Mr. Duke joined Knight from Jefferies & Company, Inc. where he worked in European institutional electronic sales and business development for the past eight years.

Mr. Duke is responsible for overseeing sales of Knight's electronic market access and trade execution services to European-based institutional firms, including asset managers, hedge funds, pension funds, broker-dealers insurance companies and banks.

"Europe is one of Knight's critical areas for growth over the next several years," said Gregory C. Voetsch, Executive Vice President and Head of the Institutional Group. "We believe that Knight's expansion of our electronic capabilities in Europe will be fully complementary to our best-in-class voice trade execution services. Knight has a significant traditional sales trading presence out of London, and now we are turning our eye to increasing our electronic trading reach in Europe as well. Knight is committing considerable resources to our European expansion, including hiring talent with in-depth knowledge of European market structure."

Through its hybrid market model, Knight provides clients the choice of market access and high-quality executions through the combination of electronic and voice access and trade execution services. The European trade execution industry is facing increasing liquidity fragmentation following the implementation of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) in November 2007, and the increasing adoption of electronic access and trading. Knight's institutional electronic offering includes Knight Direct EMS, a multi-asset class direct market access platform; EdgeTrade algorithmic strategies, including smart order execution technologies; Knight Match, an anonymous, agency-only dark pool for U.S. equities; and the Hotspot FX foreign exchange ECN.

Knight is a direct member of nine European exchanges, including NYSE Euronext, Deutsche Bourse and the London Stock Exchange. The company continues to add access to major liquidity pools in Europe, including newly established multi-lateral trading facilities (MTFs).

"The liquidity within the European trade execution industry is becoming increasingly fragmented post-MiFID," Mr. Duke said. "Knight has an opportunity to apply its vast knowledge of sourcing liquidity to the European context. European traders are already looking for more advanced electronic trading platforms that include next-generation aggregation algorithms coupled with direct market access technology. To meet demand, Knight will be rolling out Knight Direct EMS and EdgeTrade algorithms, tailored for the European client and markets, in the coming months."