ETF traders, the new hot financial commodity?

Posted by Izabella Kaminska on Dec 01 16:20.

Whereas it could be said that commodity experts were the most sought after traders just a few years back, a new industry trend is definitely emerging.
Behold the industry grab for exchange-traded-fund traders.
Banks, trading houses, hedge funds and even high frequency trading outfits are all increasingly seeking out personnel who are familiar with trading the diverse and ever-growing investment universe of exchange traded funds.
As Bloomberg reported on Monday, one of the latest firms to get in on the game is Newedge:
Nov. 30 (Bloomberg) — Newedge Group, the brokerage joint venture of Societe Generale SA and Credit Agricole SA’s Calyon unit, has hired three exchange-traded fund traders in New York, according to Bill Ahmuty, head of U.S. ETF sales and trading. Briton Ryan, an ETF trader from Macquarie Group Ltd., Matt Koop, director of ETF trading at Van der Moolen Holding NV, and Kevin Nichols, a former Morgan Stanley trader and Dow Jones & Co. columnist, are based in New York, Ahmuty said. They’ll report to Ahmuty, who was hired in July from Morgan Stanley, where he was head of U.S. ETF trading.

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Newedge’s hires follow the June departure of 13 ETF traders and salespeople who moved to Knight Capital Group Inc., the largest trader of U.S. stocks by volume. Jersey City, New Jersey-based Knight said in a June 23 statement that it hired Reginald Browne, Eric Lichtenstein and Darren Taube, the three co-heads of Newedge’s ETF Index Group.
The trend, however, has been going on for at least a year.
As Chris Sevenoaks, a headhunter who specialises in the ETF market, told eFinancialCareers back in August:
“There’s still a relative shortage of real experts in this field, meaning a lot of people are being swayed to move between companies,” he says. “There’s a big demand for product structurers, particularly on the fixed income side.”