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Wednesday, March 19, 2025
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Outlook 2025: John Paul DeVito, InteliClear

By
Anna Lyudvig
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John Paul DeVito is Director, InteliClear.

John Paul DeVito

What were the key themes for your business in 2024?

The hallmark of 2024 for InteliClear was the seamless transition to T+1 settlement, achieved without disruption thanks to our system’s unique architecture. Designed to operate independently of settlement dates, InteliClear’s platform ensured our clients experienced a smooth transition while maintaining efficiency and accuracy. Additionally, our focus on developing and launching InteliClear 2.0 was a pivotal theme InteliClear 2.0 Video Launch.mp4   This enhanced version of our platform introduced innovative features, making it even more adaptable to the evolving demands of the financial industry.

What are your expectations for 2025?

The market outlook for 2025 presents an exciting landscape for InteliClear and the broader financial ecosystem. The “risk-on” environment, coupled with favorable interest rates and record-high global markets, has created fertile ground for modern post-trade processing solutions to replace outdated legacy systems. We anticipate heightened demand for agile and robust platforms as market participants seek to optimize operations and enhance scalability. InteliClear is well-positioned to play a central role in this global transformation, providing the tools and support necessary to navigate the complexities of an increasingly dynamic market environment.

What trends are getting underway that people may not know about but will be important?

One of the most significant yet underrecognized trends in the post-trade space is the processing of alternative assets. InteliClear has been a pioneer in this area and continues to innovate with various opportunities. We are actively integrating our post-trade processing solutions with blockchain technology to manage traditional and non-traditional assets, adhering to stringent regulatory frameworks, including FINRA, SEC, GAAP, and PCAOB rules. By leveraging blockchain, we aim to bring increased transparency, security, and efficiency to all asset classes while ensuring full compliance. This approach represents a paradigm shift in how post-trade processes are managed, particularly for alternative assets, underscoring our commitment to staying at the forefront of industry innovation.

Another critical development is the SEC’s mandate requiring the clearing of eligible secondary market transactions (ESMTs) in U.S. Treasury securities. This regulation, aimed at reducing system-wide risk and enhancing market stability, demands robust post-trade solutions. InteliClear is aligning its platform to accommodate these regulatory changes, ensuring clients can seamlessly meet compliance requirements. This mandate reflects a broader industry push toward enhanced oversight and risk reduction, making compliance-ready post-trade systems an indispensable asset for financial firms.

Lastly, the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) presents transformative opportunities for our clients. Thanks to InteliClear’s non-service bureau operating model, present and future clients retain complete control over their systems. This autonomy empowers them to customize AI-driven tools and analytics to optimize operations, manage risks, and enhance decision-making. InteliClear’s approach ensures that clients, not external vendors, dictate how technology evolves to meet their specific needs.

These emerging trends—alternative assets, blockchain integration, regulatory adaptation, and AI-driven opportunities highlight the dynamic changes shaping post-trade processing. InteliClear remains committed to providing innovative, client-controlled solutions that drive efficiency and resilience in this evolving financial landscape.

Lessons from a Decade of European Crypto ETPs: Insights for the U.S. Market

By
CoinShares
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By Jean-Marie Mognetti, CEO of CoinShares

The Spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs in the United States ignited a new wave of institutional investment as previously sidelined buyers have taken advantage of this new asset class. The inflows thus far have been remarkable and the development of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the U.S. market is poised to accelerate. 

Over the course of 2024, we have seen the tremendous opportunity that the digital asset industry has moving forward with the approval of spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs in the United States. In the recent weeks following the U.S. Presidential election, digital asset fund flows in the U.S. continued to grow exponentially. During the week of the election following President Trump’s successful campaign for another term, the US saw $1.95 billion in inflows into digital asset ETFs, with the year to date total in the US reaching $29 billion. But now that these products have been introduced to the market, where do we go from here? 

While the United States was late to approve regulated crypto investment vehicles relative to its peers, it stands to benefit from the wealth of experience accumulated in European markets over the past decade. With a new, and seemingly favorable, administration set to take the reins in 2025, what could the digital asset industry expect the ETF landscape in the U.S. to look like? Having played a key role in advancing publicly traded crypto products in Europe as CEO of CoinShares, reflecting on the European experience can help our U.S. counterparts navigate this new terrain and more seamlessly develop their own crypto markets.

