Global Trading Systems views corporate bonds as the natural next step for its business thanks to its recent completed acquisition of Cantor Fitzgerald's exchange-traded fund business, which closed in May. Ari Rubenstein, CEO and cofounder of GTS, told Business Insider he's extremely enthusiastic about the work his firm can do in ETFs, corporate bonds, and wholesale market making, another business GTS also acquired from Cantor.
ETFs are a natural stepping stone into bond trading, as the latter represents a way to hedge risks one could face by trading the former. Implementing that strategy was expedited thanks to the progress made by electronic marketplaces for trading such MarketAxess and Tradeweb. Ryan Sheftel, global head of fixed income at GTS, told Business Insider the firm is currently an active participant in corporate bonds with the hopes of becoming a committed market-maker soon.
As for inorganic growth, Sheftel said GTS is looking at making more acquisitions to build out the team. Some firms have approached GTS, he added, but he declined to get into specifics on how serious talks were. Equities, foreign exchange and, to some extent, treasuries have become crowded asset classes for market-makers, he said.