TRADING TALK
Thoughts on the SEC/Pipeline Settlement
“The lady doth protest too much, methinks”
—William Shakespeare, c1600
Rarely in our little corner of the financial-services industry, as fierce as its debates sometimes get, do we come across news as shocking as yesterday’s revelations regarding Pipeline Trading Systems. The firm, operator of a 7-year-old dark ATS, settled SEC charges that it failed to disclose to clients that the vast majority of their orders were not crossed with other institutional customer interest but rather executed by a proprietary trading firm that is affiliated with Pipeline. The settlement comes with fines of $1 million for Pipeline and $100,000 each for its CEO, Fred Federspiel, and Chairman, Al Berkeley.