Secrets of the Knight Revealed at Book Launch Party in New York City for Knightmare on Wall Street

Edgar Perez, Author, The Speed Traders, and Course Director, The Speed Traders Workshop, Proudly Introduces Knightmare on Wall Street, The Rise and Fall of Knight Capital and the Biggest Risk for Financial Markets, a Behind-the-scenes Look at Knight Capital's 17 years of Tumultuous Existence as an Independent Company.

New York City, NY, USA (August 13, 2013) -- A book launch party is planned in New York City for Knightmare on Wall Street, The Rise and Fall of Knight Capital and the Biggest Risk for Financial Markets. Now exclusively available at http://www.KnightmareonWallStreet.com, Knightmare on Wall Street provides a fascinating account of what it took to elevate Knight Capital to the cusp of the retail investing revolution of the late 1990s, to struggle through booms and busts, and to bring the firm down, to end up ultimately being ignominiously bought up by a competitor.

Edgar Perez, the celebrated author of The Speed Traders (http://www.TheSpeedTraders.com) and global speaker on the topics of high-frequency trading (HFT) and investing, brings again a masterpiece for the trading and investing class with this thrilling minute-by-minute account of the terrifying hours following its August 1, 2012 trading debacle, with news-breaking research regarding Knight Capital’s 17 years of tumultuous existence as an independent company.

The firm, founded by Kenneth Pasternak and Walter Raquet in 1995, had seen its fortunes change as U.S. regulators made a series of changes in the structure of financial markets and computers were progressively expanding their share of trading. The Flash Crash, the infamous 1,000 point drop of the DJIA on May 6, 2010 (the largest one-day point decline in history), illustrated how market structure problems could almost instantaneously cascade from one market participant to the rest.

Thomas Joyce, CEO of Knight Capital since 2002 and an unapologetic advocate of electronic trading, had been scornful of those companies that struggled to keep up with ever-changing stock markets. So it was certainly shocking that at 9:30 A.M. on August 1, 2012, right after the markets opened for the day, Knight Capital began issuing an unprecedented number of erroneous orders into the market, due to an error in installing new software. No rogue trader or regulatory change; operational risk was passing the bill to Knight Capital and becoming the biggest risk in the financial markets.

Knight Capital announced later a staggering loss of $440 million. What followed after this shocking announcement were several rounds of desperate conversations with a number of vulture players who had smelled opportunity and were readying themselves to pick up bargain-priced pieces. On August 6, 2012, Joyce confirmed that Knight Capital had struck a deal with Jefferies, TD Ameritrade, Blackstone, GETCO, Stephens, and Stifel Financial, staving off collapse days after the trading mishap.

While Knight Capital was back in the game, its limping recovery quickly prompted hungry competitors to bid for the entire company. On December 19, 2012, the board decided to accept an acquisition proposal from GETCO rather than Virtu Financial. For GETCO, acquiring Knight Capital represented a gigantic fast forward step. For Knight Capital, it was the end of its wild ride as an independent entity.

Perez (http://www.MrEdgarPerez.com) is widely regarded as the preeminent global expert in the specialized area of high-frequency trading. He is author of The Speed Traders, An Insider's Look at the New High-Frequency Trading Phenomenon That is Transforming the Investing World, published in English by McGraw-Hill Inc. (2011), published in Mandarin by China Financial Publishing House (2012), and Investasi Super Kilat: Pandangan Orang dalam tentang Fenomena Baru Frekuensi Tinggi yang Mentransformasi Dunia Investasi, published in Bahasa Indonesia by Kompas Gramedia (2012). Perez is course director of The Speed Traders Workshop, How High Frequency Traders Leverage Profitable Strategies to Find Alpha in Equities, Options, Futures and FX (Hong Kong, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur, Warsaw, Kiev, New York, Singapore, Beijing, Shanghai). He contributes to The New York Times and China's International Finance News and Sina Finance.

Media Contact:
Julia Petrova
Media Relations Coordinator
Knightmare on Wall Street
516-761-4712

Loss of $104M in Q2 for KCG Holdings, Knight Capital and GETCO, Star of Knightmare on Wall Street

Edgar Perez, Author, The Speed Traders, and Course Director, The Speed Traders Workshop 2012, Proudly Introduces Knightmare on Wall Street, The Rise and Fall of Knight Capital and the Biggest Risk for Financial Markets, a Behind-the-scenes Look at Knight Capital's 17 years of Tumultuous Existence as an Independent Company.

