FBR Expands Institutional Trading Group

ARLINGTON, Va., Aug. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co., Inc., an operating subsidiary of Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group, Inc. today announced that Will Cannon, Eric Dobbie, Derrill (Tad) Pratt and Anne Turner have joined FBR's Institutional Brokerage, building upon the company's trading platform of nearly 60 sales and equity traders. These four individuals bring with them a combined 60-plus years of experience in the securities industry.

Will Cannon, with almost 20 years of experience in the institutional equity market, joins FBR as Senior Vice President, Sales Trading. Most recently, he served as Director of Equity Sales Trading for Wachovia Capital Markets. Prior to Wachovia, Mr. Cannon was Vice President, Equity Sales Trading with Instinet Corp. and served as President of Hemitage Capital Corporation for six years.

Anne Turner, previously Vice President, Equity Capital Markets-Corporate and Executive Trading for Wachovia Capital Markets, comes to FBR with more than 10 years of experience in the financial services industry, having held positions with Bank of America, Scott & Stringfellow and most notably as Vice President, Nasdaq Agency Trading at Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc. Ms. Turner joins FBR, specializing in Corporate Trading as Vice President, Sales Trading.

Eric Dobbie joins FBR's Equity Trading department as Senior Vice President. He comes to the firm with more than 20 years of experience in the financial services industry, 16 of which he served as a trader for major investment banking firms. Most recently, Mr. Dobbie was Director & Senior Listed Position Trader for Wachovia Capital Markets and was also a NASDAQ Trader for Oppenheimer & Co., Inc.

As Senior Vice President, Equity Trading, Derrill (Tad) Pratt comes to FBR and brings 15 years of experience in NASDAQ and NYSE equity trading. Prior to joining FBR, Mr. Pratt was Director of NASDAQ Trading and most recently was Director of Listed Trading at Wachovia Capital Markets. He also served as OTC NASDAQ Position Trader for Bear Stearns & Company Inc. and Raymond James & Associates/Eagle Asset Management.

Cannon, Dobbie, Pratt and Turner will be based out of the firm's Arlington headquarters.

Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group, Inc. provides investment banking*, institutional brokerage*, asset management, and private wealth through its operating subsidiaries and invests in mortgage-related assets and merchant banking opportunities. FBR focuses capital and financial expertise on eight industry sectors: consumer, diversified industrials, energy and natural resources, financial institutions, healthcare, insurance, real estate, and technology, media and telecommunications. FBR is headquartered in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area with offices in Arlington, Va., Boston, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Irvine, London, New York, Phoenix, San Francisco and Seattle. Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group, Inc. is the parent company of First NLC Financial Services, Inc., a non-conforming residential mortgage originator headquartered in Deerfield Beach, Florida. For more information, visit http://www.fbr.com/.

*Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co., Inc.