Europe’s Pioneering Role

Europe has long been at the forefront of adopting crypto asset classes, setting global standards for safe entry into the crypto ecosystem for both institutions and the public. Europe’s first regulated crypto product launched in 2015, on the Nasdaq Stockholm, with the debut of a Bitcoin-backed ETP This milestone paved the way for further innovation, with Europe’s first Ether ETP following in 2017.

The digital asset ETP approval regulatory journey in Europe has been complex and multifaceted. The original CoinShares XBT Provider Bitcoin ETP, followed a structure similar to Gold ETPs in Europe. However, this original product was the sole digital asset ETP available for two years, before Switzerland’s Six Exchange provided a pathway for others to launch Bitcoin (and eventually other) ETPs on the exchange. Following this development, Germany’s Deutsche Börse AG followed suit in 2020, leading to a large capital infusion into digital asset ETPs, providing significant AUM in these products for the first time since inception in 2015. 

Since these initial product launches, the European market has continued to expand and now offers over 100 different products, referencing roughly 40 different underlying assets, from 20 different issuers. The landscape now includes physically-backed ETPs, synthetically-replicated products, and blended offerings that provide exposure to multiple cryptocurrencies or crypto-related assets. Companies such as CoinShares, 21Shares, WisdomTree, VanEck, Valour, Invesco, Hashdex, and ETC Group, amongst others, now offer an assortment of crypto ETP products to European investors.

While the growth of the crypto ETP market in Europe has faced challenges, including an ever-evolving regulatory landscape, these obstacles have driven innovation and led to the creation of more sophisticated products and robust infrastructures. Europe’s proactive approach to creating a regulatory environment that balances innovation with investor protection has been instrumental in the growth of crypto ETPs. As the U.S. market develops, finding this balance will be crucial for sustainable growth and investor confidence.

Infrastructure Development

While crypto ETPs function similarly to their United States ETF counterparts: both are open ended and exchange traded.  As a result, considering and implementing the appropriate infrastructure is critical to ensure longevity and accessibility. This includes accessing appropriate trading venues, engaging market makers and regulated custody solutions, and ensuring adequate on-exchange  liquidity .

Major European exchanges like Deutsche Börse Xetra, SIX Swiss Exchange, and Euronext now list crypto ETPs, providing investors with secure and streamlined methods to invest in cryptocurrencies. This infrastructure development has been crucial in fostering trust and facilitating broader adoption.

The development of infrastructure didn’t happen overnight. It required close collaboration between ETP issuers, exchanges, market makers, and regulators. Each player in the ecosystem had to adapt to the unique challenges presented by crypto assets. For instance, exchanges have been at the forefront of working with their regulators to approve digital assets as eligible underlyings 

As the market has matured, we’ve seen a marked improvement in liquidity across European crypto ETP offerings. This has been achieved through a combination of factors, including increased competition among issuers, growing investor interest, and the entry of established financial institutions into the crypto space. Liquidity provisioning has been another critical area of development. In the early days of crypto ETPs, liquidity was a significant concern for institutional investors. However, as the market has matured, we’ve seen a marked improvement in liquidity across European crypto ETP offerings. This has been achieved through a combination of factors, including increased competition among issuers, growing investor interest, and the entry of established financial institutions into the crypto space.

The Importance of Multiple Custodians

One of the most critical lessons learned is the importance of having multiple custodians for crypto ETPs. The crypto markets operate 24/7, and technical issues can occur at any point in the trading process – even on major exchanges like the NYSE.

To minimise the impact of such technical glitches, asset managers must have robust backup plans in place. This includes arrangements with multiple custodians to ensure trading and settlement can continue with minimal disruption. For instance, if a major custodian like Coinbase were to encounter technical difficulties, CoinShares’ experience has taught us to be prepared with alternative custody solutions.

