The first week of limited trading on alternative venue operator Chi-X Canada’s second venue attracted liquidity in the ten stocks traded, while new electronic trading rules will have minimal impact on the market, according to Chi-X Canada CEO Dan Kessous.
Speaking to theTRADEnews.com, Kessous said the ten stocks available for trading on the CX2 alternative trading system (ATS) was yesterday extended to 13, before trading in all stocks listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and its Venture market.
The platform has sought to wrest market share from competing Canadian ATSs with a pricing structure that rewards liquidity takers.
One stock in particular – The Horizons BetaPro S&P/TSX Global Gold Bear Plus exchange traded fund (HSU) – attracted more liquidity on CX2 than any other venue in Canada on one day during the first week.
“Both retail and institution participants have reacted well to our new liquidity removal pricing model, one day we captured 30% of average daily volume in HSU, which was higher than other venue in Canada,” Kessous said.
Amendments to existing electronic trading rules in Canada came into effect in March to ensure entities trading on electronic markets document and maintain sufficient risk management controls. Kessous believes this will have limited impact on electronic trading in Canada as most firms subject to the rules were already compliant.
“The electronic trading rules that came into effect at the beginning of March will not be enforced until June to allow time to implement the require risk checks,” he said. “At Chi-X, we have not seen any impact due to the new electronic trading rules.”