Trillium Capital Fined For Their HF Trading Practices

These guys have been around for a bit, seems like they jumped on the HF trading wagon quickly. FINRA has fined these guys just about $1million, not just the firm but individual traders. I would not be surprised if we see more stories like this in the near future. Get these morons out of the market so confidence can be restored.

Once confidence is restored you will be amazed at how many people will put money back into mutual funds. Individual stock manipulation will probably be the next stop for regulators looking for someone to blame.

(FINRA release)This trading strategy induced other market participants to enter orders to execute against limit orders previously entered by the Trillium traders. Once their orders were filled, the Trillium traders would then 


immediately cancel orders that had only been designed to create the false appearance of market activity. As a result of this improper high frequency trading strategy, Trillium's traders obtained advantageous prices that otherwise would not have been available to them on 46,000 occasions. Other market participants were unaware that they were acting on the layered, illegitimate orders entered by Trillium traders.

And the fines...

Trader, John J. Raffaele: $220,000 fine, $78,245 in disgorgement, and a two-year suspension.
Director of Trading, Daniel J. Balber: $200,000 fine, and a two-year suspension in a principal capacity.


Senior Vice President of Trading, Frank J. Raffaele, Jr.: $80,000 fine, $61,495 in disgorgement, and a two-year suspension, 10 months of which are in all capacities.


Trader, Brian M. Gutbrod: $80,000 fine, $51,465 disgorgement,
 and a 17-month suspension.


Vice President of Trading, 
James P. Hochleutner: $65,000 fine, $27,286 in disgorgement, 
and a two-year suspension, 10 months of which are in all capacities.


Trader, Samuel J. Yoon: $50,000 fine, $33,535 in disgorgement, 
and a 14-month suspension.


Trader, Tal Sharon: $25,000 fine, $20,622 in disgorgement, 
and an 11-month suspension.


Chief Compliance Officer, Rosemarie Johnson: $50,000 fine, 
and a one-year suspension in a principal capacity.


Trader, Bradley L. Jaffe: $20,000 fine, $12,169 in disgorgement, 
and a nine-month suspension.


Trader, Tal B. Plotkin: $12,500 fine, $7,125 in disgorgement, 
and a six-month suspension.
Trader, Michael S. Raffaele: 11-month suspension.

Posted in: HFT,Trillium