Looking Ahead

As the global leader in financial markets, the U.S., following Donald Trump’s election victory for another term as president, is well positioned to scale its domestic market for digital asset ETFs, and a favorable regulatory environment primed for innovation. With the advantage of hindsight, the U.S. can leverage Europe’s decade-long experience with crypto ETPs to avoid pitfalls and accelerate crypto adoption. The key takeaways include:

  • Understanding and catering to diverse customer needs with a range of product offerings.
  • Developing robust infrastructure, including reliable trading venues and liquidity providers.
  • Working closely with regulators to create a balanced environment that fosters innovation while protecting investors.
  • Implementing strong risk management practices, particularly in terms of custody arrangements.

By leveraging these lessons, as the industry enters another bull cycle, the U.S. can accelerate the development of its crypto ETF market, providing investors with secure and regulated access to this emerging asset class. The global crypto landscape is evolving rapidly, and collaboration between markets will be crucial. As European pioneers in this space, we at CoinShares look forward to sharing our learning and expertise as we lead the industry forward towards a robust, global crypto ETF ecosystem. 

FLASH FRIDAY: Recapping the Year in Market Structure

By
Ioanna Theocharaki
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FLASH FRIDAY is a weekly content series looking at the past, present and future of capital markets trading and technology. FLASH FRIDAY is sponsored by Instinet, a Nomura company.

Predicting market structure trends is no easy feat, and revisiting those predictions a year later often reveals unexpected twists.

Kevin McPartland

Kevin McPartland, Head of Market Structure and Technology Research at Coalition Greenwich, Zoomed with Traders Magazine for the third-annual ‘look back at a look ahead’, assessing CG’s Top Market Structure Trends to Watch in 2024.

Of the 10 trends highlighted in the January 2024 report, which ones happened as expected, and which ones took an unexpected turn?

1. U.S. Regulations Must Speed Up or Die, Ahead of U.S. Elections – As Expected

Kevin: “Many of the rules that were proposed in 2024 will ultimately die, given the outcome of the election. We actually wrote about this recently—Chair Gensler was going to resign, and a new chair was announced. It does seem like a lot of the outstanding rules will likely be scrapped, and they’ll step back and reevaluate where to go from here”

2. GUI Search is Out, AI Search is In – As Expected

“We’re definitely moving in that direction. Of course, not all applications can sort of tear out years of development and immediately replace it with generative AI, but it does very much feel like the world continues to move in that direction, and it’s only getting better.”

3. The Exchange Buying Spree Continues – Less than Expected

“There wasn’t much this year, so perhaps this trend is delayed a year. I would say that yet again, given the change in Washington, there is an expectation for more M&A in 2025. So less than expected, but perhaps playing catch-up in 2025.”


4. Private Markets Aren’t So Private Anymore – More than Expected

“I literally read an article this morning about how private market access is continuing to expand and how there are multiple ways to do it. We do have ETFs for private market access, so it’s certainly becoming more and more available to institutional and retail investors.”


5. Workflow Automation Becomes the Priority – As Expected

“As expected, automation will continue to be a priority. We recently published a research piece on muni dealers, and we asked about their tech priorities for next year. Again, the number one answer was automation. So this does continue to be a topic across every asset class, front office and back office alike. So, as expected and will only continue.”

6. The Market Still Cares About Crypto and Blockchain for Capital Markets – As Expected

“This trend continues to move forward. This is another trend that the U.S. election is going to drive even further, so interest should only grow here. A lot of U.S. entities are hoping for more regulatory clarity, which now seems realistic for 2025. Both on the crypto front and the tokenization front are seeing progress. Of course, you can’t ignore Bitcoin hitting $100,000 — that kind of growth is certainly going to drive interest even further forward.”


7. Central Clearing Tries to Grow – As Expected

“If we take the word ‘tries’ literally, then yes, it’s as expected, we certainly try to continue to move forward. I think treasury and repo clearing are again trying to make progress. The expectation is that these rules will stick, even with the changes in Washington, but will likely take longer to implement, the deadlines will be pushed out. This is a long-term trend
that arguably started after the financial crisis in 2010 or so and continues and will continue going forward. So definitely a push to more clearing, but it is a slow-moving train.


