Benincasa Flexes his Skills

Jamie Benincasa recently parted ways with Instinet to join FlexTrade Systems, a Great Neck, N.Y.-based trading vendor. Benincasa, who served as a first vice president while with the electronic-communications network, has been appointed senior vice president and head of sales at FlexTrade.

Benincasa says he was initially exposed to FlexTrade at JPMorgan Chase, where he was charged with starting up a portfolio-trading desk. Given the opportunity to tap any technology he pleased to outfit the desk, he decided on FlexTrade.

While at Instinet, Benincasa gained experience operating a different portfolio-trading system, Newport, broadening his knowledge of the marketplace.

He explains it was the combination of his experience using FlexTrade, as well as other front-end products, that ultimately got the vendor's attention.

Benincasa's experience as a user also adds to his appreciation for the necessity of the system. "Being in a situation where technology absolutely has to work, you know how critical that technology is," he says.

How has Benincasa been able to adjust to life off the trading floor? "You miss 27 phones ringing at the same time and people screaming," he says, "but you only get a 30 second time span to think about things on a trading desk. It's nice to able to solve a problem strategically instead of tactically."