MARKET MAKING

As an official market maker in several exchanges around the world, Barak strives to be the best liquidity provider and to improve the efficiency of the financial markets by providing continuous two-sided market quotes of the tightest spread possible, using low latency technologies and co-located servers in key data centers.

Barak’s teams all collaborate to achieve these goals: the SW team develops the trading applications and algorithms; the research team invents the complex mathematic and ML algorithms; the trading desks look for market opportunities; the IT team sets-up and maintains the required network infrastructure; and the compliance team monitors and guides, according to the regulatory requirements.

We believe that algorithmic trading merged with advanced technology tools and infrastructure, together with Barak’s greatest assets, our human resources, is the way to make markets more productive and transparent.

MARKET MAKING
IS WHAT WE DO

Our story

Barak’s market making activities emerged from the group’s ability to bring together automated trading and cutting-edge technology. Barak designed and developed an in-house latency sensitive proprietary trading system. This system was used initially in 2010 when Barak first became an official Market Maker of options on TASE. Thereafter, followed market making of hundreds of financial instruments in dozens of exchanges worldwide. Our complex strategies, which are very low risk driven and designed to be free of directional opinion, were quickly deployed into major exchanges in Europe, APAC and the Americas, providing liquidity in various instruments, such as Indices, FX, Fixed Income, ETFs and Equities.

Our work

As market makers, we rely on technology and infrastructure to transfer information while trading various financial instruments. We use different approaches in developing algorithmic strategies, from statistical trading via artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) techniques. Our business is characterized by a flat structure, facilitating the free flow of ideas, from juniors to seniors, across all departments

Our culture

People are our greatest asset. We strive to recruit ambitious, open-minded tech-savvy and talented employees, who have a passion for the financial and technological world. Every single one, on his own, can make a difference because the freedom to do and achieve is in our DNA. We culture it.

The team

Barak’s Market Making team began its path with a handful of traders and technology talents and today works with dozens of employees. The team is continuously growing and expanding globally via our Amsterdam branch.

Under the Amsterdam branch, Barak plans to take its market making activities to the next level in the European and US markets.

The team

OFER ATAL

Head of Market Making

Ofer Atal joined Barak as an ETF trader in 2006. Soon thereafter, he established within Barak an automated trading group, that focused on trading equity and index derivatives. The group’s trading activities grew over the years and formed Barak’s professional market making team, under Ofer’s management. Ofer has an MBA from Bar-Ilan University, majoring in finance.

URI PELES

Head of Market Making Business Development

Uri Peles joined Barak as an equity and index derivatives trader in 2010. He soon took on a managerial role in the market making team, working alongside Ofer, to develop and grow the team’s activities worldwide. Uri has a MSc in financial mathematics from Bar-Ilan University.

NADAV ATTAR

Head of Amsterdam branch

Nadav Attar joined Barak as a fixed income trader in 2014. In 2016 he became head of the fixed income desk. With his proven managerial abilities, Nadav was appointed to lead the operation of Barak’s European entity based in Amsterdam since its establishment in 2021. Nadav has a BA in Management from the Open University of Israel.

Trading

The trading teams work around the clock, during all trading hours, constantly watching the markets, looking for new opportunities, and searching for anomalies. This role is challenging and dynamic, just like the financial markets.

Development

The software engineers are experienced Java, C++, FPGA and Python developers. The continuously fast changing nature of the financial markets requires our engineers to move quickly from the characterization and development stages to the deployment in production environment. Every day we prove that this challenge is doable.

Quant research

The quant research team, having at its disposal constantly growing databases, oversees the developing and innovating trading strategies. The team develops these strategies in different methods including statistical, AI and ML techniques. This is a challenging and rewarding role, working in a dynamic and competitive environment.

IT & Infrastructure

The IT & Infrastructure team consists of specialists in Linux, well experienced in networks, databases, cyber security, and storages. This team automates everything, from regular day to day tasks up to complex networks and colocation issues. New technologies challenge our team continually, making problem solving a critical quality of the team.

Compliance

The compliance team has diverse knowledge and experience in many fields concerning the financial markets, with a focus on the rules, regulations, and governance in the financial trading industry. The team is well familiar with our trading strategies in order to advise on the relevant regulatory and compliance requirements.

Risk

The risk team’s role is to monitor, oversee and manage the overall risk of the market making activities, which include operational and market related risk. This team monitors the exposure of the trading strategies and takes the necessary steps to mitigate risk.

Recruitment & HR

The recruitment & HR team works to recruit talented and professional candidates who will bring us to new levels. The team accompanies all employees from the moment their CV is received, during the hiring process and in the day-to-day welfare.