8. T+1 Prematurely Creates T+0 Talk – Less than Expected

“We’ve still had those conversations this year about T+0. I do think the idea is sitting with certain FinTech firms that are thinking about how to move the market forward and what opportunities might exist. I don’t think anybody foresees any regulatory action in this regard anytime soon, especially in the U.S., but that doesn’t mean the industry won’t try to make some progress in certain pockets where they see opportunity.

9. Cheap Capital is Harder to Find – As Expected

“This trend stuck with us through 2024. Even as the Fed started to cut rates, long-term interest rates didn’t come down all that much, so rates are still historically high right now, which is making it expensive to borrow. There’s also a political lean to all of this. Because of the election, there’s some expectation that additional capital requirements for banks could be scaled back or even canceled altogether, which should free up some capital on the banking side. If we’re talking about more M&A, that should hopefully create a lot of deals, allowing private equity and venture firms to sell their existing holdings or bring them public, which then frees up capital to do more investing, and it seems like that could start to shift in 2025.”

10. Buy, Build and Integrate Replaces Buy vs. Build – As Expected

“There do seem to be very few capital markets firms that are all buy or all build anymore. This ties back nicely to workflow automation — being able to move information between applications, whether internal, external, or from multiple vendors, to make that workflow more seamless and automated. These two things will just feed on each other and help continue to move this forward.”

And:

The Search for “Normal” Continues

“I do kind of feel like we’re there, right? It’s funny reading what I wrote a year ago—trains are definitely still less empty on Mondays and Fridays, although less so than they were at the start of the year. There are a lot more mandates for everybody to come back five days a week, especially with big financial markets firms and even some tech firms. It feels like the industry has found its new, new normal. Business is certainly back, the markets have been on fire, and we’ll see what next year brings.

Bonus question: What was the biggest market structure trend of 2024 that you didn’t highlight in your top 10 list from one year ago?

“Maybe this is a little in the weeds, but a lot of electronic trading focus for years has been very much about the buy side, the investors and how they interact to get liquidity. But in 2024, it seemed like there was a big focus on the dealer-to-dealer market and innovation there in electronic trading. So, we saw growth in electronic trading in that segment, along with a lot of innovations the from trading venues, with new solutions or existing ones that really started to grow. That was a bit of a surprise that come out of the data.”

Outlook 2025: Steve Sanders, Interactive Brokers

By
Anna Lyudvig
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Steve Sanders is EVP of Marketing and Product Development at Interactive Brokers.

Steve Sanders, Interactive Brokers
Steve Sanders

What were the key theme(s) for your business in 2024?

Year after year, Interactive Brokers remains focused on its core competencies and a target audience of sophisticated investors, active traders, and institutions. We continue to allow clients in over 200 countries and territories worldwide to fund accounts and trade assets in up to 28 currencies. Investors can trade globally in stocks, options, futures, currencies, bonds, funds, and more on 150 global markets from a single unified platform. With global market access, competitive pricing and advanced trading technology, our platform is designed for active traders with a range of investment objectives.

Over the last year, we enhanced our technology and further expanded the suite of tradeable products on our platform. We unveiled the IBKR Desktop trading platform and several tools and upgraded existing services to enhance our clients’ trading experience.  

IBKR Desktop, one of our top initiatives from 2024, is a modern and sophisticated trading solution featuring powerful tools in a user-friendly interface. Novice and experienced investors benefit from IBKR Desktop’s streamlined design and access to tools like MultiSort, which enables users to sort data using multiple factors simultaneously and Option Lattice, a graphical options chain display highlighting potential outliers in key metrics.

We also launched many new products, including forecast contracts on election, economic, and climate events, daily options on the CAC 40® index, access to the Saudi Exchange, Malaysian Ringgit-denominated equities, ETFs and derivatives on Bursa Malaysia, CHF-denominated bonds, KOSPI and USD/KRW derivatives through the Eurex/Korea Exchange, European stock options and index futures and options on Cboe Europe Derivatives – as well as extended trading hours for US Treasuries, global corporate bonds, UK gilts, and European government bonds.

What was the highlight of 2024?

