Broker-dealer Cowen has hired a veteran US sales trader from Macquarie Group, who joins the firm in London in a similar role, The TRADE understands.
Matthew Penfold has been appointed a US sales trader at Cowen, after spending the past nine years with Macquarie sales trading US equities to institutional clients and hedge funds. A spokesperson at Cowen confirmed Penfold’s appointment.
Prior to Macquarie, which he joined in 2010, Penfold was a US sales trader for Piper Jaffray and also worked as an international dealer with Insight Investment. He began his career at Rothschild as a dealer trading international equities for long-only funds.
The latest hire at Cowen follows news that the broker had expanded its UK-headquartered execution services business with four senior trading hires. Among the new hires was Kenneth Kane, who joined Cowen as a managing director on the global portfolio trading team in London, and Colleen Schlachter joined the firm in New York in a similar role.
Cowen said the new hires were in response to recent growth in trading on its platform, which launched in October last year and has since executed around $75 billion in non-dollar trades. The firm has also recently added relative limit functionality and additional liquidity resources, including access to Liquidnet’s resting buy-side liquidity pool.
In October last year, Cowen made seven senior hires from Deutsche Bank’s EMEA execution services team, including former EMEA head, Matt Cyzer, who was appointed CEO of Cowen Execution Services, based in London.