Fintech Clear Street appears to be starting a prop trading arm

Capital markets infrastructure fintech Clear Street is no stranger to encroaching on crowded markets. It came on the scene as a technologically advanced competitor in the prime brokerage space, and has also branched out into investment banking. Now, it seems to be building out a prop trading arm under a veteran electronic trader.

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Tripp Becket announced he was joining Clear Street in New York as an MD in proprietary trading. He joins from middle-market investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald, where he was a prop trading director. Becket has worked at multiple top algorithmic trading firms; he was previously a global head of statistical arbitrage at HFT firm Susquehanna, where he spent 20 years, and was a senior quant researcher at market making firm Citadel Securities, where he spent just over one year.

Clear Street already provides trading and execution services to hedge funds and other institutions. Insiders alleged that, in Europe at least, Clear Street had some issues selling its services to institutions, which resulted in cuts to a group of senior markets professionals last year. Prop trading, however, is traditionally when a firm trades using its own money; there doesn't appear to be an existing prop trading arm, suggesting this is a new initiative, but Clear Street declined to comment. 

Becket may have been anticipating that Clear Street would go public before he joined. The fintech had filed for an IPO but eventually postponed the launch after its price-per-share was cut by nearly a third.

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