New York City, NY, USA (August 13, 2013) -- Bloomberg reported that Getco and Knight Capital lost money last quarter as the trading firms were completing a merger prompted by Knight's brush with bankruptcy a year ago. KCG Holdings, as the firm formed by the July 1 union is known, said in a statement that Getco's second-quarter net loss totaled $72.9 million and Knight's loss was $30.8 million. Getco's sales fell 16 percent from a year earlier to $118 million, while Knight's revenue rose 25 percent to $315 million.

Excluding $61 million in expenses related to the merger along with writedowns, restructuring charges and finance commitment fees, Getco's pretax loss was $8.9 million. Getco's market-making unit produced a loss of $2 million on $118 million in revenue, compared with profit of $9.7 million and sales of $136 million a year earlier. The execution-services business, which provides trading services to clients, improved revenue from a year earlier while posting a bigger loss. Sales rose 41 percent to $13 million, and the loss widened to $2.9 million from $1.5 million. Knight's market-making profit amounted to $50 million in the second quarter, an increase from $5.9 million a year earlier.

Edgar Perez, the celebrated author of The Speed Traders, just released Knightmare on Wall Street, The Rise and Fall of Knight Capital and the Biggest Risk for Financial Markets, exclusively available at http://www.KnightmareonWallStreet.com, book that provides a thrilling minute-by-minute account of the terrifying hours following their August 1, 2012 trading debacle, with news-breaking research regarding Knight Capital's 17 years of tumultuous existence as an independent company.

"The book goes into great detail when it analyses the backstories of the main characters involved in the company starting with founders Ken Pasternak and Walter Raquet, CEO Tom Joyce (known as T.J. since his Harvard days) and vulture bidders Daniel Coleman from GETCO and Vincent Viola from Virtu. While other books lose many people early, Perez whets readers' appetites early by hitting the ground running in chapter one focusing on the chaos that ensued Knight's infamous trades at the opening."

"Perez does a tremendous job in making the histories of all of the people and companies involved as easy to digest as possible; peg orders are arguably not an easy concept to explain. Again - excellent book, but readers have to invest some time slogging through the first 25% of the book to get back to the action. As soon as Joyce comes back to the office after surgery and realizes the extent of the challenges ahead, all hell breaks loose and things start to get very exciting again."

Perez is widely regarded as the preeminent global expert in the specialized area of high-frequency trading. He is author of The Speed Traders, An Insider's Look at the New High-Frequency Trading Phenomenon That is Transforming the Investing World, published in English by McGraw-Hill Inc. (2011), published in Mandarin by China Financial Publishing House (2012), and Investasi Super Kilat: Pandangan Orang dalam tentang Fenomena Baru Frekuensi Tinggi yang Mentransformasi Dunia Investasi, published in Bahasa Indonesia by Kompas Gramedia (2012). Perez is course director of The Speed Traders Workshop, How High Frequency Traders Leverage Profitable Strategies to Find Alpha in Equities, Options, Futures and FX (Hong Kong, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur, Warsaw, Kiev, New York, Singapore, Beijing, Shanghai). He contributes to The New York Times and China's International Finance News and Sina Finance.

Media Contact:
Julia Petrova
Media Relations Coordinator
Knightmare on Wall Street
516-761-4712

Winning (GETCO), Losing (Virtu) and Spurned (Citadel) Knight Suitors at Knightmare on Wall Street

Edgar Perez, Author, The Speed Traders, and Course Director, The Speed Traders Workshop, Proudly Introduces Knightmare on Wall Street, The Rise and Fall of Knight Capital and the Biggest Risk for Financial Markets, a Behind-the-scenes Look at Knight Capital's 17 years of Tumultuous Existence as an Independent Company.

New York City, NY, USA (August 13, 2013) -- Edgar Perez, the celebrated author of The Speed Traders, follows in its tradition of stellar shows with the release of Knightmare on Wall Street, The Rise and Fall of Knight Capital and the Biggest Risk for Financial Markets, exclusively available at http://www.KnightmareonWallStreet.com, book that provides a thrilling minute-by-minute account of the terrifying hours following their August 1, 2012 trading debacle, with news-breaking research regarding Knight Capital’s 17 years of tumultuous existence as an independent company.