A key highlight from 2024 was the launch of forecast contracts on election, economic, and climate events through the ForecastEx exchange, a wholly owned subsidiary of Interactive Brokers.

Forecast contracts allow investors to trade their opinion on “Yes” or No” questions on political, economic, and climate indicators to express a view on a critical issue and manage portfolio risk. It is simple to take a position, investors can purchase a “yes” contract if they think an event will occur, or conversely, if they believe the event will not occur, they can buy a “no” contract. Contract prices range from $0.02 to $0.99, reflecting the market’s evolving consensus on the likelihood of each outcome. The forecast contracts also pay an interest-like incentive coupon based on the closing market value of the positions, which is currently paid at a rate of 4.08% APY.

Significant demand for election-focused contracts on the IBKR platform ahead of the 2024 Presidential election emphasized the rising significance of prediction markets. With this year’s election cycle now over, we hope that investors will come to our platform to take a position on key economic and environmental outcomes. 

What surprised you in 2024?

The theme of 24/7 trading continues to grow, and we were pleased to see significant demand for Overnight Trading Hours on the Interactive Brokers platform. As of the end of November 2024, Overnight Trading on IBKR’s platform increased 543% since the beginning of 2024, representing 2.29% of all US trades. With over 85% of new client applicants from outside the US, Interactive Brokers is a truly global broker. IBKR’s Overnight Trading Hours service, which lists over 10,000 US stocks and ETFs plus US Index futures and options, is an important feature for our global client base. Clients in Asia and Europe looking to capture US trading opportunities can trade during local market hours and react immediately to market-moving news.

Outlook 2025: George Rosenberger, Broadridge

By
Anna Lyudvig
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George Rosenberger is Head of NYFIX, Broadridge Trading and Connectivity Solutions.

George Rosenberger

What were the key theme(s) for your business in 2024?

The T+1 settlement cycle change was a very visible and impactful change in the industry in 2024. While some firms were prepared well in advance, many were not leading them to scramble for solutions. While some of the larger industry vendors started to turn clients away, because it was too close to the implementation window, we were able to onboard them in time to be compliant with the regulation effective date.

What are your expectations for 2025?

We will see continued investments in technology particularly around data analytics and piping those analytics into buy-side and sell-side OMS platforms. Data driven strategies, compliance checks and routing rules will start to become the norm to remove the burdensome part of the trading process from the actual trader so they can focus more on execution quality. The availability of expansive and cost-effective compute power coupled with AI and Machine Learning will lead to pivotal advancements in the industry by summarizing large data sets in microseconds allowing for the formation of new trading ideas and insights while also helping clients optimize their order placement and execution costs.

What trends are getting underway that people may not know about but will be important?

People need to become workably proficient with AI. The advancements in AI is ever changing and getting involved early and solidifying understanding of the technology will not only allow people to become comfortable using it in your everyday life, but also help them to become more effective in their job by automating mundane tasks, analyzing large datasets quickly in order to generate new ideas, and allowing for more focus on strategic business areas and core operations.

What is Broadridge doing specifically in the area of AI to improve the lives of our customer?

Broadridge has a strategic focus and dedicated resources helping to create innovative AI solutions for our clients. Whether it is BondGPT, which assists users in identifying corporate bonds and answers complex bond-related queries; BondGPT+, the enterprise version of BondGPT; OpsGPT, a Gen-AI-powered co-pilot that uses transaction, settlement, and position data to provide clients real-time visibility for faster fail resolution; Tradeverse, a real-time, multi-asset, unified global data platform foundational to delivering the value of data and AI to clients; or our new algorithm insights service that analyzes large historical and real-time datasets to recommend the optimum algo strategy to use for the particular name that the trader needs to execute; Broadridge is focused on innovation to help our clients be more efficient, effective and compliant.

EXECUTION MATTERS: Year-End Not So Quiet for Markets 

By
Editorial Staff
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(EXECUTION MATTERS is a Traders Magazine content series focused on the topics most important to traders and technologists in US equities and options markets. EXECUTION MATTERS is produced in collaboration with Lime Trading Corp.)

As business winds down for the year-end holidays, it’s commonly perceived that trading activity in equity and options markets is also quiet. 

