Titan Capital Hires Nore Trading Stuff

Titan Capital Group LLC, a New York-based alternative investment manager specializing in volatility trading strategies, has appointed two new Traders to its financial team, Collin Mahoney and Katie Mullen.

“We’re delighted to have Collin and Katie joining Titan Capital,” said Titan Capital founder Russell Abrams. “Titan Capital has benefitted from elevated market volatility this year and our expanded team will provide added depth and support to our trading operations.”

Before joining Titan, Collin Mahoney served as volatility trader at Evolution Capital. In that position, he implemented proprietary trading strategies on Asian indices. He also held posts at MF Global as an Institutional Derivatives Broker on the floor of the American Stock Exchange. Collin Mahoney graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Finance from the Tobin School of Business at St. John’s University.

Prior to joining Titan Capital Group, Katie Mullen held positions with PIMCO in both the New York and Newport Beach offices. At PIMCO, she held posts as a Trade Associate with the equity team and Derivatives Portfolio Associate. Prior to PIMCO, Katie Mullen was a trade support analyst at Bank of America. She received a BSE in Industrial and Operations Engineering from The University of Michigan.

About Titan Capital Group:
Established in 2001 by Russell Abrams, Titan Capital Group has been recognized through numerous industry awards and nominations.

Titan Capital Group currently manages two strategies, a global volatility vehicle and an Asia volatility vehicle. Both strategies hold primarily liquid, short-dated instruments and utilize a statistically-based approach to identify relative value opportunities.

Russell Abrams Interview with The Deal

Market volatility "clearly hurts" M&A in the short-term, says Russell Abrams, President of Titan Capital Group during his interview, but "longer-term, we have to look at a couple of companies that have been very active in the M&A area, such as Hewlett-Packard, Cisco, and Bank of America."

Russell Abrams The Deal Interview

Market volatility "clearly hurts" M&A in the short-term, says Russell Abrams, President of Titan Capital Group during his interview, but "longer-term, we have to look at a couple of companies that have been very active in the M&A area, such as Hewlett-Packard, Cisco, and Bank of America."

Low growth. High volatility. Welcome to the "new normal".

Kirsten Bischoff, Opalesque New York mentioned today: "While the current 8%-10% swings of the Dow may not be the sustained "new normal", we have certainly entered a new phase; one where government intervention is expected, yet the unknowns of politics are causing wild swings based on speculation, and overreactions. .."

Market Volatility Likely to Continue

Equity markets volatility has exploded since the Standard & Poor’s 500 broke the 200-day moving average at 1285 and later broke through the head-and-shoulders neckline of 1260. These steep moves are approaching a magnitude not seen since markets collapsed in the fall of 2008.
Like then, a change in sentiment and hope of government support are far more important than the fundamentals. When will this volatility end? History says it could take anywhere from two more weeks to 10 more weeks. It will depend on whether the Federal Reserve announces a third quantitative easing (QE3) program at the end of August, which would bring some stability to the financial markets (but unfortunately also destroy the real economy). If the Fed simply passes the ball to Congress to act, the volatility will continue.

As we approach the Fall, risk aversion will increase should the government fail to announce outright support for the markets. Indeed the majority of bullishness is based on the belief the government will be coming to the rescue of financial markets. Should they not appear, investors will vote with their feet, and the ride down will be very bumpy. Volumes collapsed on the ride up and have exploded on the move lower.
Given that most emerging markets have already established firm downtrends, it is difficult to imagine a catalyst outside of QE3 that can lift the equity markets. In my view, feeble efforts such as the ban of short sales or government announcements of heightened market scrutiny will only increase volatility, but these should be expected as leaders debate whether to intervene or let the markets move to equilibrium.