We are pleased to announce that the 6th Annual Global Volatility Summit Tokyo will be taking place on March 26th, 2025 at the Mandarin Oriental Tokyo. For more information on this year’s event, please feel free to reach out to [email protected].
William Bartlett is Parallax Volatility Advisers’ CEO. Will has been involved with equity options since 1995 and has been with Parallax since 1996. In his more than 25 years at Parallax, he has played an active role transforming the firm from a small, floor-based equity options trading operation into a large participant in the global volatility market. Prior to joining Parallax, Will worked on the floor of the Pacific Coast Exchange while earning his Bachelor’s degree in Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. Will proudly serves on the Board of Trustees for both The Hamlin School and San Francisco University High School, The Board of Governors for Boys & Girls Clubs of San Francisco, and is a Senior Member of The Guardsmen, an organization helping at-risk youth by providing scholarships, support, and outdoor education programs to students in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Paul Britton is the Chief Executive Officer of Capstone, one of the leading firms in derivatives and complementary strategies, which he founded in 2004. Headquartered in New York with 11 offices globally, Paul formed Capstone to offer investors access to, and exploit the inefficiencies present in, complex derivatives markets, creating value for the firm’s clients, team, and industry over two decades of growth.
Paul’s philosophy of constant evolution and the firm’s store of unmatched talent are the twin pillars of Capstone’s success. The firm’s emphasis on enduring relationships with investors at all tiers, technology, analytics, and innovation, are priorities that Paul has developed and brought through to the present day. His career began in the pit with Saratoga Limited, where Paul traded options on the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange (LIFFE) before co-founding Mako Global Derivatives
in 1999.
Paul currently serves on the Boards of the US Soccer Foundation, Friends Seminary School in New York City, and The Tate America’s Foundation. Paul was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his dedication and notable philanthropic contributions to the Tate Americas Foundation.
Paul received a BA in European Business Finance from London Metropolitan University.
Jason Goldberg joined Capstone in June 2018 as a Senior Portfolio Manager to run the Capstone Dispersion Fund, which launched July 2018 on the Solutions platform.
Jason has been trading equity derivatives since 1998. Prior to joining Capstone, he was most recently an Executive Vice President at PIMCO, managing up to $1 billion in capital dedicated to equity dispersion. He also ran the equity execution desk for PIMCO and helped advise Portfolio Managers on equity-related strategies and trades. Before joining PIMCO in 2014, he was a Managing Director at Och-Ziff in New York. Jason worked at Och-Ziff from 2006 to 2013, focusing mostly on equity dispersion. Prior to working at Och-Ziff, Jason was a partner at Onyx Capital from 1998 to 2006. He started his career at J.P. Morgan in 1995 and worked on both the equity derivatives and municipal derivatives desks.
Jason graduated magna cum laude and received a dual degree in Math and Economics from Claremont McKenna College in 1995.
Mr. Tobias Hekster, Co-Chief Investment Officer of True Partner Capital USA in Chicago, has been actively trading for the past 25 years in various different roles in several markets across the globe. Starting at IMC in 1998 as a pit trader in Amsterdam, Tobias has established the off-floor arbitrage desk, headed the Chicago office in the transition from floor trading to electronic trading and set up the Asian volatility arbitrage desk in Hong Kong. Tobias holds an MSc in Economics and has taught as an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and as an Adjunct Professor of Financial Practice at National Taiwan University.
Minah Kim serves as Executive Director, Equity Index & Cryptocurrency Products for CME Group, based in Singapore. She is responsible for the development and execution of CME Group’s global equity index and cryptocurrency product strategies in the region.
Kim’s financial services career spans more than 20 years, including most recently serving as Executive Director at Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong before she joined CME Group in 2017. As a sales trader, she was in charge of servicing clients who trade multinational exchange-listed derivatives during Asian hours. Before that, Kim worked for Citigroup in Korea where she established the local presence of its futures and options desk, as well as for J.P.Morgan, where she traded listed derivatives for both international and domestic Korean institutional clients.
Kim holds a Bachelor’s degree in Politics & Diplomacy from Ewha Womans University, Korea, and a MBA from University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School.
Chris Koshi is Managing Director, Head of Japan Equity Solutions. He is based in Tokyo.
Chris joined Bank of America in 2019 and has been responsible for the Equity Derivatives Distribution business focusing on QIS, equity linked structured notes and insurance solutions.
