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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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2020 IEX ARC.IO Presentation: Hiding in Plain Sight

This is the presentation given at the 2020 IEX ARC.IO virtual conference on November 19, 2020. It outlines the research vision and mission for Alphacution's research, lists core data sources (to date), provides an overview of our asset management ecosystem thesis (including capacity of alpha), and draws specifically from notable exhibits in our comprehensive cases studies on the likes of Citadel Securities, Susquehanna International Group (SIG), Two Sigma Investments (including certain comparisons to D. E. Shaw), and Jane Street Group....
By Paul Rowady | November 19, 2020 | Open
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