JPMorgan vs Citadel in Equity Trading Clash

• JPMorgan cut high-touch equity trading services to Citadel Securities after the firm launched a competing business.
• J.P. Morgan Chase hired Elan Luger, who previously served as its head of high-touch equities, to lead Citadel Securities’ equity unit. 
• In 2025, JJP Morgan Chase’s overall equity revenue increased by 33%, while Citadel Securities grew profitably by over 70% during Q12025.

JPMorgan Chase and Citadel Securities have found themselves at opposing ends of an expanding Wall Street competition. 

JPMorgan chase has recently terminated some of the trading services it once gave Citadel Securities as the company has started a competing service. 

The dispute is a symptom of how the lines between client and competitor have become blurred in the new world of finance.

Citadel Securities Stepped Into JPMorgan’s Lane

For years, high-touch equity trading has been a bread-and-butter business for major investment banks. 

It covers complex trades that cannot be handled purely through electronic systems, along with research-driven pitches for trade ideas. JPMorgan has long counted this among its core strengths with institutional clients.

The Financial Times reported that Citadel Securities changed that dynamic when it announced plans to build its own high-touch equity trading operation. 

The firm, known for electronically processing billions of trades as a market-maker, was now moving into territory banks consider their own. That decision set the stage for the clash that followed.

To run the new business, Citadel Securities went straight to JPMorgan’s bench. It recruited Elan Luger, who had been leading JPMorgan’s high-touch equities trading service. That hire alone sent a clear message about where Citadel Securities was headed.

JPMorgan Drew a Line

JPMorgan did not sit back after Citadel Securities made its move. The bank told Citadel Securities it would no longer provide high-touch equity trading services, according to people familiar with the matter. This covered handling non-electronic trades and delivering research-based recommendations to clients.

That said, JPMorgan did not walk away from the relationship altogether. The bank continues to provide prime brokerage services and programmatic trading to Citadel Securities. The bank’s separate relationship with the hedge fund Citadel, also founded by Ken Griffin, has not been affected.

Neither JPMorgan nor Citadel Securities offered a comment on the specifics. The two firms share a founder in Ken Griffin but operate as entirely separate businesses. The tension between them reflects a broader pattern playing out across Wall Street.

What Citadel Securities Is Actually Building

Citadel Securities made its name by quietly processing retail investor order flows at massive scale. Banks largely stepped back from that space because maintaining the required technology is enormously expensive. That is where Citadel Securities built its edge over the past decade.

The new high-touch equity business targets a different audience entirely. Citadel Securities is now going after large institutional players, including asset managers like BlackRock and hedge funds like Millennium Management. 

Rather than routing block trades through investment banks, it has been sourcing them directly from investors looking to sell.

The firm beta tested the offering through last year and formally launched it at the start of 2026. That launch brought the competition with JPMorgan from theoretical to very real. Both firms are now fishing in the same pond for the same clients.

The Numbers Show Neither Side Is Hurting

The equities trading business on Wall Street has been performing very well in the last few years. The volatility caused by geopolitical issues and changes in monetary policies has ensured that the trading volumes remain high. JPMorgan and Citadel Securities have been benefiting from this scenario.

JPMorgan’s equities trading business registered a revenue of over $13 billion in 2025, a growth of 33 percent from the previous year. 

The profits of Citadel Securities, which do not reveal their financials, grew by almost 70 percent in the first quarter of 2025 to $1.7 billion. The competition is taking place in a scenario where both are emerging as winners.

At a shareholder event Monday, JPMorgan co-head of commercial and investment banking Troy Rohrbaugh addressed the tension head-on. He told attendees the bank has “a long track record” of relationships where they both compete with and service firms like Citadel Securities. 

Rohrbaugh then added, “I feel very comfortable that we can hold our own and gain share,” before noting that any ground Citadel Securities gains would likely come at the expense of someone else, not JPMorgan.