 11, 2024 | Open

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The Transformation of Belvedere – Executive Summary

In this 72-page, 75-exhibit, 17,400-word case study, "The Transformation of Belvedere," Alphacution publishes its findings on equity index option specialist, Chicago-based Belvedere Trading. Founded in 2002 with a current team of ~300 employees, Belvedere's story represents a unique addition to the Alphacution research library due to the significant strategy transformation it appears to have undergone over the past few years while maintaining its strengths in SPX options. This case study also showcases certain achievements, trading revenue (sample), risk framework, and...

By Paul Rowady | September 30, 2023 | Open

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IMC – International Marketmakers Combination – Executive Summary

In this 98-page, 115-exhibit, 22,400-word case study, "IMC: International Marketmakers Combination," Alphacution publishes its findings on global option market maker and equity index option specialist, Amsterdam-based IMC BV and its affiliates, including - most notably - its US-based affiliate, IMC-Chicago, LLC (often known as IMC Financial Markets). Founded in 1989 by two floor traders on Amsterdam's European Options Exchange, today IMC is one of only three Tier I proprietary trading firms with legacy in the 1980's - along with legendary...

By Paul Rowady | June 23, 2023 | Open

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XTX [Invades] Markets – Executive Summary

In this 87-page, 83-exhibit, 22,700-word case study, "XTX [Invades] Markets," Alphacution publishes its findings - a truly incredible story - about the youngest proprietary trading company to cross the $1 billion revenue threshold in the modern markets era - and the founder, Alex Gerko, who has led that run. Based in London and breaking into the top 10 ranks of overall FX traders before its second birthday, conventional reporting states that XTX Markets Limited was spun out of quant hedge...

By Paul Rowady | October 30, 2022 | Open

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The Robinhood Effect – Executive Summary

In this 198-page, 273-exhibit, 33,000-word case study, “The Robinhood Effect,” Alphacution brings together data and modeling from 25 entities - 11 retail brokers and 14 wholesale market makers - to explain a new phenomenon that now lives at the center of the US capital markets ecosystem. Alphacution's most ambitious research project to date, this report covers the governing liquidity economics framework that defines PFOF rates, the mechanics of Robinhood's aggressive retail brokerage model, the transformation of the retail brokerage industry,...

By Paul Rowady | July 29, 2021 | Open

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Rise of Hudson River Trading – Executive Summary

In this 91-page, 102-exhibit case study, “The Rise of Hudson River Trading,” Alphacution adds another leading proprietary trading firm - and recent entrant to the $1 billion+ trading revenue club (2020e) - to its library focused on the most secretive and consequential players in the global markets ecosystem. Notable highlights include the history of Sun Trading and the impacts of its acquisition by Hudson River Trading (HRT) in Q1 2018, and explorations into the firm's European trading operations, US equity...

By Paul Rowady | January 23, 2021 | Open

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History of Jane Street – Executive Summary

In this 125-page, 149-exhibit, 26,000-word case study, “History of Jane Street,” Alphacution sets a new bar for the scope of a case study focused one of the leading proprietary trading and market making firms in the world, with notable expansions relative to prior cases studies into regional, US option strategy, revenue estimation, and comparative analysis details (including Citadel Securities, Susquehanna International Group (SIG) and affiliates, and Two Sigma Investments and affiliates). The complete case study is available to premium subscribers...

By Paul Rowady | May 28, 2020 | Open

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Two Sigma Investments, LP and Affiliates – Executive Summary

In this 51-page, 61-exhibit case study on one of the most successful quantitative trading firms launched since the dawn of the 21st century  – Two Sigma Investments, LP – Alphacution presents the next in its series of unprecedented reports based on its modeling of many of the most mythological players and impactful themes operating within the current global asset management ecosystem. Of particular note, this report includes a groundbreaking comparative analysis of key strategy parameters between Two Sigma and D....

By Paul Rowady | November 24, 2019 | Open

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Susquehanna International Group, LLP – Executive Summary

In this 55-page, 64-exhibit case study on one of the most legendary proprietary option trading firms of all time – Susquehanna International Group, LLP – Alphacution publishes the next installment in its unprecedented Hiding in Plain Sight series that leverages an assembly of publicly-available data and a growing library of models based on some of the most impactful market participants in the global asset management ecosystem today. The complete case study is available to premium subscribers or via individual report...

By Paul Rowady | July 31, 2019 | Open

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Deconstructing Citadel Securities – Executive Summary

In this 55-page, 45-exhibit case study on market making powerhouse, Citadel Securities, Alphacution continues to expand its unprecedented Hiding in Plain Sight series to explore the unique trading engines and business strategies of the most successful, noteworthy – and mythological – asset managers in the world by presenting its latest storyboard based an assembly of data that lies open to the public. The complete case study is available to premium subscribers or via individual report purchase.

By Paul Rowady | March 24, 2019 | Open

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The Complete Case Study on Spot Trading

In this 32-page, 38-exhibit case study on the proprietary option trading firm, Spot Trading, that closed in late 2017, Alphacution showcases the information and insights that can be harvested from a cache of data that is hiding in plain sight. This report is also intended to educate clients and our broader network about the mechanics and drivers of macro-market structure, as well as to provide a template that will begin to set expectations for the nature of premium content that...

By Paul Rowady | March 7, 2019 | Open

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The Context Machine: Estimating Asset Manager Technology Spending – Executive Summary

In this 48-page, 35-exhibit study, Alphacution goes to new lengths to apply the axiom that effective management requires effective measurement – and begins the process of supporting its hypothesis that there are persistent – and ultimately, predictable – relationships between trading and operational factors for asset managers. With most asset managers being private, support for this hypothesis also means that technology spending – a rarely observable data item in this universe – can be estimated with more readily observable and...

By Paul Rowady | April 19, 2018 | Open

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