Buy-side owned block trading venue sees record quarter

Dark pool led by the former head of equity trading Americas at Blackrock sets quarterly record for total shares traded.

Luminex Trading & Analytics has set a quarterly record for total shares traded within its block trading venue, while leading the ATS industry for average trade size in August.

The buy-side owned trading venue - led by the former head of equity trading Americas at BlackRock, Jonathan Clark - said the third quarter was its most successful since its inception in 2015.

In August, Luminex led all ATS venues with an average trade size of 69,299 shares in FINRA’s 10K+ and $200K+ category and 47,597 shares in the $200K+ category, a record for the firm.

Clark explained from day one Luminex’s goal has been to become the safe, transparent and cost-effective block trading utility many on the buy side felt was missing from the industry.

“That vision is increasingly becoming a reality. Clients are sending more order flow than ever to Luminex, resulting in record volumes, fill rates and average trade sizes on our platform,” he said.

Luminex was launched to provide trading participants with a more efficient method of trading blocks on an anonymous and non-quoted basis to help users source liquidity and minimise market impact.

“With the momentum we're seeing, coupled with our recent decision to refine our matching model, we expect to see our unique trading venue offer even more value to the institutional trading community over the coming months,” Clark added. 

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