Our Management Team

Thomas Heyden studied finance, insurance and capital market theory at Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe University and graduated successfully. He is a certified financial analyst (CEFA) and has worked for German banks and international investment houses. Thomas has launched and managed several investment funds for his own regulated company.  His clients included institutional investors and HNWIs. In 2009, he received the German Fund Award for his investment fund.

In addition to his work as a fund manager and trader, he was responsible for hedging commodity price risks for major German companies and one of the largest public transport companies in Europe.

He is a sought-after speaker on commodity price and foreign exchange risks for medium-sized businesses in Germany.

Thomas is involved in The Trading Pit and is responsible for the development of TTP in Liechtenstein. Here he brings his experience in financial engineering, asset management and business development.

His hobbies include mountain hiking, mountain biking, skiing and literature.

Daniela Egli has worked in the Financial Services Sector for over fifteen years, with numerous senior roles in business development, executive management, compliance, and organizing significant mergers and acquisitions across Asia and Europe. Daniela's extensive experience makes her highly skilled, adaptable, and agile in her line of work. In addition, she has many certifications, including CySEC Advanced and AML, risk management from CISI, and Level 1 CFA.

Throughout her career, her contribution to leading firms has been invaluable, pushing their global expansions towards advancement, ensuring transparency, and evolving the needs of their clients.

Before joining The Trading Pit, she worked as a CEO and group COO for the leading Scandinavian broker, Skilling, where she reported directly to their chief executive, providing her foresight on their operations to navigate most beneficially for their clients. Before her role at Skilling, she was also a Managing director at FXview, helping to launch the business in Cyprus and expand the group's services in other regions. In addition, she was a director and compliance officer for Blackwell Global, leading the company for six years.

Daniela's leading approach and involvement in The Trading Pit is highly beneficial, as she is responsible for advancing the operations of the Cyprus headquarters. Her insight ensures the firm's mission of providing its traders and partners with the highest level of support.

Christoph Radecker is a veteran trader who has worked in international trading firms in both the US and Germany before founding his own companies, including The Trading Pit.

Christoph began trading at the age of 18, and continued to do so throughout his higher education. Seeing a means by which to create a future for himself, Christoph dedicated himself to learning the intricacies of the trading markets.

Upon graduating, Christoph moved to the US, where he worked for leading trading firms. Joining the industry in a support role, before moving into brokerage sales and heading up the German market team for one of America’s most innovative firms.

Fascinated by the technologies he saw in use, Christoph was determined to bring these advances to Europe. Christoph saw that the key to success in a trading platform was the quality of the data it used, and how that data could be used by the trader.

In 2010, he founded Christoph Consulting and FuturesDE. The companies offer consulting services, trading solutions and trading software to the EU markets and seek to provide the userwith industry-leading access to, and analysis of, data, along with a cutting-edge UI and trading environment.

Throughout his time in the industry, Christoph had become disillusioned with the high rate of failure among new traders and difficulties that many had in entering the industry. As a result, in 2022, he founded The Trading Pit. The Trading Pit was created with the objective of supporting newcomers and veteran traders alike. With a small application fee, access to fully funded accounts and a strong, vibrant support network, the company aims to partner with traders and to help them grow professionally.

Uniquely, the company also offers partners the chance to ultimately own their own hedge fund, through the issuance of a Share Certificate.

Maria Petraki is The Trading Pit’s Operations Manager. Petraki handles a wide range of responsibilities, she is in charge for overseeing the operational activities at every level of the firm, ensuring the quality of The Trading Pit’s products and services, enhancing operational procedures, business processes and information flow as well as seeking opportunities to expand the company’s systems. She also contributes recommendations for strategic plans, prepares action plans, sets production, quality and productivity standards and oversees audits of the company. Petraki supports our new products as they are developed and is responsible for new product development. 

