NEW YORK: GTS, a leading electronic market maker across global financial instruments, has acquired the foreign exchange trading assets of HC Technologies, an algorithmic trading firm.

HC Tech has twice been ranked the number-one foreign exchange liquidity provider in the Americas, catapulting GTS into the top ranks of global FX traders.

The transaction builds on GTS’s success as a leading market participant in trading global equities, OTC stocks, futures, options, fixed income and ETFs – and one of the largest designated market makers at the New York Stock Exchange. Approximately 50 employees from HC Tech will join GTS as part of the transaction, bringing total headcount for the firm to approaching 400.

“Enhanced liquidity through sophisticated, real-time pricing across asset classes and geographies is a hallmark of GTS’s market making activities,” said Ari Rubenstein, co-founder and CEO of GTS. “This acquisition allows us to bring pinpoint pricing to the volatile FX marketplace – pricing that GTS excels in.”

He continued, “The FX marketplace is growing rapidly and is an important component of the global financial ecosystem. The recent geopolitical and global economic turmoil has created a huge surge in foreign exchange and interest rate volatility, creating the need for marquee FX market making and pricing. HC Tech has built a world-class FX business and combining those trading assets with GTS’s capabilities will be immediately additive to the FX trading marketplace.”

Joining GTS to run the combined FX business is HC Tech Partner Cary Rosenwald. Rosenwald and the firm have developed cutting-edge technology and a talented team of FX experts, most of whom will transition to GTS as part of the acquisition.

Rosenwald said, “We couldn’t be more excited to be part of the stellar GTS team. We’re not only joining a top global market maker but a firm with global status as a steward of the market with a broad track record of success and making value-adding acquisitions. FX trading worldwide has grown significantly in recent years and the combined business is poised to take off.”

According to market research by the BIS, average daily volumes in the foreign exchange market exceeds $7 trillion.

GTS is a collection of financial services companies spanning a wide array of asset classes and investment approaches, all powered by the combination of market expertise with innovative, proprietary technology. With roots as a quantitative trading firm continually building for the future, the GTS family of companies are able to leverage the latest in artificial intelligence systems and sophisticated pricing models to bring consistency, efficiency, and transparency to today’s financial markets. GTS’s electronic market maker GTS Securities accounts for 3-5% of daily cash equities volume in the U.S. and is a leading Designated Market Maker (DMM) at the New York Stock Exchange, responsible for nearly $13 trillion of market capitalization.