BTIG, a broker dealer specialising in institutional trading and related brokerage services, has launched a US convertible securities business to complement its existing equities, derivatives, fixed income and prime brokerage groups.

The convertible securities business will be led by Robert Langer, managing director and head of convertible sales and trading, who joins BTIG along with a team of five experienced sales and trading professionals.

“Our new convertible securities group is a strategic addition to our existing business lines and further enhances and diversifies our product offering,” says Steven Starker, co-founder of BTIG. “We have always run our business in a way so that we align our interests with our clients’. The expansion into convertible securities exemplifies this philosophy as our clients have demonstrated a need in this area.”

The new group will combine the experience of BTIG’s convertible sales team with its existing sales and trading professionals in its global equity and fixed income divisions to provide clients with seamless trading and execution.

Prior to joining BTIG, Langer was a partner at Stanfield Capital Group, a multi-billion dollar hedge fund/asset manager based in New York, where he established and was the senior portfolio manager of a convertible/capital structure arbitrage fund. He started his career at Salomon Brothers in 1992, where he was a vice president and senior trader on the US convertible bond trading desk.

Joining Langer in BTIG’s convertible securities group will be Bill Feingold, Don Pizzutello, Chris Roller, Greg Sullivan and Matthew Zucker.

Feingold joins BTIG as a director and convertible trader from Hillside Advisors, a Westchester-based convertible advisory firm that he founded in 2009.

Pizzutello joins BTIG as a senior vice president and sales trader. Prior to BTIG, he was in convertible bond sales at McMahan Securities, where he was a senior salesman.

Roller joins BTIG as a director and sales trader. Prior to BTIG, he was at Goldman Sachs, where he was a vice president in convertible sales managing a variety of global institutional relationships.

Sullivan joins BTIG as a senior vice president and sales trader. He was previously with Argent Financial Group in Dubai, where he was a managing director and head of Middle East and North African brokerage.

Zucker joins BTIG as a director and convertible desk analyst. He joins the firm from BAM Capital, a New York-based volatility arbitrage fund, where he served as the sole credit analyst.