The Mother of All PFOF Charts – Q3 2022 Edition, Part I
Alphacution organizes and distills 33 months of payment for order flow (PFOF) data from 14 retail brokers and 13 wholesale market makers to place a wide-angle frame around the US Securities and Exchange Commission's upcoming proposals for a major equities market structure overhaul...
Wanted: A White Knight In Cryptoland
The dramatic implosion of FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried's crypto empire is a huge and very fast moving story - with new revelations, about the details leading up to SBF's collapse and the contagion risks embedded in crypto markets as a result of that collapse, surfacing by the hour. Here, Alphacution assimilates a sample of the most thoughtful commentary on the current crypto saga as backdrop for its list of proprietary trading firms who represent possible "white knights"...
Simplex Trading Stumbles?
The Wall Street Journal reports that Simplex Trading may have - temporarily or permanently, we don't know - stopped accepting retail option orders. Alphacution provides some context around Simplex's option wholesaling business...
Alphacution Press: WSJ on Simplex’s Potentially Abusive Option Strategy
Alphacution provides data and analysis for The Wall Street Journal's Alexander Osipovich article, "High-Speed Trader Simplex Warned About Potentially Abusive Options Strategy."
Errors and “Exits”: A Teachable Moment From UBS Securities
Based on new data, there's more to the story about UBS Securities and its position in equity wholesaling...
Alphacution Publishes “XTX [Invades] Markets” Case Study
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 fund manager, GSA Capital Partners, in 2015. This is mostly true. However, the full story of Gerko and his XTX group has never properly been told. In this case study, Alphacution has gone further than it’s ever gone before. Finding data in places like Singapore, France, and India - places where XTX has staked satellites of Gerko’s vision - to paint a clearer picture of how, and maybe why, the company has managed to become so expansive in such a short period of time. Alphacution will not be the last to tell a more complete version of XTX’s story, but we may be the first to attempt it. Our version of that story, the beginnings of which are known to very few insiders, starts in October 2010... This and related case studies are available to premium subscribers or via individual document purchase.
Spooning: Morgan Stanley and Robinhood on Retail Options
Turns out, UBS Securities may have some stiff competition for who can exit the wholesale market making business faster. Alphacution updates some modeling on Morgan Stanley & Co - and its strange bedfellow, Robinhood - on the eve of Q3 2022 PFOF reports...
Fork It! UBS Securities Exiting Retail Wholesaling
We've seen it coming for a long time. There were many clues along the way from which to anchor a prediction. Now, the evidence is too dramatic to ignore: UBS Securities is exiting the retail equity wholesale market making business. Alphacution rolls out its case, along with other key findings...
Launchpad: Hudson River Trading Enters Retail Wholesaling
In mid-2021, Hudson River Trading announced - via the WSJ - that it would be entering the retail equity wholesaling game in 2022. That day has arrived. This is what Alphacution has found so far...
GTS Securities, SDP Latour: Things That Go Up…
Competition for structural alpha is more fierce than anywhere else in the capital markets ecosystem because the potential risk-adjusted returns are so extraordinary. Therefore, we find new "green shoots" of success in this space noteworthy...
