Wells Fargo started a program trading desk, hiring four traders. Based in New York, they are Haresh (Harry) Rana, Michael Lee, Chris Johnson and Kevin Kennedy.
Rana, with 20 years of trading experience, will head the desk. He joined Wells Fargo last month from JPMorgan, where he was executive director of the Delta One trading group. Prior to that, he worked in portfolio trading at Lehman Brothers and at Barclays de Zoete Wedd.
Lee also joined Wells Fargo in July from JPMorgan’s Delta One trading group. There he was responsible for program trading risk and index arbitrage. From 1999 to 2005, he worked in program trading at Lehman Brothers.
Johnson is expected to join Wells Fargo as head of program trading sales early this month from Weeden & Co.’s program trading group. Prior to that, he was a director in the program trading group at Merrill Lynch, where he spent seven years. He also worked on the program desk at Bank of America.
Kennedy will join Wells Fargo Securities as a director in the program trading sales group at the end of August from Deutsche Bank, where he was director of global portfolio trading. From 2008 to 2010, he was a vice president in global portfolio trading at Goldman Sachs. Prior to that, he worked in program trading at Banc of America Securities and was an institutional broker at SGI. The new hires will be based in New York and report to Matt Brown, head of Cash Trading.
