New York, May 22, 2019 – GTS, a leading electronic market maker across global financial instruments, announced the completion today of its acquisition of the automated Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) and Wholesale OTC Market Making businesses of Cantor Fitzgerald (“Cantor”).
Thirty Cantor employees have moved to GTS as full-time employees as part of the transition. The ETF business is led by industry pioneer Reginald Browne along with his colleagues Eric Lichtenstein and Darren Taube. Overseeing the Wholesale OTC Market Making business is Joe Pleffner, Mike Strashnov and Menash Cohen. Cantor will continue to act as a counterparty in ETFs in partnership with GTS.
Ari Rubenstein, co-founder and CEO of GTS, said, “We are extremely excited about the opportunity to provide our clients with industry-leading execution services and premier client service. The GTS offering creates a new standard that will unite technology and capital deployment to create efficiency across asset classes. Investors around the world can now leverage the very best in machine learning, artificial intelligence and execution technology to help them save money whenever they trade and invest.”
GTS is the largest designated market maker (DMM) at the New York Stock Exchange. At the NYSE, GTS is responsible for the trading in more than 900 public companies that have a total market capitalization of approximately $12.5 trillion dollars. Listed securities include blue chip companies ranging from ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) and Ford (NYSE: F) to international companies such as Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) to leading global technology companies like Pinterest (NYSE: PINS) and AT&T (NYSE: T).
This acquisition is another step in GTS’ mission to build-out its global capital markets business and to put its premier trading technology to use for all of those who may benefit, in order to truly democratize access to markets for all who participate.
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
About GTS
GTS is a global electronic market maker, powered by combining market expertise with innovative, proprietary technology. As a quantitative trading firm continually building for the future, GTS leverages the latest in artificial intelligence systems and sophisticated pricing models to bring consistency, efficiency, and transparency to today’s financial markets. GTS accounts for 3-6% of daily cash equities volume in the U.S. and trades over 10,000 different instruments globally. GTS is the largest Designated Market Maker (DMM) at the New York Stock Exchange, responsible for nearly $12.5 trillion of market capitalization.