Exclusive: Tickmill’s head of derivatives Rex Johnson quits
FX derivatives veteran Rex Johnson has quit London-based retail brokerage Tickmill and is headed to the institutional side, FinanceFeeds has learned.
Mr. Johnson is a highly experienced derivatives professional, having 20 plus years of experience in the industry where he held various leadership roles based out of London.
He is parting ways with Tickmill after spending two years as head of derivatives sales and trading. During this stint, he drove the growth of the cleared derivatives business with global listed investment exchanges, along with his expanded responsibilities in the company’s FX retail brokerage business. He was also instrumental in expanding the broker’s product portfolio with the launch of futures trading to capitalize on the growing popularity for such instruments outside their traditional users.
Without uncovering his next intention, we understand that Johnson leaves Tickmill on great footing and he has been contacted by a number of exchanges.
Johnson has originally joined the brokerage firm in December 2019. He has been deeply involved in the derivatives industry since 1998 when he started his career.
A transition period at Tickmill
Prior to Tickmill, Rex spent two years with Trust One Financial Services. There, he was entrusted with expanding the company’s European physical gold business and establishing partnerships to help lift the brand of Trust One as a Full-Scope, FCA-regulated settlement brokerage.
A 5-year tenure as a senior manager of listed derivatives & securities finance sales at Valbury Capital took Johnson’s career between 2012 and 2017. That was preceded by a short stint in an analogous role with US market maker StoneX (formerly INTL FCStone).
In 2019, Johnson joined blockchain firm Aurus Technologies as a non-executive advisor. The fintech company aims to replicate the traditional gold market in a digital way. However, we understand that Aurus isn’t Johnson’s next destination even as many FX execs have recently crossed the world of mainstream investment to set foot in the cryptocurrency industry.
Johnson’s departure comes amidst a transition period at Tickmill which saw a number of executive reshuffles and new projects in recent months. Earlier this year, the company parted ways with Petros Kalaitzis who held several client-facing roles for nearly three years.
Tickmill is a group of companies with UK FCA, Cypriot CySEC, SC FSA, South African FSCA and Malaysian LFSA licenses. We last reported on the company when it expanded its offering through incorporating the MetaTrader 5 (MT5) platform into its live trading infrastructure.
