Algorithmic trading firm IMC adding commodities traders to new London office
Algorithmic trading firms are abundant in some asset classes and sparse in others. Amsterdam-based IMC Trading is a major player in equities, where most algorithmic traders operate. As lower-frequency strategies become more popular, it's expanding into the less-populated asset class of commodities.
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IMC has hired Ben Smithson as its head of energy trading, based in its Aarhus commodities trading hub in Denmark. Smithson is a Goldman Sachs alum and ex-Deutsche Bank trader. He spent the last 12 years in Denmark working across multiple Danish trading firms. He was most recently head of commodities trading at Middelfart-based Global Risk Management. IMC also hired Mark Wood and Isabella Røssel from the firm, who joined in March and May respectively.
IMC may soon be looking to hire commodities staff in London as well as Denmark. It opened its London office in 2023, which already has 25 employees and is home to an FX market making team, led by Ramon Puyane, who joined from UBS a year ago. The firm said the office is expanding into both FX and commodity derivatives market making in the firm's 2024 annual report, published in March.
IMC's commodity team is also growing in other regions. It has an open listing for a Mumbai-based commodity derivatives trader, and said in its annual report that it will grow a Commodities team in China, having obtained a license to do so last year. It faces competition from the likes of Optiver and Hudson River Trading, who have been building out their own commodities teams for years.
IMC did not respond to a request for comment.
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