NEW YORK, December 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ —
Makor Oscar Gruss Group today announced the expansion of its Foreign Exchange division in the US with the addition of Tom Friedel & Matthew Lutz who will be based in New York. These two senior hires who will shortly be followed by more mark the opening of the US FX Desk, which will be based out of NYC and Chicago. This highlighs the intention of the Makor/Oscar Gruss Group to deeply penetrate the US FX market.
Tom Friedel joined Makor/Oscar Gruss Group earlier this year as the Head of eFX USA. He is based in New York and is a vital part in the continued expansion of the FX Desk in the Americas space where he will be focussing on building out the electronic FX business working closely with the London FX desk.
Tom has 25 years of experience in Foreign Exchange spanning positions in Trading, Execution and Sales. He previously held numerous Senior roles ranging from Head of the PWM FX Desk at Deutsche Bank Wealth Management, to Senior FX Trader at Bank of America, with his most recent appointment having been Global Head of API Sales at Edgewater Markets.
Tom has an MBA from Fordham University as well as a BS in finance from Manhattan College and is FINRA Series 3 licensed.
Matthew Lutz recently joined Makor/Oscar Gruss Group where he is Managing Director of the FX Desk in New York. As a part of the expanding US FX Desk he will primarily work on expanding the footprint of Makor in the US Hedge Fund Community.
Matt has 13 years of experience in Foreign Exchange Trading. He started his career at Tudor Investment Corporation where he worked for 18 years, most recently as Vice President, Senior Macro Exchange Trader.
Matt was educated at Bucknell University where he studied Economics, graduating with a bachelor of Arts degree in 1999.
Tom & Matt will work closely with those on the FX Desk who are based in London, reporting directly to Michael Benitah, Head of FX & FI at Makor/Oscar Gruss Group, and locally to Michael Halimi, CEO of Makor/Oscar Gruss Group.
Makor Group (www.makor-capital.com)
The Makor Group (“Makor”) is an international brokerage firm established in March 2011 by Michael Halimi and Avi Bouhadana, two ex-senior managers at Cantor Fitzgerald Europe. Makor is authorized and regulated by the FCA and Makor’s core business is to provide financial Securities research and execution to institutional investors across a spectrum of products including Cash Equities, Fixed Income securities, Derivatives and FX.
With offices in New York, Chicago, London, Paris, Geneva, Gibraltar, Tel Aviv and Singapore, and over 120 group employees, Makor offers its clients 24-hour global trading providing a single point of contact for more than 90 execution venues in cash equities only.
Makor provides its clients with original and innovative trading ideas specializing in risk arbitrage, special situations, relative value and event-driven opportunities for clients and regularly ranks in the Top 3 of the Thomson Reuters EXTEL risk-arb research surveys.
Makor acts only as an agent and is therefore not susceptible to the various conflicts in the industry. Makor takes no proprietary positions and as such acts wholly and exclusively for the benefit of the client. Makor’s understanding of local markets and extensive client relationships built over 30 years industry experience, allows us to tap into local institutional portfolios in order to maximize liquidity for clients.
Besides the client relationships Makor has strong relationships with global custodians and prime brokers. These international custodians, which provide essential services across all asset classes, are the oil that keeps the trading engine running smoothly. Prime brokerage services including custody and trade settlement are as important to the clients as the execution itself and in some cases even more important. Settlement of trading activity needs to be timely and problem free.