CFO Charlie Rozes buys IG Group shares in aftermath of meme stocks humiliation
Charlie Rozes may be buying IG stock in a move to signal confidence in the retail broker as other top executives did before him. Only the future will tell if those £30,980 were well invested.
IG Group, one of the hardest-hit brokers of the r/ WallStreetBets boom, has seen its own Chief Financial Officer acquiring 4,000 ordinary shares for an aggregate value of £30,980. Charlie Rozes was appointed CFO at IG Group in June 2020 amid Paul Mainwaring’s intention to retire.
While it is quite common to see top management buying IG Group shares – Chief Executive Officer June Felix bought 6,300 shares for an aggregate value of £49,745 and IG Group Chairman Mike McTighe acquired 3,100 shares for an aggregate value of £25,665, both in January 2021 – one takes note when watching such deal happening in the aftermath of one the biggest humiliations in the history of IG Group.
In January, CEO June Felix and Chairman Mike McTighe bought the stock in a moment of panic selling after the company agreed to buy Chicago-based online brokerage Tastytrade Inc. for more than $1 billion, which was seen as a very risky bet. Felix and McTighe’s move signaled confidence in the deal and the future of IG Group.
The r/WallStreetBets rush has forced many brokers to take actions that many retail traders found illegal or unethical, to say the least. IG Group was one of those trading firms: it suspended all account opening for new clients following the chaos of last Friday’s outage and temporarily suspended new trading on GameStop and AMC Entertainment.
IG chief executive June Felix’s statement accompanying the announcement of restrictions said: “We fundamentally believe in empowering our clients and enabling them to trade what they want, when they want, how they want. This decision has been entirely motivated by our desire to ensure our platform and services remain fully operational for existing clients, as we prioritize giving you the best service we can”.
“This has caused a significant increase in trading volumes and demands on our platform. As a result of this, some clients have experienced disruption to service. This has fallen short of the high standards we set ourselves and the service you deserve. For those clients who have experienced disruption, I would like to offer you my sincere apologies, and assure you we are addressing these issues as a matter of urgency”, Felix added. The decision only demonstrates that the company’s b-book execution model is not able to cope with even minor stock trading volatility.
