DOUG CIFU ALMOST PERFECT

摘要

Since it was publicized that trading firm Virtu Financial had only one losing day during six years, there has been rampant speculation and suspicion as to what they actually do. We get it straight from the horse's mouth in a conversation with Virtu CEO Douglas Cifu. Modern Trader: Virtu calls itself a market-maker. Is that the best definition from a trading perspective? Douglas Cifu: That is 100% our style of trading. We make two-sided bids and offers on about 11,000 financial instruments: Stocks, derivatives, spot forex and options. It's a widget. We're making two-sided prices for those instruments, whether it's a share of IBM or a euro/ U.S. dollar currency pair. We're completely agnostic to the direction of a market. What we do very well is try to figure out the unique price of an instrument, obviously by referencing market data. Then we say we're willing to buy at five and sel I at six, and we're wi 11 ing to do that continuously throughout the day. I'm generalizing a little bit, but 99% of what we do is post passive bids and offers and wait for people to interact with us. That's the busi- ness. It's an old school market-making function; however, it has evolved through technology, automation, and efficiency.