Head
Getco Execution Services
[PNR]
Michael Blum has had a hand in several significant trading technology innovations, starting in the mid-1990s when he wrote market-making software code for Automated Trading Desk, now part of Citigroup. A few years later at Island ECN, he helped develop OUCH, a protocol for communicating trade orders at high speed. In 2003, after Instinet bought Island, Blum joined UBS to oversee the development of execution management, smart-order routing and alternative trading systems. Today, Blum is head of Getco Execution Services, the client-facing arm of Chicago-based Getco. Founded in 1999 by former Chicago floor traders Stephen Schuler and Daniel Tierney, Getco is one of the biggest market makers in the world, using sophisticated high-frequency-trading technology on more than 50 exchanges. This spring, Blum’s 18-person unit — out of Getco’s total of approximately 320 employees — introduced GETAlpha, a trade execution algorithm for U.S. equities. Based on the technology used by Getco’s proprietary traders, the algorithm “feels a lot different from those the banks offer,” says Blum, 43, who taught himself to program in the third grade on an Atari computer and has a BS in computer science from the University of Dayton. GETAlpha, he says, “looks like HFT activity and is harder to detect.” Getco hopes to extend the product into multiple markets and time zones.
