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Recorded Webinar: Trade South Africa: Considerations for Connecting to and Trading the Johannesburg Markets

28 November 2023

Interest among the international institutional community in trading South African markets is on the rise. With connectivity, data and analytics options for trading on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange growing more sophisticated, and the emergence of A2X as a credible alternative equity market, South Africa is shaping up as a financial centre that can offer a broad array of opportunities: market fragmentation, high-frequency trading, the presence of international, domestic and government funds, and a large retail business.

In turn, the technology requirements for realising these emerging opportunities are becoming more complex, with growing need for high-performance and secure connectivity, smart order routing, links to the major prime brokerages and order routing networks, and state-of-the-art pre-trade risk systems.

This webinar examines the opportunities for those firms looking to participate in South Africa’s increasingly sophisticated markets, and discusses the data and technology capabilities required to succeed in this maturing financial centre.

By attending this webinar, you will discover:

  • The current trading landscape in South Africa, including key exchanges, brokers, funds and data and technology providers
  • The data, analytics and connectivity challenges facing firms seeking to participate in South Africa’s growing and diverse markets
  • Best practice approaches to meeting the demands of South Africa’s increasingly fragmented marketplace.

Speakers:

Kevin Brady CEO
A2X
Valdene Reddy Director of Capital Markets
Johannesburg Stock Exchange
Merlin Rajah Head of Equities Electronic Product
Absa
Mike Powell CEO
Rapid Addition
Moderator: Andrew Delaney President and Chief Content Officer
A-Team Group

More about our speakers:

Merlin Rajah

Head of Equities Electronic Product

Absa

Merlin Rajah is the Head of the Equities Electronic product at Absa and oversees the direct market access clients, sell side algorithms, program trading desk and electronic sales. Having spent almost a decade at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange as their Business Development Manager for electronic trading, Merlin has a wealth of knowledge and experience with regards to exchange trading systems, Colocation, HFT, market structure, technical infrastructure and an international network of relationships.

Mike Powell

CEO

Rapid Addition

Mike is the CEO of Rapid Addition, a provider of high-performance enterprise trading technology to capital markets firms around the globe. Rapid Addition is recognized as an industry leader and pioneer in financial messaging protocols. Having joined in June 2019, Mike has overseen the company’s expansion into North America and Asia. An active participant in the London fintech scene, he currently sits on several fintech advisory boards. Prior to that, Mike was the global head of the Thomson Reuters Enterprise business, supporting capital markets’ automation through digital data and enterprise technology solutions. Mike spent 7.5 years working in Asia, performing a variety of senior roles before moving back to London in 2005 to establish Thomson Reuters’ enterprise information business. Mike has over 30 years in the financial services industry experience, initially as part of Nomura’s Japanese equity team in London, and subsequently at firms such as Bloomberg and Thomason Reuters.

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