Former high-frequency trader and one of the low-latency trading industry’s most vocal defenders, Manoj Narang, formerly of Red Bank, N.J.-based Tradeworx, has formed a new company. He is now chief executive officer and chief investment strategist of quantitative trading at financial technology start-up Mana Partners, LLC.  Prior to Mana, he was chief executive officer at Tradeworx and has worked on Wall Street since 1991. He has worked at several bulge brackets including Goldman Sachs. Citibank, and Credit Suisse.

UBS hired Bridgewater Associates’ Lynn Challenger as its new head of trading for equities, according to a company memo. Challenger worked at Bridgewater as head of execution. Before that, he was head of global trading at Mellon Capital Management. He reports to Dawn Fitzpatrick in New York.

CME Group announced several Managing Director promotions:

Peter Keavey, global head, crude & refined energy products. Based in New York, Keavey is responsible for managing and expanding CME Group’s risk management tools across its global Crude and refined product suite, in addition to leading the US natural gas and power businesses. Prior to joining CME Group in 2013, Keavey served as portfolio manager at Graham Capital Management focusing on energy markets. He also served as head of energy trading at Scotia Capital and held various commodity trading positions for Enron Corporation, Societe Generale and Lehman Brothers.

Tim McCourt, global head, equity products. McCourt is responsible for leading the company’s global Equity Index product line. He is based in New York and also serves on the S&P Dow Jones Indices U.S. Advisory Panel. Before joining CME Group in 2013, McCourt worked for the Royal Bank of Scotland, where he was responsible for building and managing the Americas Index and Delta One trading book. Prior to RBS, he held a senior trading role with JPMorgan in New York, spending 10 years with the equity derivatives group.

Agha Mirza, global head, interest rate products. Mirza is responsible for driving the growth of CME Group’s global interest rate business. He is based in New York. Before joining the company in 2013, Mirza served as head of the Canadian rates business at Citigroup, where he spent 17 years as an interest rates trader and trading manager.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has named Robert Fisher as the head of the Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations. In this role, Fisher will oversee OCIE’s business operations, technology services, examiner training, and Tips, Complaints and Referrals programs. He succeeds Peter Driscoll who has been named chief risk and strategy officer of OCIE’s new Office of Risk and Strategy. Fisher came to the SEC in 2002 as an economic fellow in the Office of Economic Analysis, now the Division of Economic and Risk Analysis. Prior to the SEC, he was a Washington, D.C.-based attorney in private practice and clerked for Judge Stephen Williams of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Featured image by treety/Dollar Photo Club