Jeromee Johnson Leaves 3D Markets; Heads to BATS Exchange

Jeromee Johnson has left 3D Marketsto work at the BATS Exchange.

A spokesman for BATS Trading confirmed the hiring. BATS is expected to announce the news on Monday.

Johnson joined 3D Markets, a software firm in New Hope, Penn., August of 2007 to start the first block options crossing network. He was president and head of day-to-day operations at 3D Markets.

The move has sparked speculation that Johnson is going to lead an options business at BATS, but that may not be the case, according to Randy Williams, VP, the spokesman for BATS, who confirmed the hiring. “He has jumped into the rest of the team on a number of market structure issues,” Williams told Advanced Trading today. Johnson will have the title of VP of market development and work closely with the BATS senior management team. However, BATS has not determined whether or not to go into options. Though it’s been reported that BATS is studying options, Williams said, “By no means have we decided to go into options." According to BATS' spokesman, Johnson was hired not to get BATS into options, but “because he can help us in a number of different areas.” It’s not decided yet whether Johnson will be involved in options or futures or another geography, said Williams.

While Johnson is definitely involved in studying whether or not options is a fit for BATS, he’s also involved in a couple of other projects that are under consideration, he added.

Johnson brings experience in market structure and automated trading systems as well the FIX-based electronic trading. Previously, Johnson was a senior analyst at financial markets advisory firm TABB Group covering technology for the capital markets. Prior to that, Johnson implemented algorithmic trading systems for agency broker UNX, and worked at Javelin Technologies, an early developer of FIX Protocol trading engines.

Founded in 2006 as an ECN, BATS has become the third largest U.S. equities exchange. Only a few months ago, it opened BATS Europe, a multilateral trading facility in London to compete in Pan European equities trading.

Ivy is Editor-at-Large for Advanced Trading and Wall Street & Technology. Ivy is responsible for writing in-depth feature articles, daily blogs and news articles with a focus on automated trading in the capital markets. As an industry expert, Ivy has reported on a myriad ... View Full Bio