But while aggregate volume numbers may trend lower over the few weeks spanning mid-December to early January, and many senior institutional traders are home with family or on vacation, there are several items of significance on the calendar that market participants need to stay plugged in for – especially this year.

First, the Federal Reserve concluded its final meeting of 2024 on December 18, lowering its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points while also signaling a slower pace of rate cuts in 2025. That guidance sent stocks lower. 

Then, quadruple witching, or “quad witch” day on Friday, December 20, will see the simultaneous expiration of four major financial instruments: stock index futures, stock index options, stock options, and single stock futures.

The concurrent expiration of the derivatives contracts typically results in higher trading volume and market volatility, while also impacting the short-term valuation of securities.

December 20 is also a big day for index rebalances, with the S&P 500, S&P 400, S&P 600, and Nasdaq 100 set to add and remove certain companies to ensure the respective indices stay properly balanced in light of current market conditions. Index rebalances can result in significant trading activity as fund managers benchmarked to indices buy and sell stocks to maintain their desired exposures.  

And there’s the end of the fourth quarter and the end of 2024, which both fall on the shortened trading day of Tuesday, December 31. There is often increased trading activity on the last day of investment reporting periods, as fund managers finalize their portfolio positions for year-end reporting and calculations, as well as tax considerations.  

Johan Sandblom, President and Head of Business Development at agency broker and market access provider Lime Trading Corp., noted that all these events are happening as market participants re-position for the upcoming change from a Democratic to a Republican presidential administration, and also the “Santa Claus rally” calendar effect that typically sees stock rise in the last five trading days of December and the first two trading days in January.    

The S&P 500 Index has gained 27% year to date as of December 17, though it has been about flat this month. “The first half of December historically isn’t all that great,” Ryan Detrick, Chief Market Strategist at Carson Group, told Yahoo Finance on Dec. 16. “It’s the second half of December” that has driven positive returns in nine of the past ten election-year Decembers, he said.

“It is a misconception that there is nothing going on in the markets in December,” Sandblom told Traders Magazine. “At Lime, it is all hands-on deck during this active and volatile month.”

Outlook 2025: Magnus Haglind, Nasdaq

By
Anna Lyudvig
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Magnus Haglind is Head of Products for Marketplace Technology at Nasdaq.

Magnus Haglind

What were the key theme(s) for your business in 2024?

2024 has been an incredible year at Nasdaq, establishing our Financial Technology business which saw the integration of our Marketplace Technology, Surveillance, and Anti-Financial Crime Technology with the market-leading platforms Calypso and AxiomSL following our acquisition of Adenza. That comprehensive portfolio of mission-critical solutions offers a unique vantage point on major themes across the financial ecosystem as our clients look to solve their toughest operational challenges.

They are seeking solutions that help them reduce the burden of ever greater regulation and supervisory oversight, while optimizing for liquidity and capital. Underlying that is a widespread need to simplify inherent complexity within their businesses to break down internal silos. They are also increasingly looking to partners like Nasdaq to help keep pace with innovative new technologies and the forces of disruption.

On the market infrastructure side, there is an almost overwhelming realization across exchanges, clearing houses and central securities depositories of the need to modernize their underlying architecture, or risk being left behind as innovative new technologies begin to define the new generation of capital markets.

What was the highlight of your year?

In May, we convened more than 100 industry leaders within our Financial Technology client community, discussing a range of topics across market infrastructure, AI, regulation, and innovation. It was fascinating to listen and share emerging insights, and tremendous value to bring our network together.

Modernization was a critical thread through these discussions, not just in terms of making sure operators have the right applications, but more fundamentally about how they ensure they have the right operating model in place. Innovative technologies like cloud and AI are driving meaningful conversations about the critical capabilities they will need in the future, and whether they should source those in-house, or from external providers.  

Given the excitement and realisation of the importance of gen-AI, operators are rightly asking themselves: “How do I ensure I have access to those capabilities”. With the level of energy and compute capacity that will be required – and the investment they will need to make in their own infrastructure to even stay relevant – they want to make sure they aren’t left alone to source everything themselves.

What are your expectations for 2025?