Petraki has previously worked in the trading industry with M4Markets, as the Head of Backoffice, where she handled the company’s entire CRM system, payments, the IB-portal and the company’s back-office infrastructure. Building up the company’s systems from scratch, Petraki gained in-depth knowledge of the trading business. Prior to her time with M4Markets, Petraki worked for Iron FX, where she worked across a number of departments, gaining knowledge and skills and ended up running the firm’s Accounting department. 

Petraki prides herself on her strong communication skills and particularly her ability to work with our developers in order to address complex technical issues. 

Illimar Mattus has worked in the investment banking and brokerage industry for more than 20 years. At The Trading Pit, Illimar provides strategic advice on a wide range of topics and helps the company grow its global footprint through partnerships with major regional brokerage firms. Illimar is also one of the key investors in The Trading Pit through its family office Pinorena Capital.

Illimar is the co-founder of a global brokerage firm Tickmill which serves sophisticated algorithmic traders in more than 150 countries who trade all major asset classes including FX, stocks, digital assets, futures and options.

Originally, Illimar started trading on the financial markets in 1997 using his student loan to fund his first stock trading account. Over the years he specialized in trading futures and futures options with such firms like Interactive Brokers, ADM, R.J. O'Brien and others.

Illimar started his professional career working for SEAF, a US based venture capital fund management company where he oversaw investments into various biotechnology, internet, media and manufacturing companies.

Illimar is well known in the international brokerage and asset management industry. He serves as a board member on various investment and asset management firms regulated among others by the FCA in the United Kingdom, CySEC in Cyprus, FSA in Malaysia, and others.

Illimar is the co-Founder of The Trading Pit as he believes that every person interested in financial markets should have a fair opportunity to become a successful trader and an asset manager. He believes that the risk platform, technology, knowledge and capital The Trading Pit provides to its clients will make it a global leader in the prop trading industry.

CTO at The Trading Pit, Prodromos Efthymiou has held a wide range of positions in the trading industry. Coming to The Trading Pit from hedge funds, Efthymiou has extensive experience in algorithmic trading and has also worked with a number of companies in the banking sector, including Bank of America Merrill Lynch where he worked on the equities trading floor.

As a result of his past experiences, Efthymiou is an expert in creating innovative solutions for low touch, low latency trading, including FIX connectivity, low latency market connectivity, smart order routing, algorithmic trading, internal crossing and back-testing. He also has deep knowledge and experience of the leading trading platforms and has worked with a number of liquidity providers when integrating their services into custom software.

Efthymiou holds a Master’s of Science in FT Software Engineering from Queen Mary University and a Bachelor’s of Engineering in Computing from Imperial College London. His studies have given him the skills to manage his time and adapt easily and effectively in stressful and competitive environments. These skills continue to be relevant in addressing the challenges and opportunities presented in fast-moving situations.

Efthymiou strongly believes in the concepts of transparency, teamwork and trust between both team members and clients. He strives to work with clients across their entire trading journey, through strong, open leadership and by closely coordinating the work of Support, Operations and IT teams to go above and beyond what the client requires.

Themis Christou has extensive experience in delivering long-term brand growth within the fintech industry. During his time in the FX and CFD industry, Christou has helped in driving the growth of a number of prominent companies, most notably Tickmill and M4Markets. Christou specializes in building clean, reputable brands from the ground up and is an expert in marketing and development for start-ups and new-born brands. With over 10 years of experience in managerial positions, Christou is well versed in building quality brands and magnifying brand equity in the fintech and forex industry.

Christou’s background in Music Studies makes him stand out from the crowd as he approaches marketing and business development with a truly creative vision. Complementing his musical studies with a Master’s in Marketing from City University of London and a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) has allowed him to grow his career and learn while working at high calibre companies such as the London Barbican Centre and London City Hall, where he worked for the Mayor of London.

His strategic vision for The Trading Pit includes introducing a relatively unknown trading approach to traders around the world and helping The Trading Pit to establish itself as one of the key players in the industry.