Trading & Options · Profile from Trading and Options Research Companion
Tower Research Capital
The New York high-frequency trading firm that Mark Gorton and Alistair Brown founded in February 1998 and built into a multi-asset automated trader connected to more than 150 venues — the training ground, reportedly, of Hudson River Trading's founders, and the firm whose enforcement record shows the compliance bill for misconduct inside a speed business. Its affiliate Latour Trading paid a record $16m for net capital violations (SEC, Sep 2014) at a time when it sometimes accounted for ~9% of US equity volume (reported); three of its traders spoofed CME equity-index futures from 2012, and Tower paid ~$67.5m ($67,493,849) to the CFTC and DOJ under a deferred prosecution agreement (7 Nov 2019) — the largest spoofing relief to that date — plus $15m to a class of futures traders (approved 2021). Gorton's other life — the file-sharing company LimeWire, shut by a court in Oct 2010 and settled with the record labels for $105m in May 2011 — is part of the story too: a founder-owned firm carries its founder's risks.
At a glance
- Founded
- February 1998, New York, by Mark Gorton and Alistair Brown (Wikipedia)
- Headquarters
- New York (120 Broadway, ~121,903 sq ft leased in 2023, consolidating two offices — Wikipedia, citing press); 11 locations worldwide including London, Singapore, Gurugram/India and others (Wikipedia; verify list)
- Ownership / structure
- Private; founder-controlled (verify current ownership). Affiliates have included Latour Trading LLC (US equities broker-dealer, the 2014 SEC respondent) and, per Wikipedia, a crypto trading arm, Limestone Trading (2025)
- Leadership (2026)
- Albert An, CEO since Aug 2019 (joined 2016 as technology lead); Mark Gorton, founder, chairman since Aug 2019 (Wikipedia)
- Business lines
- Automated market making and proprietary trading in equities, futures, options, FX, fixed income and crypto across >150 venues (Wikipedia, citing the firm); a reported push into mid-frequency strategies (Hedgeweek, reported)
- Scale (dated, reported)
- >1,100 employees (2025, Wikipedia body) or ~1,400+ (2026, infobox — conflict, verify); Latour at times ~9% of US equity volume (SEC-era press, 2014); 13F long equity holdings ~$4.13bn at end-Q4 2025 (13F via data aggregators — a partial, long-only view, not a measure of trading capital). No revenue or profit figures are published; none are used
- Regulators
- CFTC, NFA and CME Group (futures); SEC and FINRA (Latour and other broker-dealers); DOJ (2019 DPA); overseas regulators including SEBI for Indian operations (verify)
- Signature moves (incl. failures)
- Founding (1998); the LimeWire verdict and settlement (2010–11); Latour's record net capital fine (2014); the KOSPI night-market suit (Choi v. Tower, 2014–21, won); the spoofing DPA and CFTC order (2019) and class settlement (2021); the leadership handover to Albert An (2019); crypto and mid-frequency expansion (2025)
7 strategic moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
1998
Founding by Mark Gorton
Founding / new strategy
2010
LimeWire Verdict and Settlement
Founder legal event (side history; key-person and reputational risk)
2014
KOSPI Night Market Suit Choi v Tower
Regulatory, enforcement or legal action (civil suit; won)
2014
Latour Net Capital Record Fine
Regulatory, enforcement or legal action (settled; failure)
2019
Leadership Handover to Albert An
Hiring, spin-out or partner departure (founder-to-successor CEO change)
2019
Spoofing DPA and CFTC Record Penalty
Rogue trade or control failure / regulatory, enforcement or legal action (settled)
2025
Crypto and Mid Frequency Expansion
New strategy, product or market