Scott Bradley, who left the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) in January 2023 after almost six years with the firm, has confirmed his new position as CEO of the London office of new ‘smart market’ OneChronos, BEST EXECUTION can reveal.
Bradley, who has over 20 years of experience in sales trading, started his career at ITG before moving to take on roles with Bear Sterns, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Nomura. He spent almost four years with Instinet, most recently as head of EMS and analytics sales EMEA, before moving to LSEG in 2017 as head of sales, marketing and global business development, cash secondary markets and Turquoise.
In May 2021 he took on the position of LSEG’s securities trading head of sales and platform distribution, but departed in early 2023 amid a major reshuffle of the firm’s senior management, which also saw former Turquoise CEO Dr Robert Barnes depart a few months prior.
From January 2024, Bradley has taken on the role of CEO of the London office of OneChronos, he confirmed to Best Execution.
A US equities ATS targeting institutional investors, the platform is part of a new breed of ‘hybrid platforms’ springing up to meet liquidity challenges in the equities market, claiming to “fundamentally address the growing gap between how trading venues match orders and how traders need to execute”.
It operates ‘smart market’ periodic auctions using AI and mathematical optimisation to offer ‘expressive bidding’ – a tool that gives market participants the fidelity of voice trading and the advantages of an electronic venue. Starting with US equities, these auctions optimise for best execution, claiming to foster competition on transaction quality rather than speed.
Launched in Q3 2022, as of September 2023 the firm had facilitated over US$60 billion in institutional securities transactions, with volumes growing more than 35% month over month. In October 2023 the platform secured a further US$40m in Series B funding, spearheaded by New York-based venture capital firm Addition Investors. The firm is now planning an expansion into Europe, confirmed co-founder Richard Suth yesterday – spearheaded by Bradley, who will be building out the new London office.
“OneChronos has clearly demonstrated the execution quality advantage of its product in a highly competitive and established market,” said Andrew Miskiewicz, investor at Addition, on the funding round. “We look forward to supporting the OneChronos team as they continue solving the unique challenges of operating high-speed smart markets, positioning them as the industry leader.”
OneChronos is led by founder and CEO Kelly Littlepage, an entrepreneur who spent some years working as a systematic trader with Bank of America.
“We founded OneChronos as a team of institutional investors, traders, and technologists with a deep appreciation for the cost and complexity of institutional trading and the staggering investment returns lost to market friction,” he said. “Markets like digital display advertising drew their inspiration from capital markets but quickly evolved beyond after seeing the compelling results modern market mechanisms delivered. Capital markets still use 200+ year-old mechanics predating modern theory and computing capabilities.”
©Markets Media Europe 2023
