The Law School's Securities Law Program presented the first installment in the 2016 Lecture Series on the evening of September 14. Director of the Securities Law Program and CUA Law Professor David Lipton introduced speaker Matt Andresen to a well-attended audience. Andresen, one of the crispest and most comprehensive minds in the industry, discussed market structure in a talk entitled, "The Value of Non-transparent Markets ("Dark Pool") in Securities Trading."

Andresen is the current CEO of Headland Tech, a quantitative trading firm operating out of Chicago, and former CEO of virtually every well-known electronic trading platform or system in modern time from Instinet ECN to Island to Citadel Derivatives Group LLC. His announced topic was a discussion of the significance of "dark pool" trading systems - trading platforms that do not disseminate quotations for the instruments they trade.

Andresen covered that topic but also did much more. With the rapt attention of students, Professor Lipton and Former Commissioner Dan Gallagher '99 of the SEC, Andresen developed, in a perfect TED talk manner, three elements of all trading platforms - nature of clearing system, flexibility with internalization and technology - from which he proceeded to analyze all trading systems.

"While the topic covered sounded like a mouthful, it was apparent that Andresen captured the attention and understanding of those in attendance in light of the questions that followed," Professor Lipton said.

Andresen's talk will be followed on October 5th by a presentation from the Senior Special Counsel of the SEC's Division of Economic Risk Analysis explaining the Commission's new Computerized Audit Trail System ("CATS).

Professor David Lipton with speaker Matt Andresen