Peconic Securities has made two recent hires, bringing its high-yield trading unit up to 15, and would still like to add an additional two or three people. Tom Keyes, who co-founded the inter-dealer broker a year ago, (BW, 5/26/02) says he will look for traders with relationships at sell-side firms with which Peconic still does a limited amount of business. "There are a couple of big dealers out there where we're still far from their first call," he says.
Recent hires include John Makhoul, who was a trader at McFadden Farrel & Smith, a competitor, and John Pepe. Pepe returns to the business after a hiatus of a few years, having traded alongside Keyes in the early 1990s.
Keyes says he is more than pleased with the progress Peconic has made over the last year, noting that the broker has a call in to most dealers. "Miller Tabak [Roberts Securities] is the only shop we're not doing business with, and saying I'm not doing business with Miller Tabak is like saying I'm not opening a checking account at Banco Popular," Keyes quips. A call to Adam Marguiles, senior managing director and high yield trader at Miller Tabak, was not returned.