NEW YORK, February 17, 2010 – Lightspeed Financial, Inc., a leading provider of direct market access (DMA) trading technology, risk management solutions, and brokerage services for retail active traders and institutional investors, today announced its acquisition of discount trading firm NobleTrading. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
“We remain committed to aggressively pursuing strategic growth opportunities to increase our footprint in the market, further position the firm as the industry consolidator of choice, and solidify Lightspeed as the only destination for sophisticated active and semi-active traders,” said Stephen Ehrlich, Chief Executive Officer, Lightspeed Financial, Inc. “Our acquisition of NobleTrading is an important step forward as we continue to grow our business and target a broader segment of individual traders through an expanding product offering centered on client service and education.”
Ehrlich noted that this deal is the third successful acquisition Lightspeed has made in the active trading arena since its inception less than four years ago. Past acquisitions include retail trading firms Schonfeld & Company, LLC, and Integrity Trading Inc.
New York-based NobleTrading provides its nearly 1,600 clients with DMA trading services across a host of asset classes including equities, options, futures and forex. NobleTrading clients execute approximately 25 million shares per day and total client assets are $62 million. The firm is a registered broker-dealer, a member of FINRA, SIPC and the NFA, and has a clearing relationship with Penson Financial Services.
“Lightspeed is certainly best-in-breed among active trading firms and a perfect fit to ensure that our valued clients receive all of trading tools, resources, and support services needed to help them trade with success,” said John Muscatella, President and Chief Executive Officer, NobleTrading.
Michael Sedek, Managing Director, Lightspeed Financial, Inc., said, “Noble’s sophisticated clients have similar trading styles and expectations from their broker as our clients, so we are confident they will feel right at home with Lightspeed.”
Muscatella, along with NobleTrading Principals John Ferrara and Daniel Pipitone, founded the firm in 1999.
About Lightspeed Financial, Inc.
Headquartered in New York City, Lightspeed Financial operates through three wholly-owned subsidiaries:
Lightspeed Trading, LLC operates as a fully disclosed introducing broker-dealer and FINRA and NFA member. The Company offers securities and direct access brokerage, trading and advanced order routing services to their clients utilizing Lightspeed’s software products.
Lightspeed Technologies, LLC serves as the Company’s technology development subsidiary. Lightspeed develops and operates Lightspeed Trader, Lightspeed’s Direct Market Access trading software application; Lightspeed Gateway, Lightspeed algorithmic trading offering; Lightspeed Risk, a real-time risk management application; and Lightspeed Admin, Middle Office Technology suite. Utilizing a number of proprietary technologies, Lightspeed offers these products and more to broker-dealers, institutional entities and professional traders.
Lightspeed Education, LLC delivers educational products to the Lightspeed Trading, LLC customer community. These products include third party educational tools, webinars and the Lightspeed Spotlight social community. www.lightspeed.com
Lightspeed Financial, Lightspeed Technologies, Lightspeed Trading, Lightspeed Education and the Lightspeed logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Lightspeed Financial, Inc.
© 2010 Lightspeed Financial, Inc. All rights reserved.
Press Contact:
Sara Sefcovic
Sloane & Company
(212) 446-1886
ssefcovic@sloanepr.com
