Cantor Fitzgerald just hired a trio of top traders

Cantor Fitzgerald, the privately-owned investment bank, has hired a trio of top equity traders from a rival.

Nicholas Struk, Robert DeRosa and Mike Cornette quit Australian bank Macquarie late last month and are set to join Cantor after a period of gardening leave, according to people familiar with the matter.

Cantor Fitzgerald declined to comment.

Struk and DeRose previously co-headed US sales trading at Macquarie, while Cornette was head of US trading.

The traders all joined Macquarie in 2012, and also worked together at Bear Stearns, the investment bank acquired in a rescue takeover by JPMorgan early in the financial crisis. Macquarie declined to comment.

Cantor Fitzgerald, led by chief executive and chairman Howard Lutnick, has been on a hiring spree over the past few years.

In 2015, it has announced hires in equity research, portfolio solutions, fixed income sales, wealth management, sports financing, debt capital markets, equity sales, mortgage-backed securities and public finance.

Equities trading has been a bright spot for Wall Street banks this year.

The top ten banks made $24.6 billion from equities sales and trading in the first half, up 18% from the same period last year, according to Coalition, a business-intelligence provider.

In contrast, revenues in fixed income, currencies and commodities, and traditional investment-banking activities, such as advising on mergers and acquisitions and capital raisings, fell.