Chris joined from Credit Suisse where he was responsible for hybrids insurance solution.
Chris holds a Master’s degree in management from EM Lyon Business School.
After finishing his studies in France, he started career in Hong Kong 10-years ago and went through various trading roles in Equity derivatives at Societe Generale and then at Nomura.
He joined Barclays in 2021 and has been managing the Index Exotics and Flow business.
Stéphane Martin is Head of Derivatives Institutional Sales for Optiver in the APAC region. The Institutional Sales and Trading team leverages Optiver’s market-leading position and understanding of regional equity volatility markets to provide world class risk facilitation and solutions to global institutional counterparties such as hedge funds, asset managers and structured product issuers. Stéphane joined Optiver in 2018 having previously been Head of Institutional Sales for Vantage Capital Markets, specialising in commodity and equity derivatives, moving to Hong Kong from London in 2014. Stéphane holds a First Class (Honours) Bachelor of Science in Management and Strategy and a Master of Science in Investment Analysis from Aston Business School.
Riza Okada is a Director and Head of APAC Client Solutions at Capstone Investment Advisors having joined the firm in 2024. Most recently, Riza was a Director in the Investor Relations team at Capula Investment Management where he oversaw the expansion of the Japan office from 2016 to 2023. Riza joined Capula from Goldman Sachs Asset Management where he was a Vice President within the Alternative Investments and Manager Selection (AIMS) group from 2009 to 2016. Prior to this Riza held the role Product Specialist at Société General Asset Management between 2007 and 2009. Riza began his career in the financial services industry as a Fixed Income analyst at Bloomberg in 2006.
Riza received his BSc Economics, Finance and Management from Queen Mary University of London in 2005.
Razvan joined Aspect Capital in July 2010 and is Director of Investment Solutions. Razvan is a member of Aspect’s Product Design Group and attends Investment Committee meetings. Razvan and his team are an integral part of the product development and research functions at Aspect and they provide quantitative expertise to Aspect’s clients on investment process and the development of new product ideas. Razvan’s primary responsibility is client engagement on matters relating to strategies, products, performance and research. Prior to Aspect, Razvan worked at Skybound Capital, Clear Horizon Capital, and PeregrineQuant (now Vunani Fund Managers) in various quantitative research roles. He graduated with distinctions in Mathematics, Applied Mathematics and Physics from Rhodes University. He holds a BSc (Hons) in Theoretical Physics from Wits University and was awarded an MSc in Financial Mathematics from the University of Cape Town and is a CFA Charter holder.
Matthias Rietig is Senior Officer and Chief Representative of Singapore Branch of Osaka Exchange, Inc. (OSE), the derivatives arm of Japan Exchange Group (JPX).
Since joining Osaka Securities Exchange (current Osaka Exchange) in 2006, Mr. Rietig has led OSE’s international derivatives marketing with a focus on driving the growth and expansion of OSEs global investor base.
Also, he played a key role in the integration of the derivatives markets between OSE and Tokyo Stock Exchange in March 2014. He has been based in Singapore since 2012, further developing communication with Asian and global investors.
Prior to joining OSE, Mr. Rietig worked with Deutsche Boerse AG between 1998 and 2003, followed by a short 8-month stint with Monex Securities Inc. in Tokyo, one of the leading Japanese online brokers. On his return to Europe he joined the Global Markets team at Deutsche Bank, covering Euro-bonds and Autobahn trades for the London desk before taking up a role as ECB watcher for the Japanese Ministry of Finance in Frankfurt.
Mr. Rietig studied economics and Japanese studies at the Goethe University of Frankfurt. He received a CDG-fellowship grant by the German parliament in 2003. Mr. Rietig is married and a father of one son.
Demetri Sevastopulo is US-China correspondent for the FT. In this role, he covers all aspects of US-China relations, ranging from foreign policy and security to trade, technology and business. He took up this newly created post in Washington in 2021 after serving as Washington Bureau Chief during for five years. Over two decades at the FT, he has also served as US Politics Correspondent, Pentagon & CIA Correspondent and South China Correspondent. He also spent four years in Hong Kong as Asia News Editor, running the FT’s Asia news network.
Demetri is a prolific scoop getter who has landed blockbuster stories that include China testing a hypersonic weapon, Speaker Nancy Pelosi visiting Taiwan, and CIA chief Bill Burns making a secret trip to China. He has also interviewed everyone from Donald Trump and Donald Rumsfeld to Chinese factory workers and American cowboys.
