A former electronic trading executive at agency broker ITG has joined investment bank Liberum to oversee the development of its retail platform as volumes have tripled in the last year.
Duncan Higgins joins Liberum alongside Charles Taylor as a senior advisor to its execution services business, focusing on the T-REX (Turquoise Retail Execution) European equities platform.
Higgins has most recently been an independent consultant after 10 years at ITG, now part of Virtu Financial, as head of electronic products in EMEA. He also previously worked at multilateral trading facility (MTF) Turquoise, before it was acquired by the London Stock Exchange Group.
Taylor joins Liberum with 30 years of experience, most recently serving as a founding partner at Redburn Europe for almost 15 years and as a partner at Albury International specialising in advising on operational resilience for FCA regulated entities.
“As the retail market continues to change its execution approach, I am looking forward to helping Liberum bring institutional and retail flows together for the benefit of all investors,” said Higgins.
Initially launched by Liberum and Turquoise in 2018, the T-REX platform combines retail and institutional order flow, enabling both investor types to trade simultaneously. Using institutional technology, the platform executes retail and institutional equity flow through lit auctions and dark venues.
Its algorithm offers retail investors a mid-market price and simultaneously gives institutional investors access to retail flow, said Liberum. It has also supported investors in achieving large-in-scale executions at mid-price.
Liberum said the appointment of Taylor and Higgins underpinned its commitment to servicing the increasing number of retail investors keen to access institutional trading technology, adding that in the last year volumes on the platform had tripled.
“Charles and Duncan’s depth of expertise and perspectives in financial markets, infrastructure and technology will be instrumental to the continued build out of T-REX,” said Dominic Lowres, head of execution strategy at Liberum.