The bank said it had appointed Yassine Bouhara, head of equity derivatives, as head of cash equities trading globally alongside his existing role.
A number of other banks have combined these two departments, with derivatives trade becoming a big money maker at a time when margins in cash equities have fallen.
Banks also wanted to bring corporate derivatives closer to equity capital markets, as companies become more sophisticated in using derivatives to do things such as hedge their exposure to currencies, investments and loans.
"The combination of cash and derivatives trading establishes a common management template across our core businesses," said Anshu Jain, head of global markets and a member of the Deutsche Bank Group Executive Committee.
"Combining cash and derivatives businesses has paid rich dividends in our credit, rates and foreign exchange franchises," he said.
Trading helped drive Deutsche Bank's third-quarter net income up almost 50 percent. The bank's usual strength in fixed income was overshadowed by equities, with sales and trading revenue rising 70 percent from the second quarter to 1.02 billion euros.
Equity derivatives fuelled the result, which outperformed big US rivals, analysts said.
Ralph Reynolds will become global head of equity proprietary trading and will relocate to New York. Reynolds joined Deutsche Bank in 1998 and was appointed global head of cash equities trading in 2002.
Deutsche Bank said on Friday that proprietary trading recovered strongly in the third quarter from the levels of the same period last year, against a background of favourable equity markets and a greater focus on "selective trading opportunities".