FXDirectDealer in the News

Press Release

Tradition NA announces Senior level staff for FXDirectDealer

New York, NY, January 15, 2002 - Tradition, NA, a company of Compagnie Financiere Tradition, today announced the senior level staff positions for it's upcoming retail foreign exchange trading platform called FXDirectDealer.  Ted Muller was appointed as the CEO, and Greg Michalowski as Director of Strategic Planning and Marketing.  

Both Mr. Muller and Mr. Michalowski have had extensive financial backgrounds.  Mr. Muller is currently a Tradition employee where he in charge of Trader Technology and New Product Development.  His last job prior to Tradition was as CEO of DirectDealer.com, LLC; an online electronic conversational application built for the financial community.  Mr. Muller has also enjoyed a distinguished 20-year career at various top tier banks and brokerage institutions where he was often involved in spearheading new business and technology advancements.  He held managing positions at Credit Suisse First Boston, Bank Austria, Prebon Yamane and Chase and Citibank where he managed and traded derivatives, money market instruments and foreign exchange.  

Mr. Michalowski also comes from DirectDealer where he was in charge of product development, sales, and marketing for the technology company. Prior to DirectDealer, he enjoyed 15 years in the banking and trading  in both New York and London.  His most recent banking employment spanned 4 years as Vice President at Credit Suisse First Boston where he traded short-term instruments and derivatives in the Treasury Department.  Prior to that, he was a Vice President for Citibank London where he launched and managed the successful short-term derivative trading desk.  That stint was preceded by 6 years at Citibank, New York where among other things, he traded short-term swaps and FRAs in the highly profitable funding department.  

"Both Ted and Greg have a wealth of market and technology experience that makes them unique and valuable for this type of venture," stated Emil Assentato, CEO of Tradition NA. "The combination is something that is just not readily available."  Emil added, "The two have also worked together in the past which I feel is an added bonus.  I will rely on them to provide the leadership and direction for this exciting new opportunity."

In addition to the key appointments, Mr. Assentato also announced that progress is being made with regard to the technology.  "We are in the process of finalizing the software side of the business," stated Mr. Assentato.  "We hope to launch as soon as possible but realistically, are not expecting to be live until sometime in the 2nd half of the year.".

Tradition, NA, is a fully owned company of Compagnie Financiere Tradition, a Top 3 broker in over-the-counter financial and non-financial products with offices in 17 countries.  It's shares have been listed on the Swiss stock exchange since 1973 and on the third compartment of the Frankfurt stock exchange since 1999.  They are registered broker/dealers in the United States and are a member firm of the New York Stock Exchange.