The 2014 Trading Technology 40: Gregg Berman

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Gregg Berman

Associate Director, Office of Analytics and Research

Securities and Exchange Commission

Last year: 13

One of the main intents of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act is to bring more transparency to financial markets and their operations. Gregg Berman is working to make that happen. One of a cadre of experienced Wall Street hands recruited to the Securities and Exchange Commission in the wake of the 2008 crash, Berman joined the agency’s then-new economics and risk analysis division in 2009. He moved to the trading and markets division in June 2010 — a month after the “flash crash,” which he studied in depth — and in January 2013 was named associate director of the SEC’s Office of Analytics and Research. A onetime hedge fund manager and former senior executive of risk analytics pioneer RiskMetrics Group (a J.P. Morgan & Co. spin-off now owned by MSCI), Berman was a prime mover behind the Market Information Data Analytics System, an interactive market-metrics database developed with Tradeworx (see Manoj Narang, No. 16) that was rolled out internally early last year and is now viewable through a public website. “We wanted to provide some real value-add,” says the 48-year-old, applying technology “to produce information that could be used by the industry, the public, academics and market participants to shed light on very key topics in market structure today. We analyze it but don’t hog it. It’s the height of transparency and the best way to use technology to really empower people.”

See also Berman’s profile in the 2013 Trading Technology 40.