Tower Research Capital

History

Tower Research Capital is one of the oldest automated trading firms. It was started by Mark Gorton and Alistair Brown in February 1998.

Tower's internal trading teams are independent from one another, enjoying autonomy while accessing shared technology resources such as hardware, software, and connectivity as well as resources such as business management, legal, compliance, and risk management. Tower is connected to more than 150 global trading venues.

At the heart of operations is the core engineering team, which owns the architecture, implementation and optimization of the trading platform itself. This includes developing systems and tools to access market data, perform trend analysis, run trading simulations, order entry and management, real-time trade support, risk management and post-trade services.

In addition to its core quantitative trading business, Tower operates a venture capital arm, Tower Research Ventures, which invests in early-stage companies.

Operations

Working together, Tower builds technology and deploys diverse automated and quantitative strategies across a broad range of asset classes in global markets around the clock.

Tower is staffed by employees proficient in diverse backgrounds such as mathematics, computer programming, physics, law, economics, engineering, finance, and more. As of 2025, Tower has over 1,100 employees in its global staff.

Albert An has served as the CEO of the firm since 2019.

In 2023, Tower leased a 121,903-square-foot space at 120 Broadway, consolidating its two existing New York City offices into a single office in the Equitable Building.

Legal issues

In 2014 Tower Research's wholly owned subsidiary Latour Trading, which sometimes accounted for 9% of U.S. stock trading, was fined a record $16 million for violating the net capital rule. Latour deliberately mis-estimated its exposure to risk and traded despite not holding enough capital.

In 2019 Tower Research was fined $67.4 million for manipulating the markets in E-mini financial futures contracts by spoofing. Tower traders placed thousands of orders for futures contracts that it never intended to execute. Three traders were criminally charged and two pled guilty in the case. Tower subsequently settled a class-action lawsuit for $15 million.

In 2021 a suit alleging spoofing by Tower Research brought by Korean investors was decided in favor of Tower when the court ruled that trading on the Korean exchange was not subject to the U.S. Commodity Exchange Act.

References

References

1. Patterson, Scott. (September 13, 2010). "Man Vs. Machine: Seven Major Players in High-Frequency Trading". [[CNBC]].
2. (March 31, 2022). "Here's how much top market makers are paying their traders, engineers, researchers, and others". [[Business Insider]].
3. "About Us".
4. "Ventures".
5. "About Us".
6. (August 1, 2019). "Mark Gorton Steps Down as CEO of HFT Firm Tower Research Capital". Bloomberg.com.
7. Mark Hallum. (2023-09-06). "Trading Firm Tower Research Consolidating NYC Offices to 122K SF at 120 Broadway".
8. Patterson, Scott. (September 17, 2014). "High-Frequency Trading Firm Latour to Pay $16 Million SEC Penalty".
9. (November 11, 2019). "Tower Research Capital LLC Agrees to Pay $67 Million in Connection With Commodities Fraud Scheme". [[United States Department of Justice.
10. (October 12, 2018). "Three Traders Charged, and Two Agree to Plead Guilty, in Connection with over $60 Million Commodities Fraud and Spoofing Conspiracy". U.S. Dept of Justice.
11. Scharf, Rachel. (July 9, 2021). "Ex-Tower Research Trader Ducks Jail Time In Spoofing Case".
12. Sax-McCleod, Andrew. (February 3, 2021). "American firm's spoofing saga continues; results in $15 million settlement to traders".
13. Godoy, Jody. (June 22, 2021). "2nd Circuit upholds Tower Research win in Korean futures case". Reuters.