As Markets Operations Specialist for IEX, Thomas OBrien works the trade support desk to find the needs of the clients and how they interact with the IEX platform. We proactively reach out to clients and discuss order types, connectivity, clearing, trade reporting and we provide them with data metrics to help them understand their experience on IEX.
Hailing from a 12-year run at Liquidnet, Brian Foley now works in Business Development for the aspiring buyside exchange. He is primarily responsible for buyside relationship building with market participant such as mutual funds, hedge funds and pension funds. We are building awareness about who we are and the best ways they can deal with us. What are their concerns? Transparency is huge. One of the biggest parts of our model here, making sure that what we do is very clear and on the up and up.
Stefan Parker works in Business Development and has one mission: getting the IEX message out to buyside firms. I look at the buyside and communicate what we are doing, what we are launching and make sure they are aware of what is happening and what tools we have to offer. They read in press about what we did and will call in to ask for these services. Of IEXs variety of clients - long only, hedge funds, quant funds, larger investment shops - Parker doesnt say whos more demanding. It doesnt depend on the type of shop, it depends more on the individual trader.
Ask Zoran Perkov, Head of Technology Operations, about his job and he gets to the point: Make sure it doesnt break. He and his team are in charge of system reliability: monitoring, maintaining and managing with the IEX system, ultimately to gather information out of it to measure its reliability. What keeps him up at night, a hack attack or a flash crash? Everything, he says. What if all the markets go down, were the only one left and everyone comes to trade here? Now youre talking millions and millions of messages a second and everyone trying to trade with you, he says. Actually, Perkov adds that while this is not likely to happen, its a fun technical problem.
The view from the 44th floor of 4 World Trade.
Robert Park is CTO of IEX and his mission consists of project planning, deployment and testing of the production systems code. Were also heavily involved in new advances and features we provide on the exchange so we go through the design discussions, talk about the pros and cons, to ensure that any new feature does not provide an advantage for one type of participant, he told Traders. As an example, the dynamic peg order type (D-Peg) is a form of midpoint trading that offers added protection and took four months of discussion before development and testing began. Released late last year, D-Peg has generated a great response from clients, says Park, adding, Especially when we become a protected exchange, its relevancy will skyrocket.
Once IEX becomes an exchange Chief Regulatory Officer Claudia Crowley will be in charge of the exchange's regulatory program. This important role involves the regulation of members, trading on IEX, including overseeing FINRAs performance of outsourced functions, and oversight of IEXs compliance with its own rules and SEC rules. Right now I am spending most of my time on exchange launch preparation, working on drafting portions of the rule book, working on FINRA agreements, and developing internal exchange policies and procedures. She added that I love the energy here and the mission. Its great to come to work where people have a common mission that helps to promote fairness and transparency in the markets.
IEX CEO and co-founder Brad Katsuyama may have an office with a spectacular view but he prefers to work at his desk in the middle of the IEX floor. The firm moved into the 44th floor of the 4 World Trade Center the previous month. The open floorplan allows the sales team, IT staffers and other team members to work at their variable height desks that average two large display screens. T
The new IEX floor boasts a family style dining area, the conference rooms sport frosted glass, and the corner boasts chairs and couches for impromptu meetings and gatherings.
