NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Gar Wood Securities, LLC taps options industry veterans Mark Oakley, Jeffery Fried and Steven Hessing to manage Gar Wood’s new CBOE Brokerage Services unit. This newly formed department spearheads the expansion of the firm’s derivatives execution services, ensuring that Gar Wood’s prime brokerage offering continues to effectively address the execution needs of its ever expanding list of clients.
Gar Wood CEO Bob Jersey stated, “Gar Wood is committed to expanding its strategic offering, enhancing service to clients and continually providing cost-effective solutions to address their trading, risk management and operational needs. We are very pleased to have Mark, Jeff and Steve join our team and we look forward to the added value that this strategic move brings to our clients.”
Mr. Oakley, serving as Senior Vice President, joins from Citigroup Global Markets where he was a Vice President and a broker on the floor of the CBOE for 35 years. Serving as Vice Presidents, Mr. Fried and Mr. Hessing each have enjoyed long careers on the floor with Susquehanna and Merrill Lynch as Vice President, respectively. Throughout their careers this trio, which collectively represents over 80 years of floor execution experience, has been dedicated to high quality client service on the CBOE.
Mr. Oakley stated, “I’m very excited to be a part of the Gar Wood team. The firm has a unique client-centric mission that fits perfectly into my career-long emphasis on high quality client service. I look forward to providing that same high level of client execution and option strategy support to Gar Wood’s expanding client list. I believe that our floor operation will greatly compliment Gar Wood’s comprehensive array of services including multi-asset class trading coverage, best execution, portfolio margining, stock lending, margin financing, technology, operations, reporting, traditional and seed capital raising, and cap intro.”
Oakley went on to say, “We are pleased to be able to offer our clients execution services on all products listed on the CBOE. But we are especially proud to announce Jeff Fried will serve our clients as a permanent presence in the VIX trading pit. We believe this product to be a superior tool for hedging risk, and we feel that currently the VIX is greatly under-utilized as a hedge for risk in a world that offers no shortage of geo-political and economic risks.”
Known for exceptional customer service and broad range of services, Gar Wood earned top honors among the mini-prime brokers in the 2010 Global Custodian annual prime brokerage survey, finishing first in 6 of 11 categories. Overall, Gar Wood showed the most consistent performance among the mini-prime brokers with very strong marks for consulting services, cap intro and overall value. Gar Wood also recently achieved top rankings in the Elkins McSherry 2010 Annual Survey for execution efficiency and arrival price to execution difference/savings.
Gar Wood Securities, LLC, is a full-service institutional broker-dealer noted for its expertise in prime brokerage, trading and investment banking. The firm trades solely on an agency basis – avoiding any conflicts of interest – and provides clients with direct market access to all major global markets and ECN’s covering equities, options, and futures.
Formed in 2003, the firm is headquartered in Chicago, with branch offices in New York, Atlanta, Dallas, Mobile, Milwaukee and Vancouver, WA.
Additional information about Gar Wood Securities, LLC is available at www.garwoodsecurities.net.
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