New York, NY- It comes as no surprise that the unraveling of the complex and highly-leveraged OTC derivative and credit markets, and the ensuing carnage that has spread across the financial market landscape is prompting investors, portfolio managers and hedge funds of all breeds to embrace a “back-to-basics”
Of equal importance, lessons learned from post mortems of the “2008 crisis of confidence” include stark revelations as to the inherently conflicted roles that major sell side firms have played in serving treasurers, institutional managers, and hedge funds; especially those with umbrellas that not only include providing research and “arms-length”
While the going forward investment climate is decidedly uncertain, one thing is assured; transparency in product and executing broker integrity will be a paramount theme, providing a watershed opportunity for broker/dealers that are otherwise non-conflicted, and especially for boutique, service-centric, “agency-only”
One such firm that meets the new criteria is New York-based WallachBeth Capital LLC, a boutique-style broker/dealer that provides institutions and hedge funds with agency-only trade execution in listed equities, exchange-traded options, ETF’s, and index products. The firm’s two founding principals have more than fifty years combined experience working on and off the floors of major stock and option exchanges, and each with extensive experience operating stand-alone execution businesses, as well as proprietary, risk-based trading books. As such, they provide a unique perspective and deep appreciation for the needs of their investment manager customers.
WallachBeth’
Overseeing a core staff of fifteen brokers and support staff at the firm’s operations center at 100 Wall Street, David Beth stated, “However sophisticated our clients are with respect to identifying investment opportunities and strategies, we continuously hear from them that our value-added comes down to three basic elements: (i) an agency-only execution model that precludes any potential conflict of interest, (ii), our ability to effectively and efficiently help them manage risk in the course of entering and exiting trades, and (iii), our being able to discretely, yet quickly source qualified counter parties, and facilitate block and/or complex trades without impacting the market.” Added CEO Mike Wallach, “That said, we like to tell our clients that our most important value added is that we manage each of their orders as if they were our own.”
