In The News
Running man: HTG’s Chris Hehmeyer
4/24/12
AT: Why don’t you start by describing your company.
Chris: HTG is a proprietary trading firm that trades most futures and options on futures. We also trade US government securities and foreign exchange. We have a number of different types of strategies – market-making, block trades, some allocation of capital and some high frequency strategies.
AT: So you run the whole gamut?
Chris: Yes, but you’ll notice we don’t trade equities, and we don’t trade equity options.
AT: I mean not necessarily in terms of asset classes but in terms of trading styles – everything from sub-second to longer-term.
Chris: That’s exactly right.
NFA Chairman Chris Hehmeyer Talks Bankruptcy Reform
4/1/13
MF Global collapse shadows futures meeting
By Hal Weitzman
3/13/12
The departures of Mr Donohue and Mr Damgard underline the sense that the futures markets need a new sense of direction and purpose. “MF Global is the biggest thing to hit this industry in years,” says John Lothian, a Chicago futures veteran who runs a popular industry newsletter. “We’re going to have to grow the industry again and be aggressive and dynamic.”
That comes from a deep sense of frustration among traders in the wake of MF Global’s collapse. “The main emotion in the industry is anger,” says Chris Hehmeyer, chairman of the National Futures Association, an industry regulator.
MF Global Case Rattles World of Futures
By Jacob Bunge
3/11/12
MF Global’s rapid demise appears to have broken deep-seated confidence in the market that allowed the industry to move beyond the trading of corn and soybean futures and become a multitrillion dollar business, with contracts used by high-speed trading firms that provide liquidity in stock markets, as well as banks aiming to shield themselves against shifting interest rates.
“It’s going to be a long time before that trust is rebuilt,” said Chris Hehmeyer, chief executive of trading firm HTG Capital Partners and chairman of the National Futures Association, the industry-backed regulatory body. “First we have to find out what happened.”
Chris Hehmeyer on CNBC “The Santelli Exchange”
12/22/11
Chris Hehmeyer, CEO of HTG Capital Partners, appeared once again on CNBC’s “The Santelli Exchange” in a segment entitled “Tales From the Pit: MF Global”.
Click here to watch Chris Hehmeyer on CNBC…
Chris Hehmeyer on CNBC “The Santelli Exchange”
12/15/11
Chris Hehmeyer, CEO of HTG Capital Partners, appeared on CNBC’s “The Santelli Exchange” in a segment entitled “Revisiting MF Global”.
Click here to watch Chris Hehmeyer on CNBC…
Chris Hehmeyer on CNBC “Squawk on the Street”
11/3/11
Chris Hehmeyer, CEO of HTG Capital Partners, appeared on CNBC to clear up the confusion about segregated funds in relation to the MF Global bankruptcy. His interview with Rick Santelli begins at the 6:40 mark in the link below.
Click here to watch Chris Hehmeyer on CNBC…
Recriminations fly after fall of MF Global
By Hal Weitzman
10/31/11
Monday morning’s events were less than orderly. Many MF Global floor traders, apparently unaware their employer was about to file for bankruptcy, turned up to work at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s trading floor to discover that their security clearance had been removed from the system.
“This is not just going to be resolved by CME liquidating trades,” said Chris Hehmeyer, head of HTG Capital Partners, a Chicago trading firm. “Like any other big bankruptcy, the issues here are very complex and unique.
HTG Capital CEO Chris Hehmeyer: The Benefits of a Volatile Market
By Justin Grant
10/31/11
The persistent volatility that hangs over the global marketplace continues to generate dire headlines, confound regulators and spook investors. But it also represents an opportunity for companies such as HTG Capital Partners, a Chicago-based proprietary trading firm.
HTG chief executive Chris Hehmeyer explains why his firm benefits from market volatility, how he optimizes trade executions, and how HTG expects to operate when the new Dodd-Frank regulations take effect.
Europe Highlights Urgency for New U.S. Swaps Rules
By Jonathan Spicer and Ann Saphir
10/12/11
But based on interviews with several traders and industry executives, the euro zone crisis is giving a new urgency to the need to define how exactly regulators want to safeguard the market.
