Everyone on Wall Street is still talking about Knight Capital Group today.
In case you missed it, shortly after the opening bell rang yesterday there were some wild swings in a bunch of NYSE-listed stocks caused by a trading glitch at Knight Capital's market-making desk.
The company's stock nose-dived yesterday to close down 32.82%, or $3.39, to end at $6.34 a share.
This morning shares are getting walloped after Knight released a statement that the company faces a $440 million pre-tax loss following the glitch. The stock was last down more than 45%.
Obviously, this is a really big deal for Knight.
So who is Knight Capital Group? We've included some facts about the company below:
- Knight is a financial services firm engaging in market making, electronic execution, and institutional sales and trading. It's one of the largest market makers in the U.S.
- Knight makes markets and trades in more than 19,000 U.S. equities.
- In 2011, Knight was the No. 1 market maker in retail U.S. equity shares traded of NYSE and NASDAQ stocks. As of Q2 2012, Knight maintained market share of retail U.S. equity volume and the number one position among all market makers.
- For the Q2 2012, Knight posted consolidated revenues of $289 million. Market making revenues for the second quarter decreased 4% to $139 million.
- Knight also received a lot of attention last quarter when it complained that it lost $35.4 million during the Facebook IPO due to a trading problem at the Nasdaq. The company said it would weigh its legal options, too.
- The company was founded in 1995 under the name Knight/Trimark Group and was renamed Knight Trading Group in 2000 and later renamed Knight Capital Group in 2005.
- Knight is headquartered in Jersey City, NJ and has offices across the country and internationally including the UK, Germany, Switzerland, China, and Singapore.
- The CEO is Thomas M. Joyce. He made comments about the software bug today on Bloomberg TV.
- The company employs 1,423 people.
