(Left) Hong Kong branch manager of newly opened Day and Night Securities Ltd, Tony Tso, briefs InvestHK's Simon Galpin on the company's operating system in which securities are traded

Canada's largest proprietary trading company, SwiftTrade Inc, recently launched  its overseas office, Day and Night Securities Limited, in Hong Kong.

Headquartered in Toronto, SwiftTrade is the first and the largest direct access electronic trading centre in Canada. The firm was founded by Peter Beck, Charles Kim and Joseph Ianni in 1997.

The President of SwiftTrade, Peter Beck, said, "The large population of highly educated and motivated people in Hong Kong have allowed us to find a team of good traders."

"We also have plans to put a data centre in the city to support all our Asian offices. We are currently working to provide our traders with access to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, which will greatly expand our opportunities here," added Mr Beck.

SwiftTrade's Prop Traders are employed to trade a company's capital on the stock market. Traders are equipped with state-of-the-art computers and software that allows them direct access to the markets via a number of Electronic Communications Networks, or ECN's. The company's system currently handles between 65 to 100 million shares a day, amounting to approximately US$4 billion a week.

SwiftTrade employs over 450 Prop Traders through 21 locations from Toronto to Hong Kong. The company plans to open 17 more offices in 2005, in Canada, the Middle East, Asia and South America. 

InvestHK's  Associate Director-General of Investment Promotion Simon Galpin said as an international financial centre in Asia, Hong Kong offers many business opportunities for all kinds of foreign financial services companies. "Our reliable and sophisticated IT and telecommunications infrastructure allow time-sensitive businesses like SwiftTrade to operate in full efficiency and effectiveness anytime."

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