Tony Saliba is CEO of Matrix Holding Group.

What were the key theme(s) for your business in 2019?

Since the closure of the majority of the open outcry pits, some in the derivatives trading community have struggled to replicate the social utility that came along with having a mass of humanity all in the same space, living and breathing market action day in and day out together. We’ve been working on technology that replicates, or at least emulates, that communal aspect of real-time trading idea/strategy generation while embedding the process directly into trade execution.

What trends are getting underway that people may not know about but will be important?
It continues to become easier, simpler, and cheaper for retail participants to trade stocks and options, but when it comes to the market plumbing on the backend, things are more complex than ever as liquidity pools continue to fragment. There are now 16 options exchanges with varying fee structures. (The equity landscape is even more convoluted.) That landscape means our job as technologists specializing in routing and execution is all the more important. Many market participants on the retail side may not be aware of those complexities.

What industry trends have been prominent but are now fading (or will soon fade)?
The short volatility trade has been quite prominent in markets ever since central bank asset purchases began tamping down volatility. We see the short volatility trade continuing until a major correction wipes out a large player in the space. If that major correction comes this year, we think the short volatility trade will stop its proliferation.