He began his career as an emerging markets currency derivatives trader at Citibank in Japan before switching to journalism. He graduated from Trinity College, Dublin with a degree in finance, and has an MA in East Asian studies from Harvard University. He also studied at Beijing University and Sophia University in Tokyo. He speaks fluent Japanese, rusty Mandarin Chinese and basic Cantonese. Demetri was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland.
Dan Stone is one of the co-founders of Ionic, where he focuses on managing the interest rates, currencies, and credit strategies. He has over 28 years of experience managing long volatility and relative value arbitrage strategies across multiple asset classes. Mr. Stone was formerly a Managing Director and Portfolio Manager in the U.S. and European Volatility and Credit Arbitrage Group at Highbridge. He joined Highbridge in 1996 where he managed convertible bonds and equity, interest rate and credit derivatives. Mr. Stone earned an AB in Economics Magna cum Laude from Harvard College.
Mr. White is an executive vice president and a portfolio manager on the quantitative portfolio management team in the Newport Beach office. Prior to joining PIMCO in 2021, he worked at Man AHL, where he was head of portfolio management and co-portfolio manager of Man AHL’s flagship multi-strategy program. Prior to Man AHL, Mr. White was a fellow of All Souls College, University of Oxford, as well as the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques, where he specialized in number theory research. He has served as a member of the investment committee of All Souls College, Oxford. He has 11 years of investment experience and holds a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Paris, a master’s degree from the University of Cambridge, and a bachelor’s degree awarded with the University Medal from the University of Wollongong.
Naoya Sugimoto is the Co-Chief Investment Officer, the head of Global Investment Department, the Deputy Director-General of Japan University Fund at Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST). Prior to joining JST in March 2022, he provided portfolio solutions through all asset classes to institutional investors at Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Prior to that, he headed Japan Strategy Team and Japan Executive Office at PIMCO Japan Ltd. leading portfolio solutions business, and worked for PIMCO headquarter office in US in charge of developing portfolio and risk management models. Prior to that, he served as a quant analyst at Credit Suisse Securities. He also served as the CSO/CFO for Forbes JAPAN, and worked at NTT Data on cryptography R&D in his career.
He holds an MSc in Computer Science (AI) from the University of Tokyo Graduate School and a BEng from the University of Tokyo. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder and holds the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA), the Financial Risk Manager (FRM), the Certified Member Analyst of the Securities Analysts Association of Japan (CMA), and the Certified Member of the Nippon Technical Analysts Association (CMTA) designation.
Masa Yanagisawa is head of Goldman Sachs Prime Services in Japan.
He joined the firm as a vice president in 2019 and was named managing director in 2021. Before joining Goldman Sachs, Masa was co-head of Prime Services Asia Pacific Capital Introduction and Japanese equity sales at Deutsche Bank. Prior to that, he was head of Japan Capital Introduction at Merrill Lynch. Masa began his career in International Equity Sales at Merrill Lynch. Masa is an international board member of Human Rights Watch and serves on the board of Marriage for All Japan. Masa earned a BA in Public Policy from Keio University in 2000.
Our vision is to be the UK-centred leader in global finance. We are a diversified bank with comprehensive UK consumer, corporate and wealth and private banking franchises, a leading investment bank and a strong, specialist US consumer bank. Through these five divisions, we are working together for a better financial future for our customers, clients, and communities.
Barclays has been in Asia Pacific for over 50 years and primarily supports corporations and financial institutions across the Asia Pacific region, catering to their cross-border Investment Bank needs and connecting them to the capital markets of UK, Europe, and the Americas. The bank also has a growing Private Bank business in Asia Pacific, with operations in both India and Singapore. Barclays in Asia Pacific is headed by Jaideep Khanna, who also leads the bank’s Global Markets business in the region. Its regional Investment Banking business is led by Vanessa Koo and Nitin Singh heads its Asia Private Banking business.
Cboe Global Markets (Cboe: CBOE), the world’s go-to derivatives and securities exchange network, delivers cutting-edge trading, clearing and investment solutions to people around the world. Cboe provides trading solutions and products in multiple asset classes, including equities, derivatives, FX, and digital assets, across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. Above all, we are committed to building a trusted, inclusive global marketplace that enables people to pursue a sustainable financial future.