In line with the much broader market modernization theme, the pace at which Gen-AI has matured across the industry over the past year bodes reflects a strong trend that will only continue to gain momentum. From a Nasdaq perspective there are already multiple examples of AI being embedded into our platforms, including the first AI-powered order type, dramatically improving the efficiency of bank risk calculations and market surveillance.

The momentum behind crypto and digital asset markets is also helping to drive greater focus on tokenization of asset classes, alongside a greater push towards 24×5/7 markets. Nasdaq’s trading technology has long been used to support 24/7 trading in digital asset markets and we’re seeing increased appetite to expand this service across a broader range of asset classes.

What will the industry look like in 20 years’ time?

The next generation of global capital markets will be characterized by a fabric of globally connected markets, with common data lake architecture, the ability to interact seamlessly across exchanges, minimal latency, and the flexibility to incorporate new products and functionality.

The question then becomes about how we get there. This type of modernization goes beyond a point in time, but rather a process of continual change. Operators that haven’t already embarked on that modernization journey – investing in their data strategy and reflecting on their long-term operating model – risk being left behind. We’re excited to play a leading role in that transition as the backbone of many institutions’ tech stack.

Outlook 2025: Stephen Callahan, Firstrade

By
Anna Lyudvig
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Stephen Callahan is Trading Behavior Specialist at Firstrade.

What were the key theme(s) for your business in 2024?

Stephen Callahan

As we approach the close of 2024, we at Firstrade are reflecting on our goals and assessing how successful we’ve been in achieving them. Our focus this year was on growth and improving efficiency with our existing staff. We’ve made significant progress by interviewing and hiring new personnel, and we’ve promoted members within our two call centers. With staff located in both New York and Florida, as well as remote and overnight representatives, we have greater flexibility to serve our growing customer base. Additionally, we introduced FirstradeGPT to streamline research inquiries. Expect more of exciting developments in the new year.

What are you most excited for in 2025?

We have an enhanced IRA Match Bonus we plan to deploy soon that will incentivize new customers to open accounts and contribute funds, as well as encourage current clients to transfer or rollover retirement assets. Our goal is to attract new clients while establishing lasting relationships. Both new and existing clients will also discover the other advantages of having an account, including first-rate research, a user-friendly trading platform, a state-of-the-art options platform, all with no fees. Firstrade was one of the first firms to set the standard for getting more for less, and we will continue to lead the way.

While we are not market forecasters, we are preparing for the new year by maintaining our commitment to customer service and expanding the Firstrade brand to the trading community. As long as we remain nimble and responsive to clients’ concerns and market trends, we’ll be well-positioned for 2025.

Like most market observers, we are pleased with the current bull market and hope it continues. The tailwinds leading up to the presidential election have only strengthened. When much of the market was tech-heavy but poised to rotate into other sectors, we were ready. President-elect Trump’s statement that he wouldn’t fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell may have sent a message that he aims to avoid market disruption. Additionally, Trump’s comments about not cutting Social Security could encourage investors to become more creative or speculative with retirement assets. The potential for tax cuts and deregulation may provide further stimulus.

We expect our new overnight trading offering, along with the IRA and transfer promotions, to drive new account enrollments and increase trading volume.

As long as we continue to raise Firstrade’s profile in the retail investment community, offer exceptional service with no fees, and remain agile (like a boxer) in responding to market changes, we’ll continue to thrive.

Outlook 2025: Josh Krugman, Fidelity Investments

By
Anna Lyudvig
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Josh Krugman is SVP Brokerage, Fidelity Investments.

Josh Krugman

What were the key theme(s) for your business in 2024?

The last year was marked by a continuation of record-high trading activity at Fidelity, with a broad group of self-directed investors turning to Fidelity as they worked to build a stronger financial future. Our teams have been laser-focused on evolving our platform to meet the needs of a range of self-directed investors, from those looking for a diversified portfolio built through recurring investments to those seeking downside protection or income generation through options strategies.

What was the highlight of 2024?