Knightmare on Wall Street's rich cast of characters includes the winning, losing and spurned suitors of Knight Capital:

The Winning Suitor, GETCO
* Stephen Schuler, Co-founder
* Dan Tierney, Co-founder
* Daniel Coleman, Chief Executive Officer
* Bill Ford, Chief Executive Officer of General Atlantic, GETCO’s biggest investor

The Losing (yet Profitable) Suitor, Virtu Financial
* Vincent Viola, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
* Chris Concannon, Partner
* Dick Grasso, "unofficial adviser", and former Chairman of the New York Stock Exchange

The Spurned Suitor, Citadel
* Ken Griffin, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
* Tom Miglis, Chief Information Officer
* Jamil Nazarali, Senior Managing Director, Head of Citadel Execution Services
* Matt Cushman, Senior Managing Director
* Noel Dalzell, Vice President, Head of Strategy and New Product Development
* Matthew Taback, Mark Stehli, John Kane and Michael Donofrio, Trader, former Knight employees
* Kristen Benza, Vice President

Perez is widely regarded as the preeminent global expert in the specialized area of high-frequency trading. He is author of The Speed Traders, An Insider's Look at the New High-Frequency Trading Phenomenon That is Transforming the Investing World, published in English by McGraw-Hill Inc. (2011), published in Mandarin by China Financial Publishing House (2012), and Investasi Super Kilat: Pandangan Orang dalam tentang Fenomena Baru Frekuensi Tinggi yang Mentransformasi Dunia Investasi, published in Bahasa Indonesia by Kompas Gramedia (2012). Perez is course director of The Speed Traders Workshop, How High Frequency Traders Leverage Profitable Strategies to Find Alpha in Equities, Options, Futures and FX (Hong Kong, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur, Warsaw, Kiev, New York, Singapore, Beijing, Shanghai). He contributes to The New York Times and China’s International Finance News and Sina Finance.

Media Contact:
Julia Petrova
Media Relations Coordinator
Knightmare on Wall Street
516-761-4712

Knightmare on Wall Street, Knight Capital Story, Available at KnightmareonWallStreet Website

Edgar Perez, Author, The Speed Traders, and Course Director, The Speed Traders Workshop, Proudly Introduces Knightmare on Wall Street, The Rise and Fall of Knight Capital and the Biggest Risk for Financial Markets, a Behind-the-scenes Look at Knight Capital's 17 years of Tumultuous Existence as an Independent Company.

New York City, NY, USA (August 13, 2013) -- "What a book! Who knew that a trading error at a Jersey City firm could end up being so interesting? One year ago, the mother of all electronic trading debacles scared Wall Street, when sophisticated trading outfit Knight Capital erroneously launched thousands of orders that led it to accumulate an impossible $7 billion position." That's how ModernFinanceReport.com kicks off its review of Edgar Perez's book, with the headline "Trading firms would do well to heed lessons in testing and crisis management."

Edgar Perez, the celebrated author of The Speed Traders, announced the release of Knightmare on Wall Street, The Rise and Fall of Knight Capital and the Biggest Risk for Financial Markets, exclusively available at http://www.KnightmareonWallStreet.com, book that provides a thrilling minute-by-minute account of the terrifying hours following their August 1, 2012 trading debacle, with news-breaking research regarding Knight Capital’s 17 years of tumultuous existence as an independent company.

The firm, founded by Kenneth Pasternak and Walter Raquet in 1995, had seen its fortunes change as U.S. regulators made a series of changes in the structure of financial markets and computers were progressively expanding their share of trading. The Flash Crash, the infamous 1,000 point drop of the DJIA on May 6, 2010 (the largest one-day point decline in history), illustrated how market structure problems could almost instantaneously cascade from one market participant to the rest.

Thomas Joyce, CEO of Knight Capital since 2002 and an unapologetic advocate of electronic trading, had been scornful of those companies that struggled to keep up with ever-changing stock markets. So it was certainly shocking that at 9:30 A.M. on August 1, 2012, right after the markets opened for the day, Knight Capital began issuing an unprecedented number of erroneous orders into the market, due to an error in installing new software. No rogue trader or regulatory change; operational risk was passing the bill to Knight Capital and becoming the biggest risk in the financial markets.

Knight Capital announced later a staggering loss of $440 million. What followed after this shocking announcement were several rounds of desperate conversations with a number of vulture players who had smelled opportunity and were readying themselves to pick up bargain-priced pieces. On August 6, 2012, Joyce confirmed that Knight Capital had struck a deal with Jefferies, TD Ameritrade, Blackstone, GETCO, Stephens, and Stifel Financial, staving off collapse days after the trading mishap.

While Knight Capital was back in the game, its limping recovery quickly prompted hungry competitors to bid for the entire company. On December 19, 2012, the board decided to accept an acquisition proposal from GETCO rather than Virtu Financial. For GETCO, acquiring Knight Capital represented a gigantic fast forward step. For Knight Capital, it was the end of its wild ride as an independent entity.

