MutualFundWire.com: Fidelity Goes on a Hiring Spree for its Institutional Trading Unit
MutualFundWire.com
   The insiders' edge for 40 Act industry executives!
an InvestmentWires' Publication
Friday, January 16, 2009

Fidelity Goes on a Hiring Spree for its Institutional Trading Unit


Fidelity Capital Markets, the Boston Behemoth's institutional trading arm, hired Michael Cashel as senior vice president of its equity business. Cashel, previously with Bear Stearns, reports to Fidelity Capital Markets president Mark Haggerty.

Fidelity also brought on board nine equity traders, including Matthew McConnell, who takes the title of senior vice president and head of sales and trading for institutional equities. McConnell, who joined from Bank of America Securities, reports to Cashel.
Company Press Release

BOSTON, January 15, 2009 -- Fidelity Capital Markets, the institutional trading division of Fidelity Investments® has named Michael S. Cashel senior vice president of its equity business. The company also announced it has hired Mathew J. McConnell as senior vice president and head of sales trading for institutional equities.

In his role, Cashel will lead the institutional and intermediary sales and trading desks, including equity block trading, program trading, options trading, international equity and the electronic brokerage services teams. He also will oversee the transition management and commission management functions. Cashel will report to Mark Haggerty, president of Fidelity Capital Markets.

"Mike's appointment reflects our ongoing commitment towards building our capital markets business and providing institutional, intermediary and retail clients' access to the people and trading solutions they need to help them achieve their trading objectives," said Haggerty. "Mike's leadership and experience in equity sales and trading management are perfectly suited to help build on a business that already has order flow up to half a billion shares daily.1 "

"Today's traders are increasingly turning to brokerage firms like Fidelity -- those with an agency-only trading desk, a personalized approach to client relationships and a focus on execution excellence," said Cashel. "The combination of Fidelity's experienced professionals, innovative electronic trading tools and status as a private company enables us to continue expanding our market presence."

Cashel has nearly 20 years of equity trading experience and joins Fidelity Capital Markets from Bear Stearns and Company, Inc., where he was the senior managing director and head of sales and marketing for the firm's electronic trading products. Prior to Bear Stearns, Cashel spent three years at Harborside Plus, a start-up electronic trading firm, where he was chief executive officer from 2004 to 2005 and chief operating officer from 2002 to 2004. Cashel also held senior equity positions at ABN AMRO Inc. in New York and Morgan Stanley & Co., Inc., working both in London and New York.

Fidelity Significantly Expands Equity Trading

In addition to Cashel, Fidelity Capital Markets announced it has hired nine new equity trading professionals to help support its growing equity business, including Mathew J. McConnell as senior vice president and head of sales and trading for institutional equities. McConnell will report to Cashel.

In his new role, McConnell will oversee the various sales and trading teams for Fidelity Capital Markets, including program trading and electronic brokerage sales.

McConnell has over 25 years of experience in the equities market and comes to Fidelity from Bank of America Securities, where he was managing director and co-head of institutional equity sales trading. Prior to Bank of America Securities, McConnell was chief operating officer and senior managing director at The Griswold Company, an independent floor-based brokerage firm. McConnell spent 15 years at Morgan Stanley as an executive director in the international equity sales trading group, and held a similar role at HSBC Securities, where he was responsible for the worldwide sales trading team.

Fidelity Capital Markets' growing equity team will focus on a variety of areas in 2009, including a new transition management function and the expansion of commission management, program trading and electronic trading capabilities. The equity team also will increase its high-touch sales trading staff, enhancing the proactive and real-time market insight needed to help clients formulate execution strategies.

Fidelity Capital Markets' equity and electronic trading capabilities offer clients broad access to the equities markets. Utilizing advanced technology and analytics, Fidelity's specialized, seasoned equity traders provide personalized service to help clients meet their trading needs.

Through Fidelity's institutional and retail brokerage businesses, Fidelity Capital Markets can access aggregated liquidity of more than $1.7 trillion in assets and $3 billion of equity trading per day. In addition, with electronic trading tools such as DarkSweep®, Fidelity's dark pool aggregation technology with embedded algorithms, clients can leverage the combined liquidity of more than 35 trading destinations, including nine of the top 10 U.S. brokerage firms.2

"By expanding our team with additional experienced Wall Street trading professionals such as Mathew, and leveraging the significant investments already made in our technology and infrastructure, we are confident we will be able to aggressively increase our client base across our equity product suite," said Cashel.

About Fidelity Capital Markets

Fidelity Capital Markets (FCM) is the institutional trading arm of Fidelity Investments providing trading, products and services to a wide array of clients and Fidelity businesses. FCM executes domestic and international equity securities including block and portfolio trading, listed options and foreign exchange. It also offers securities lending, commission management and transition management. FCM trades fixed-income principally in a wide range of taxable and tax-exempt securities and underwrites municipal and government agency debt. The company has its own distribution channel, Fidelity Prime Services®, focused on servicing hedge funds and a full suite of Electronic Brokerage Trading Products, including proprietary algorithms and a crossing network, CrossStream®. FCM offers all of its clients conflict-free3 trading, execution excellence and personal service. For more information about Fidelity Capital Markets, please visit FidelityCapitalMarkets.com.

About Fidelity Investments

Fidelity Investments is one of the world's largest providers of financial services, with custodied assets of over $2.5 trillion, including managed assets of over $1.2 trillion as of November 30, 2008. Fidelity offers investment management, retirement planning, brokerage, and human resources and benefits outsourcing services to 24 million individuals and institutions as well as through 5,500 financial intermediary firms. The firm is the largest mutual fund company in the United States, the No. 1 provider of workplace retirement savings plans, the largest mutual fund supermarket and a leading online brokerage firm. For more information about Fidelity Investments, visit Fidelity.com.



Printed from: MFWire.com/story.asp?s=20483

Copyright 2009, InvestmentWires, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Back to Top