Newedge Loses Equities Chief

Doug Engmann, head of equities at Newedge, has retired from the firm after his contract expired last week. He joined Fimat, which merged with Société Générale’s brokerage division, three years ago after his options and futures trading firm Preferred Trade was acquired. The firm has not yet replaced the derivatives industry veteran, who pioneered direct market access and smart order routing for options in the 1990s and has been a leader in the options industry for well over a decade.

"Doug’s leadership was instrumental in establishing the equities business at Fimat USA prior to the merger that led to the formation of Newedge. Under his direction, Fimat, and subsequently Newedge, gained prominence as the first firm to offer portfolio margining and as a key challenger in the equities space, which has been critical in expanding and diversifying our customer offering," said Marc Schultz, ceo of Newedge Americas. The firm has parceled out his responsibilities to Engmann’s team for now.

Engmann, who has been at the forefront of the move to get portfolio margining in options, is not giving up the fight. He will continue to lobby regulators as an independent advocate, pushing for expansion of portfolio margining to retail accounts and cross-margining with futures, among other issues. "I feel very vested in seeing the program be expanded and made applicable to a wider range of customers," he told WSL.

He will also be devoting more time to Revere Data, a financial and commercial supply data consolidator and index provider where he is co-chairman with his brother Michael. The company has created a myriad of unique indexes such as the Revere Wal-Mart Suppliers Index and is now working on a similar index for China suppliers. He will be overseeing its ETF expansion. Engmann will also uphold his interest in VTrader, a professional options and futures broker-dealer run by veteran options trader Herb Kurlan. Finally, he will be putting in more hours as an advisor for Blogtronix, a social networking site creator focused on financial companies. He is considering joining the boards of hedge funds and exchanges.

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