Knightmare on Wall Street provides a fascinating account of what it took to elevate the firm to the cusp of the retail investing revolution of the late 1990s, to struggle through booms and busts, and to bring the firm down, to end up ultimately being ignominiously bought up by a competitor.

Perez is widely regarded as the preeminent global expert in the specialized area of high-frequency trading. He is author of The Speed Traders, An Insider’s Look at the New High-Frequency Trading Phenomenon That is Transforming the Investing World, published in English by McGraw-Hill Inc. (2011), published in Mandarin by China Financial Publishing House (2012), and Investasi Super Kilat: Pandangan Orang dalam tentang Fenomena Baru Frekuensi Tinggi yang Mentransformasi Dunia Investasi, published in Bahasa Indonesia by Kompas Gramedia (2012). Perez is course director of The Speed Traders Workshop, How High Frequency Traders Leverage Profitable Strategies to Find Alpha in Equities, Options, Futures and FX (Hong Kong, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur, Warsaw, Kiev, New York, Singapore, Beijing, Shanghai). He contributes to The New York Times and China's International Finance News and Sina Finance.

Media Contact:
Julia Petrova
Media Relations Coordinator
Knightmare on Wall Street
516-761-4712

New Financial Shop Solutions Research Reveals that Banks Use "Less than Complete" Account Guides for Online Marketing

Increase in Simplified Checking Account Guides for Web-based Selling Placing Greater Burden on Consumers to Uncover Hidden Fees and Penalties.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (August 13, 2013) -- Almost every financial institution offers simple account guides to provide an overview of checking services and fees, whether these are online account descriptions or PDF files that potential customers can download. However, according to new research by Financial Shop Solutions, the premier service for competitive intelligence research for the financial services industry, many of these simple account guides can be misleading primarily because of the information they fail to disclose, putting more burden on consumers to look for hidden fees and penalties. That is, assuming the customer is financially educated or aware enough to know what information they should have before opening a new bank account.

As part of its competitive product research, Financial Shop Solutions has begun researching these simple account guides to give financial institutions a complete picture of the competitive landscape for checking accounts. The latest research reveals that these abbreviated or simple account guides are part of a growing trend among larger banks to drive consumers toward self-service sales via the web. The same research reveals that these same institutions are putting more emphasis on online and telephone customer support and less emphasis on in-person financial consulting services in the branches. In fact, many of the branch representatives interviewed were unclear or unfamiliar with the fees and terms for checking accounts their institutions offered online.

"We are seeing a growing trend where banks are looking to cut overhead by bringing in new business through their web sites," said Mary Morgan, founder and President of Financial Shop Solutions. "The result is that account disclosures are being used as sales collateral designed to attract new business rather than inform customers. Consumers are not getting the full story about deposit products from these so-called account guides, and banks are not arming their branch representatives with sufficient information to be of help."

Financial Shop Solutions' competitive research reports are designed to give financial institutions a consumer's perspective on the banking experience. Based on the latest findings, some experts believe that the erosion of personalized service coupled with less-than-complete information about account fees and penalties will fuel consumer dissatisfaction and drive customers to institutions that offer better, more personalized service. The online self-service model also limits the banks' ability to advise consumers about their finances, and cross-sell and upsell customers through face-to-face interaction.

Those banks that do a better job of fee disclosure offer specific details in their simple account guides, including:
- Monthly account fees and how to waive them;
- ATM usage fees;
- Miscellaneous service fees;
- Overdraft policy;
- The order in which daily transactions are posted;
- Terms for funds availability; and
- Where to get more information about checking account rules and regulations.

According to Financial Shop Solutions' Project Coordinator, Larisa Klein, financial institutions are finding it more difficult to get accurate insights about competitors on their own using only these account guides, making it more difficult to better serve their customers. That's why Financial Shop Solutions has expanded its consumer fee and deposit reports to provide all relevant product information, as well detailing non-fee-related mystery shopping findings in order to deliver a more complete portrait of the consumer's buying experience.

About Financial Shop Solutions
Financial Shop Solutions provides competitive market research company to the financial services industry. The company conducts market studies and applies extensive industry knowledge to provide trend analyses and competitive research on deposit products, mortgage products, payroll services, cash management services, wealth management, and other financial products. We work closely with our clients to deliver the most timely and accurate market data customized to meet their informational needs. Our research and mystery shopping methodology ensure unbiased, current, and accurate competitive pricing and analysis.

For more information, visit http://www.financialshopsolutions.com or call (877) 578-7467.

-Ends-

Contact:
Mary Morgan
Financial Shop Solutions
(877) 578-7467

Tom Woolf
Woolf Media &Marketing
(415)259-5638