Edgar
Perez, Author, The Speed Traders, and Course Director, The Speed
Traders Workshop, 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, NY, USA (December 26, 2013)
-- Knightmare on Wall Street, The Rise and Fall of Knight Capital and
the Biggest Risk for Financial Markets, the 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, is now the most favorably reviewed
Kindle edition book on Amazon in 2013, with an average rating of 5
out of five stars.
As
reviewed by Seeking Alpha's Sanjeev Sharma, the plot of Knightmare on
Wall Street (http://www.KnightmareonWallStreet.com),
revolves around the story of one large financial firm, Knight Capital
Group. The author gives the details of firm's operations and depicts
the efforts and ambitions driving the firm's success. He gives a
minute by minute detail of the famous incident and explains the
reasons and events behind it.
"The
company was nearly bankrupt after it gave mistaken U.S. equity orders
due to an improperly installed software that later malfunctioned. The
erroneous trading caused volume to dramatically spike and prices to
wrongly change in more than a hundred securities listed on the U.S.
stock exchanges. Knight could avoid bankruptcy as six Wall Street
firms, GETCO, Blackstone, Jefferies, Stephens, Stifel Financial and
TD Ameritrade, provided a capital infusion for its solvency after the
mistake. The author's style is imaginative, and keeps the reader's
interest alive throughout the book. It will surely be interesting and
useful, particularly for those who follow or are interested in the
world of finance. I think the book is a great read, and would
recommend it."
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.
Mr.
Perez, the author, 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). Mr. 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 China's
International Finance News and Sina Finance and The New York Times.
Mr.
Perez has been interviewed on CNBC's Squawk on the Street, Worldwide
Exchange, Cash Flow and Squawk Box, FOX BUSINESS's Countdown to the
Closing Bell and After the Bell, Bloomberg TV's Market Makers, CNN en
Español's Dinero, Sina Finance, BNN's Business Day, CCTV China,
Bankier.pl, TheStreet.com, Leaderonomics, GPW Media, Channel
NewsAsia's Business Tonight and Cents & Sensibilities. In
addition, Mr. Perez has been globally featured on FXFactor, Columbia
Business, OpenMarkets, Sohu, News.Sina.com, Yicai, eastmoney,
Caijing, ETF88.com, 360doc, AH Radio, CNFOL.com, CITICS Futures,
Tongxin Securities, ZhiCheng.com, CBNweek.com, Caixin, Futures Daily,
Xinhua, CBN Newswire, Chinese Financial News, ifeng.com,
International Finance News, hexun.com, Finance.QQ.com,
Finance.Sina.com, The Korea Times, The Korea Herald, The Star, The
Malaysian Insider, BMF 89.9, iMoney Hong Kong, CNBC, Bloomberg Hedge
Fund Brief, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Dallas
Morning News, Valor Econômico, FIXGlobal Trading, TODAY Online,
Oriental Daily News and Business Times.
Mr.
Perez was a vice president at Citigroup, a senior consultant at IBM,
and a strategy consultant at McKinsey & Co., the American global
management consulting firm that focuses on solving issues of concern
to senior management; the firm serves as an adviser to businesses,
governments, and institutions around the world. McKinsey is widely
considered to be the most prestigious management consulting firm in
the world, with over 100 offices in 60 countries.
Mr.
Perez has an undergraduate degree from Universidad Nacional de
IngenierÃa, Lima, Peru (1994), a Master of Administration from
Universidad ESAN, Lima, Peru (1997) and a Master of Business
Administration from Columbia Business School, New York, with a dual
major in Finance and Management (2002). He belongs to the Beta Gamma
Sigma honor society. Mr. Perez resides in the New York City area and
is an accomplished salsa and hustle dancer.
Media
Contact:
Julia
Petrova
Media
Relations Coordinator
Knightmare
on Wall Street
+1-414-FORUMS0
