According to Smart Money, specialist firm Labranche & Co, who had provided $100 million in seed capital to Michael Steinhardt’s new ETF firm Wisdom Tree, has pulled its investment. The reason: Wisdom Tree told LaBranche that it was gonna use another specialist. Oops.
"LaBranche has redeemed a total of approximately $100 million from several WisdomTree ETFs," says Jessica Caris, spokeswoman for WisdomTree. "We have designated Spear, Leeds & Kellogg Specialists as a specialist for several of our funds. In addition, Susquehanna International Group will act as the specialist for two WisdomTree funds."….
"Wisdom Tree requested a new specialist and I don’t know what the reason was," says Michael LaBranche, chief executive of LaBranche & Co., the parent of specialist firm LaBranche Structured Products Specialists. "Our market quality was very good, but the volumes have been a little bit lower than we expected. You make an investment, but you need the volume to be commensurate with the investment. That’s how it works with these things. Taking the money out is logical if we’re no longer the specialist."
LaBranche Out at WisdomTree – Smart Money
Tags: ETFs, Michael Steinhardt
