Edgar Perez, Author, The Speed Traders, and Course Director, The Speed Traders Workshop, Introduces Knightmare on Wall Street, The Rise and Fall of Knight Capital and the Biggest Risk for Financial Markets, a Behind-the-scenes Look at Knight Capital’s 17 years of Tumultuous Existence as an Independent Company.

New York City, NY, USA (August 24, 2013) — “Market participants appreciate visible leadership that goes beyond statements sent though by a press office. Both individual and institutional investors would have felt more comfortable yesterday if they had seen the SEC chairman, Mary Jo White, discussing the NASDAQ issue and the steps the SEC was taking to monitor their efforts to resume trading,” said Edgar Perez, author of The Speed Traders (http://www.TheSpeedTraders.com) and Knightmare on Wall Street, The Rise and Fall of Knight Capital and the Biggest Risk for Financial Markets (http://www.KnightmareonWallStreet.com), to CNBC’s Squawk On The Street’s anchors Kelly Evans and Carl Quintanilla today. The full interview can be accessed at http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?play=1&video=3000193177.

As informed by NASDAQ yesterday, price quotes were not being disseminated by the Securities Information Processor (SIP) for three hours. There was a connectivity issue, which led to degradation in the ability of the SIP to disseminate consolidated quotes and trades. After the cause of the issue, The Flash Freeze, was identified and addressed, trading resumed at 3:25PM. While NASDAQ has promised to work with other exchanges that are members of the SIP to investigate the issues, their time to self-police has passed.

Readers will discover in Knightmare on Wall Street, The Rise and Fall of Knight Capital and the Biggest Risk for Financial Markets, a thrilling minute-by-minute account of the terrifying hours following Knight Capital’s August 1, 2012 trading debacle, with news-breaking research regarding the firm’s 17 years of tumultuous existence as an independent company. Knightmare on Wall Street provides a fascinating account of what it took to elevate the firm to the cusp of the retail investing revolution of the late 1990s, to struggle through booms and busts, and to bring the firm down, to end up ultimately being ignominiously bought up by a competitor.

At 9:30 A.M. on August 1, 2012, right after the markets opened for the day, Knight Capital began issuing an unprecedented number of erroneous orders into the market, due to an error in installing new software. No rogue trader or regulatory change; operational risk was passing the bill to Knight Capital and becoming the biggest risk in the financial markets. Knight Capital announced later a staggering loss of $440 million. What followed after this shocking announcement were several rounds of desperate conversations with a number of vulture players who had smelled opportunity and were readying themselves to pick up bargain-priced pieces. On August 6, 2012, Joyce confirmed that Knight Capital had struck a deal with Jefferies, TD Ameritrade, Blackstone, GETCO, Stephens, and Stifel Financial, staving off collapse days after the trading mishap.

Perez was a vice president at Citigroup, a senior consultant at IBM, and a strategy consultant at McKinsey & Co. in New York City. Perez has an undergraduate degree from Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería, Lima, Peru (1994), a Master of Administration from Universidad ESAN, Lima, Peru (1997) and a Master of Business Administration from Columbia Business School, New York, with a dual major in Finance and Management (2002). He belongs to the Beta Gamma Sigma honor society. Perez resides in the New York City area and is an accomplished salsa and hustle dancer.

Media Contact:
Julia Petrova
Media Relations Coordinator
Knightmare on Wall Street
516-761-4712
info@knightmareonwallstreet.com
http://www.knightmareonwallstreet.com