We are constantly listening to our customers and using their insights to build platforms that support what they need to be successful investors. We were able to deliver on these needs in big ways in 2024, with new software, web experiences and mobile developments. For our advanced traders, we began rolling out a completely new version of our Active Trader Pro software, “ATP Beta,” built from the ground up to deliver more real-time insights and analysis together with a streamlined trade execution experience. In the options space, traders can now use our Options Strategy Builder to build their first (or second, or third) options trades, with contextual education throughout the experience to help them build confidence.

What are you most excited for in 2025?

In 2025, I expect we’ll continue to see high trading volumes, particularly as global and domestic markets react to shifts in leadership both here in the U.S. and around the world. We’re working to provide education and resources to help investors break down the headlines and distill the signals from the noise. And of course we’ll continue to enhance the platforms our investors use to trade – whether that’s our mobile app, Trading Dashboard on Fidelity.com, or the new ATP Beta. In 2024, we saw continued increases in digital engagement from our customers, with a 17% increase in unique individuals engaged digitally in Q3 ’24, and we’re excited to continue that momentum into 2025.

What trends are getting underway that people may not know about but will be important?

There are a lot of buzzwords in the brokerage industry at the moment – 0DTE, AI, 24/5 trading, prediction markets, and so much more. At Fidelity we take a longer term view to supporting our customers. Rather than focusing on near-term trends, we’re planning for the next five, ten, fifteen years of customer needs. What will our customers need to be successful investors? That’s what we’re constantly evaluating. There are throughlines that become apparent in all of the above, and we need to see those and use our insights to ensure we’re delivering a best-in-class trading experience for our clients. We continually invest in technology and tools to provide strong digital capabilities for today and innovate for the needs of tomorrow with the value and transparency customers expect. 

Outlook 2025: Stephanie Farrell, Northern Trust

By
Anna Lyudvig
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Stephanie Farrell is Head of Integrated Trading Solutions, Americas, Northern Trust.

Stephanie Farrell

What were the key theme(s) for your business in 2024?

In the intensifying battle for alpha, managers are looking at different avenues for growth, as reflected in our 2024 survey of 300 global asset managers. Asked which asset classes they plan to target for increased distribution, 71% of managers identified infrastructure, 54% identified digital assets and 49% said real estate. But expanding into new asset classes often comes with a price: increased complexity. Managers may lack the market knowledge and access needed to enter new asset classes and markets, and they may not have expertise in place to execute trades at the highest levels of effectiveness and efficiency. An outsourced provider can offer global trading capability from desks in multiple regions, staffed with expertise in local/regional markets and numerous exchanges across asset classes. A firm entering markets in the APAC region, for example, could use an outsourced provider to tap into expertise in local market trading and settlement to help with activities such as trade oversight and foreign exchange execution at a low variable cost.

Many managers are evolving their operating models to match a changing market, and they are increasingly widening their scope to outsource functions in the front office, including the trading desk. Nearly 30% of the respondents to our survey who have not yet outsourced identified trading as a function they would outsource. While managers have consistently focused on cost in recent years, they are now turning their attention to outsourcing for its potential to increase the quality of their execution.

What was the highlight of 2024?

2024 was a significant growth year for Integrated Trading Solutions, Northern Trust’s outsourced trading offering, across asset classes and client segments. We have seen broader adoption and managers of scale seeking outsourced partnerships as a way to augment or enhance in-house capabilities. Fixed Income was a sizeable area of growth and opportunity for us, where we saw a significant increase in volumes year over year. The growth came from larger mandates or new allocation across fixed income sectors, and managers utilizing the outsourced trading as a way to enter these markets. In equity markets, we saw greater diversification to global emerging markets and small cap trading.

    What are your expectations for 2025?

    We expect the adoption of outsourced trading models to continue moving from niche to norm as large-scale managers evolve their operating models. Our clients continue to diversify, moving into new asset classes or global markets where they may not have the in-house expertise or technology to support new areas of investments. A sharp focus on increased distribution and client experience will be another driver, with managers looking for a trusted partner to provide whole-office support — including front, middle and back-office solutions – backed by investments in the latest technology. Every asset manager is unique, and an outsourcing partner with long-established expertise and credibility can allow firms to go to market more quickly while deploying their in-house resources in the most efficient way.

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