Stamos Leaves Piper for Tech Firm

Former Piper Jaffray managing director Dean Stamos has left the firm.

From the Jan-Feb 2006 issue of Advanced Trading

Former Piper Jaffray managing director Dean Stamos has left the firm. Stamos, who previously managed Piper's algorithmic and program trading operations, recently joined Advanced Financial Applications, a technology provider of order processing trading systems. Stamos now heads AFA's business development, marketing and sales.

"The market is moving into a direction where utilities or agnostic players are going to be the winners," Stamos says of why he left Piper. "In the past, I was limited to offering one firm's services - now I can offer the best of breed to customers, and that can only be done by a neutral provider."

Stamos had been at Piper for a year, since the broker-dealer purchased Vie Financial Group, of which he was CEO. Stamos' responsibilities at the broker-dealer will be assumed by Mark Donahoe, head of equity trading.

At AFA, Stamos will target hedge funds and money managers with less than $500 million in assets under management. AFA offers an order processing and trading system with which clients can use any broker or prime broker that they choose.

As for competitors, Stamos says, "There really aren't any competitors in this niche." Other companies, such as Eze Castle, provide similar services but focus on larger money mangers, he explains. "Our solution is economical, and in this niche, money managers don't necessarily want to spend huge amounts of money on an OMS."

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