Tom Flanagan Leaves GTX after 10 Years, Joins TP ICAP as Trading Head

Tom Flanagan, a long-term executive in the forex industry, announced on Thursday that he joined the digital assets team of TP ICAP as the Head of Trading.

The appointment came when TP ICAP was strengthening its upcoming digital asset offerings by adding market makers Market Makers Market makers or called dealing desk brokers represent a type of broker that internalize flows and are taking the opposite side of a transaction submitted by their clients. The market making broker is only quoting a feed of prices to its clients. These feeds may or may not be the exact same as the prices quoted on the interbank market.Any order a client enters is processed internally and never goes out to the market, except in rare cases where a market making brokerage identifies a client as a very high risk and chooses to route the flow to another liquidity provider.Such brokers are typically providing very quick execution, however an inherent conflict of interest is possible due to the fact that the brokers is making the bulk of its profits from client losses.Role of Market Makers in FX IndustryIn the FX space, a market maker quotes two-way prices for tradable currency pairs. In doing so these market makers quite literally make the market. In particular, a forex market maker performs three specific tasks.This includes setting bid and offer prices within a given currency pair, committing to accepting deals at these prices within certain constraints, and taking the resulting exposure on to their own book.In terms of accounting for this exposure onto their book, market makers can opt to hedge the exposure with another bank, pending favorable rates. How quickly or slowly, or how much risk they lay off will be at their own discretion.Market makers can make profit through several techniques. If these entities identify enough flow at both sides of their quote, they can simply collect the bid offer spread.Consequently, market makers can net off their exposure. Presently, large banks see huge flows of foreign currency transactions from their operations around the world in a multi trillion-dollar-a-day industry. Market makers or called dealing desk brokers represent a type of broker that internalize flows and are taking the opposite side of a transaction submitted by their clients. The market making broker is only quoting a feed of prices to its clients. These feeds may or may not be the exact same as the prices quoted on the interbank market.Any order a client enters is processed internally and never goes out to the market, except in rare cases where a market making brokerage identifies a client as a very high risk and chooses to route the flow to another liquidity provider.Such brokers are typically providing very quick execution, however an inherent conflict of interest is possible due to the fact that the brokers is making the bulk of its profits from client losses.Role of Market Makers in FX IndustryIn the FX space, a market maker quotes two-way prices for tradable currency pairs. In doing so these market makers quite literally make the market. In particular, a forex market maker performs three specific tasks.This includes setting bid and offer prices within a given currency pair, committing to accepting deals at these prices within certain constraints, and taking the resulting exposure on to their own book.In terms of accounting for this exposure onto their book, market makers can opt to hedge the exposure with another bank, pending favorable rates. How quickly or slowly, or how much risk they lay off will be at their own discretion.Market makers can make profit through several techniques. If these entities identify enough flow at both sides of their quote, they can simply collect the bid offer spread.Consequently, market makers can net off their exposure. Presently, large banks see huge flows of foreign currency transactions from their operations around the world in a multi trillion-dollar-a-day industry. Read this Term. The upcoming over-the-counter spot trading service will target institutions.

“The Digital Assets team is building the infrastructure to support trading of blockchain native assets, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, while also preparing for the tokenization Tokenization Tokenization represents the process of substituting a sensitive data element with a non-sensitive equivalent, i.e. token, which bears no extrinsic or exploitable meaning or value. In essence, the rights to the ownership of an asset are converted into a digital token. Tokenization can be used to own an entire unit of an asset. For example, one token that represents the ownership of a piece of real estate or to split ownership of a single unity of an asset such as 200,000 tokens, each one representing 0.05% of a piece of real estate.Tokenization has been described as the future of ownership. Some analysts believe that one day, tokenized systems will completely replace paper certification-based ownership systems. However, blockchain-based ownership records are not currently recognized as legally valid in most places in the world. Tokenization combined with blockchain is quite powerful, while also being useful in terms of PCI data security. When a token is issued on a blockchain, the blockchain records the issuance and maintains a ledger of every single movement of that token.A notable feature of blockchain with regards to tokens is that it controls for the double-spend issue. Prior to the innovation of blockchain, any digital asset such as an image, or document, could be copied an infinite number of times by anyone with access to it. Exploring Possibilities of Asset TokenizationBy overcoming the double-spend problem, blockchain can now facilitate the use of tokens that can be used in a similar way to casino chips or banknotes. This has opened up tokens as a vehicle for investment in multiple projects.Asset tokenization reflects the next evolution in tokenization. Tokenizing an asset involves issuing a digital token on a blockchain. As such, the token represents an underlying tangible or intangible asset. In this way, the economic value of the asset is conferred to the token. The ownership of the asset is represented by ownership of the token on the blockchain. Tokenization represents the process of substituting a sensitive data element with a non-sensitive equivalent, i.e. token, which bears no extrinsic or exploitable meaning or value. In essence, the rights to the ownership of an asset are converted into a digital token. Tokenization can be used to own an entire unit of an asset. For example, one token that represents the ownership of a piece of real estate or to split ownership of a single unity of an asset such as 200,000 tokens, each one representing 0.05% of a piece of real estate.Tokenization has been described as the future of ownership. Some analysts believe that one day, tokenized systems will completely replace paper certification-based ownership systems. However, blockchain-based ownership records are not currently recognized as legally valid in most places in the world. Tokenization combined with blockchain is quite powerful, while also being useful in terms of PCI data security. When a token is issued on a blockchain, the blockchain records the issuance and maintains a ledger of every single movement of that token.A notable feature of blockchain with regards to tokens is that it controls for the double-spend issue. Prior to the innovation of blockchain, any digital asset such as an image, or document, could be copied an infinite number of times by anyone with access to it. Exploring Possibilities of Asset TokenizationBy overcoming the double-spend problem, blockchain can now facilitate the use of tokens that can be used in a similar way to casino chips or banknotes. This has opened up tokens as a vehicle for investment in multiple projects.Asset tokenization reflects the next evolution in tokenization. Tokenizing an asset involves issuing a digital token on a blockchain. As such, the token represents an underlying tangible or intangible asset. In this way, the economic value of the asset is conferred to the token. The ownership of the asset is represented by ownership of the token on the blockchain. Read this Term of other assets classes, such as equities, bonds and commodities,” Flanagan wrote on Linkedin.

A Forex Expert

He brings a strong financial background to his new role. He spent the last decade in the forex industry.

He joined TP ICAP from 360 Trading Networks, which is Deutsche Börse Group’s global FX unit. There, he spent four years, parting as the Global Head of Liquidity Management. Before that, he was with Gain Capital and worked on GTX until the ECN business was sold to 360T in mid-2018.

“After 10 years with GTX under both Gain Capital and 360T, it is bittersweet to share that I will be starting a new chapter in my career. Over this period I’ve worked with great people across both firms. I am truly thankful to both my colleagues and our clients for the impact they have had on shaping me professionally and personally,” Flanagan added.

Meanwhile, TP ICAP, which bought Liquidnet last year, is witnessing a jump in its quarterly revenue. Furthermore, the company is doubling down on its institutional forex business and is launching a Singapore-based electronic FX trading platform.