FCA Fines Ex-Stifel Nicolaus Trader For Misleading Market
Najiyya Budaly, 04 March 2021
The Financial Conduct Authority said Thursday it has fined a former Stifel Nicolaus trader and banned him from regulated activities for executing 129 so-called wash trades that misled the market about demand for his client’s shares.
The City watchdog said it has fined Adrian Geoffrey Horn £52,500 ($73,302) for market abuse and banned him indefinitely from performing any function related to a regulated activity. Horn was a former market making trader at Stifel Nicolaus Europe Ltd., which meant that he both bought and sold securities.
The FCA said it found during an investigation that Horn engaged in market abuse by executing trades with himself in the shares of a Stifel client, McKay Securities PLC. The illegal process, known as wash trading, meant that he was buying and then selling McKay shares so that there was no change in ownership. This fed misleading information about the stock’s price, demand and supply to the market.
Horn executed 129 wash trades between July 2018 and May 2019, the FCA said. He entered orders into the market in a way to prevent anyone from detecting that he was wash trading.
