“Automated Trading Desk — Charleston Success Story”

March 11th, 2008: Arpan Kotecha, team leader of the predictive technologies team responsible for the pricing engine technology that drives trading, shared his insights on how Automated Trading Desk was created. Arpan, originally from Tanzania, is a College of Charleston Alumni and started with the firm in 2004 in the competitive internship program.

Professor David Whitcomb, Steve Swanson and Jonathan Butler met through a mutual friend at the College of Charleston. They took an innovative concept, and with intelligence and hard work, created what people said could not be done. Beginning in 1988 the principals, along with the company’s dedicated employees, taught computers to trade shares of stocks like humans, at unprecedented speed.

The company’s unique “pricing engine” technology propelled the company from a small start-up to a success level that attracted the attention of the financial giant, Citigroup. Its innovation and brain power motivated a recent purchase due to its capability and ability to provide future value as the landscape of business continues to change dramatically.

While ATD has been very successful and extremely innovative, it hasn’t been without its challenges. When stock trading in 2001 went to “decimalization” (going from trading the smaller increment in 1/8 of a dollar to a penny), the impact was dramatic and, without the innovation and drive of employees, would have been devastating. According to Arpan, the hiring of really smart people, most of which are hand picked from the College of Charleston, has allowed ATD to create systems that can develop a “price prediction” in as little as 30 seconds. ATD enables the prediction of very small changes in price extremely quickly and their clients make money by reacting to a penny, or even fraction of a cent, difference in stock price. The information and being able to extremely and accurately time the transaction are very valuable.

The company has three primary groups providing different functions. One of the most interesting groups is one that enables a customer to sell very large blocks of stock or even a smaller block of stock in a very thinly traded issue a little at the time without adversely affecting the price. Because of the high volume of stock traded each day and with some trades executed in as little as 100 mili-seconds, ATD’s powerful technology has an extremely positive application as financial trade becomes more mechanized.

The 125 employees of ATD work in a positive, innovative climate to create models and systems that are at the cutting edge of financial service. The people, its culture, and its leadership create value for all concerned.

Reported by Wayne Outlaw, Keyway Committee