As the world’s leading derivatives marketplace, CME Group (www.cmegroup.com) enables clients to trade futures, options, cash and OTC markets, optimize portfolios, and analyze data – empowering market participants worldwide to efficiently manage risk and capture opportunities. CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural products and metals. The company offers futures and options on futures trading through the CME Globex platform, fixed income trading via BrokerTec and foreign exchange trading on the EBS platform. In addition, it operates one of the world’s leading central counterparty clearing providers, CME Clearing.
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is a leading global investment banking, securities and investment management firm that provides a wide range of financial services to a substantial and diversified client base that includes corporations, financial institutions, governments and individuals. Founded in 1869, the firm is headquartered in New York and maintains offices in all major financial centers around the world.
Ionic Capital Management® LLC (“Ionic”) is a $5.1 billion New York based alternative asset manager founded in 2006 by Bart Baum and Daniel Stone. Ionic manages multiple private investment vehicles employing different investment strategies including long volatility, relative value arbitrage, inflation protection, and value equity. In addition, Ionic acts as sub-advisor to multiple registered investment funds for which it employs relative value arbitrage and value equity investment strategies. Within the long volatility investment strategies, Ionic focuses on generating negatively correlated returns, with the potential to deliver outsized returns in volatile markets. Ionic utilizes both explicit and imbedded options across asset classes, including interest rates, currencies, commodities, equities, and credit in order to construct a portfolio that is typically positive convexity and long volatility.
Japan Exchange Group (JPX) is one of world`s leading exchange organizations and market operators. JPX comprises of five entities, namely TSE, OSE, TOCOM, JSCC, JPX Regulation and JPX Market Innovation & Research. Encompassing listing, trading, clearing, and regulation of multiple asset classes and business areas.
Osaka Exchange, as the largest equity index futures market in Asia-Pacific, offers best in class technology to investors across all time zones, constantly expanding the reach by offering a vivid night session, which fully covers the US trading hours, as well as via the recently established holiday trading regime.
With recent advancements in the Nikkei 225 Volatility Index Futures, OSE is committed to enriching market dynamics, bolstering trader confidence, and cementing volatility as a pivotal asset class, both within APAC and on the global stage.
Moreover, OSE expanded its position as the pre-eminent derivatives market in Asia-Pacific by successfully establishing the Nikkei 225 Micro Futures, Nikkei 225 Mini Options as well as 3-Month TONA Futures in 2023.
JPX continues to strive and to shape the industry by offering an extensive universe of products and services and continues to champion innovation and best practices across markets.
For inquiries please contact: [email protected]
Founded in 1996, Parallax Volatility Advisers is the San Francisco based investment adviser to Parallax Master Fund, L.P. Parallax Master Fund employs a global volatility relative value strategy that incorporates multiple volatility trading strategies being utilized opportunistically. The process identifies trading opportunities by options flow analysis that is supported by qualitative and quantitative evaluation and targets the most attractive risk-adjusted portfolio of volatility exposures in both listed and over-the-counter options on global equities, indexes, ETFs, and commodities. All of our volatility strategies align with our data-driven approach to capturing value through volatility and market dislocation by integrating robust quantitative models and embedded risk modeling with state-of-the-art technology.
True Partner Capital is a global asset management firm founded by a team of former options market makers and technology specialists, invests on behalf of a varied global investor base and has a primary focus on equity volatility strategies. The Firm has offices in the US, Europe and Asia and the key personnel have been working together for well over a decade.
Our investment expertise is accessible via commingled funds, separate mandates and customized solutions where we offer tailored volatility solutions, for example for tail risk hedging. The Firm’s longest running commingled fund has an over 13-year track record pursuing the Firm’s relative value volatility strategy. The Firm trades close to 24 hours a day across liquid global derivative markets and leverages proprietary technology developed by our experienced team, enabling the portfolio management team to identify and capitalize on trading opportunities.
Harold is the architect of Transtrend’s Diversified Trend Program, responsible for R&D, portfolio management and trading. Harold was born and raised on a dairy farm in Drenthe. And from a young age, he has been intrigued by linking mathematics to the real world around us.
He graduated in 1990 with a Master’s degree in Applied Mathematics from the University of Twente in the Netherlands. In the final phase of his studies, while working on the project that would later become Transtrend, he became fascinated by the concept of leptokurtosis — or ‘fat tails’ — in probability distributions, a topic which has inspired him throughout his career.
Harold’s approach to markets is best described as a combination of a farmer’s common sense and mathematics, never losing sight of the underlying fundamentals.
