Who
We Are

JOIN US

Our Story

15 Years in the making

Star Beta was founded by Mark Zagora and Don Di Vincenzo. Mark and Don met whilst trading at a large Proprietary Trading Firm in London in 2002 and formed a strong working relationship built on a common passion for Trading. 

Both Mark and Don have a long history of training and mentoring traders with many of the traders at Star Beta having been taught directly by Mark or Don over the past 15 years.

Mark Zagora

Co-founder & CEO

Mark has been a professional trader for over 20 years. He began his trading career in Sydney on the FX Market Making Desk at Westpac and then moved to London to work as a Proprietary Trader. Whilst trading in London he became involved in the mentoring and training of traders. Upon his return to Sydney in 2007, Mark started one of the first formal trader training programs in Australia, recruiting groups of 5-10 trainee traders every 3 months to develop local trading talent. That same training program still operates with great success over a decade later at Star Beta and Mark remains closely involved. He splits his time between his two passions of trading and mentoring traders.

Don Di Vincenzo

Co-founder & COO

Having had extensive experience as a trader and trading mentor both in Australia and the UK, Don now oversees the daily operations of Star Beta and helps drive its strategy. As a co-founder, Don has been a part of Star Beta’s transformation from a two man operation to a global organisation with over 100 staff. Don enjoys solving the interesting challenges that come with being the COO of such a diverse organisation.

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WHAT'S
IN A NAME

We are often asked where the name Star Beta came from. It is actually a play on the term Statistical Arbitrage. In financial mathematics, a stat arb model generally includes a beta multiple with which to price two or more correlated assets, with the multiply sign often called “star” and the relative value coefficient called the “beta.” Because the style of trading within the firm when we first started out was predominantly market making and relative value trading, the name stuck.

Today our traders employ a great variety of trading styles and varying degrees of automation. With the support of a highly specialised management team our aim is to keep ourselves at the forefront of the trading industry.

our
people

OUR PEOPLE

Chong Shi

Trader

I have been a proprietary trader for 9 years. At the start of my career I met Don and Mark at a previous firm where Don became my mentor. The first seven years I traded equity indices, bonds, commodity and currency futures, both in an outright and statistical arbitrage manner. In 2015 I moved to London for a few years and upon returning back to Sydney in 2017 I joined Star Beta and transitioned into trading Cryptocurrencies. Having worked at different prop firms, I understand the importance of working with the right people. For me, the right firm is the one where I can trust that management are motivated to stay ahead of the game and explore new and creative ways to find edges for their traders.

OUR PEOPLE

Yoni Weissberg

Trader

I started working at Star Beta in early 2018 and have been mentored, encouraged and continuously met with support when seeking to develop my trading and pushing myself to the limits of my ability. I’ve also found that management has a sense of curiosity about markets, which means the firm is willing to explore new products and strategies, rather than remain entrenched in the status quo. For the trader, that means potentially large and ongoing growth opportunities, limited only by talent and work ethic.

OUR PEOPLE

Tony Wen

Trader

I have always been passionate about the financial markets and after graduation from the University of Sydney I started my career in a proprietary trading firm where I was trading fixed income and FX futures. In late 2017 I heard about the trading that Star Beta was doing in cryptocurrencies and fortunately applied for a trading role with them. This young, developing market provides so many opportunities due to the inefficiencies and edges that Star Beta has provided to me. I am truly grateful for the opportunity that Star Beta has given me.