“Let’s fish or cut bait,” said Chris Hehmeyer, chief executive of Chicago-based proprietary trading firm HTG Capital Partners. “It’s time for them to go ahead and get the definitions out there so that we can get on with it.”
Key Spread Turns Positive on Hope for Growth
By Howard Packowitz
8/29/11
The Commerce Department report showed consumer spending shot up 0.8% in July, the sharpest increase in five months, and better than the forecast for a 0.5% gain.
“The economy is not in that bad of shape,” said William McNeill, managing director of HTG Capital Partners, a proprietary trading firm.
Monday’s trading, according to McNeill, was part of an unwinding of positions anticipating the Fed would implement a third quantitative easing campaign.
McNeill doesn’t see so-called QE3, but the FOMC is likely to debate the issue during a two-day meeting in September.
Shares Rebound After Three Days of Losses
By Ryan Vlastelica
8/19/11
On Friday, the mid-cap telecom services sector .4GSPL was one of the top-performing sectors, gaining 1.5 percent. Health care .4GSPA also rose more than 1 percent. Both sectors are considered defensive plays.
“Today’s move has more to do with yesterday’s volatility than anything going on today,” said William McNeill, managing director of trading at HTG Capital Partners in Chicago. “In the absence of big news to drive things, people are shoring up before the weekend and covering their positions.”
Regulatory Uncertainties Weigh on CME
By Hal Weitzman
7/6/11
Chris Hehmeyer, chief executive of HTG Capital Partners, a proprietary trading firm in Chicago, thinks that CME’s extensive marketing budget would be a good place to start.
“I have yet to meet anyone that trades at the CME because they saw an advertisement in the newspaper,” he says.
CME ‘Mobile’ Enough To Make Good On Threat To Leave Illinois
By Howard Packowitz and Jacob Bunge
6/10/11
Chicago’s exchanges are no longer tied to the bricks and mortar of a trading floor, and some
expect Illinois will need to offer tax breaks to keep companies from moving. The CME has suitors, with Texas Gov. Rick Perry writing the exchange operator and dozens of other Illinois companies about the benefits of moving to his state.
“CME has to threaten to leave to get tax breaks from the state,” said Christopher Hehmeyer, chief executive of Chicago-based trading firm HTG Capital Partners and a veteran derivatives broker. “All the big businesses do it and if they don’t, they’re being irresponsible to their shareholders.”
Analysis: High-frequency trade fires up commodities
By Jonathan Spicer
6/17/11
“Whenever there are spikes in markets, high-frequency traders gather data on it,” said Louis Liu, founder of Matrix Trading Technologies LLC, a New York-based high-frequency trading technology firm. The May 5 oil crash “could encourage them to enter” energy futures trading, he said.
William McNeill, managing director of trading at HTG Capital Partners, a Chicago-based proprietary HFT firm echoed that view: “I think you’ll definitely see an increase in people market-making in the oil product set. If there’s moderate volatility … there’s probably ample opportunity to take risk.”
HTG’s Hehmeyer Sees Prop Trading Reshaping Off-Exchange Markets
By Jacob Bunge and Jamila Trindle
3/17/11
BOCA RATON, Fla.–(Dow Jones)Electronic trading strategies that have revamped stock and futures markets around the globe will soon come to off-exchange swap markets as new regulations for the $583 trillion sector are finalized, according to a derivatives industry veteran.
The injection of new algorithmic trading strategies into off-exchange derivatives markets, facilitated by a new breed of trading venues, will make the market more efficient and bring down costs for customers, according to Chris Hehmeyer, chief executive of the proprietary trading firm HTG Capital Partners LLC, and previous CEO of the futures brokerage GHCO.
Futures on the line in D.C.
By Lynne Marek
1/24/11
Chicago’s top trading firms, including DRW Holdings LLC, Infinium Capital Management LLC and HTG Capital Partners LLC, formed a new trade group last year to sway public debate, with DRW and Infinium also hiring a lobbying firm, Washington, D.C.-based Delta Strategy Group, to plead their case directly to commissioners.