Ken Griffin’s Virus Plan Now Includes Emergency Trading Site in Florida

(Bloomberg) -- Citadel Securities this week opened an office in Florida to help ensure billionaire Ken Griffin’s giant trading firm can continue at full capacity during the coronavirus pandemic -- and cope with the explosion in volume the illness has spurred.

The firm opened a new, temporary trading floor in Palm Beach on Monday with 24 people, according to a memo from the firm to employees seen by Bloomberg. The market maker debuted the facility two days before Florida’s governor announced a stay-at-home order for the state of 21.5 million.

The site -- with capacity for 50 -- is part of a hotel property that’s closed to the public, and the staff, who have been dispatched from Chicago and New York, will work and sleep there, according to the firm. The move followed an initial business-continuity plan that involved splitting the New York group into a new space and adding a temporary office in Greenwich, Connecticut. Government measures to limit the outbreak have shifted thousands in the financial industry into work-from-home mode or to backup locations.

“This effort reflects our deep commitment to delivering on the liquidity needs of our clients through all conditions,” Chief Executive Officer Peng Zhao said in the note.

In the memo, released by Zhao and founder Ken Griffin, the firm said the Florida “staff will remain onsite to minimize the potential risk of any team members contracting the virus.”

For Citadel Securities, one of the world’s largest trading firms, the need to keep its traders and sales force at full operational capacity comes amid heightened client demand. Record swings in stocks, Treasuries and currencies have prompted other trading firms to pull out of markets -- siphoning off liquidity.

Palm Beach County is part of the South Florida region that’s been the epicenter of the state’s outbreak, which risks becoming increasingly deadly because of the area’s concentration of older residents. The announcement from Governor Ron DeSantis came days after President Donald Trump said his guidelines for Americans to practice “social distancing” would remain in place until at least April 30.

Citadel Securities, a separate company from Griffin’s hedge fund Citadel, has its two main offices in New York and Chicago -- regions that have been hit hard by virus cases and that are already operating under stay-at-home orders.

Amid the turmoil, the firm is handling more business. Its notional trading volume in Treasuries has risen 70% above typical levels, the firm said. In equities, volume in March was more than double 2019 monthly averages, and daily activity in currencies jumped about 122% compared with the first two months of the year.

The firm, one of the largest liquidity providers in U.S. equities, is also focused on ensuring its ability to make markets in shares for retail clients, after the government removed penalties on early withdrawals from retirement accounts.

See this for more on eased penalties on withdrawals from retirement accounts.

Citadel Securities built the infrastructure necessary for the Florida facility in less than a week and began trading there when U.S. markets opened Monday.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.