Agency brokerage Instinet has launched a dark pool for US options, based on the capabilities it acquired as part of its purchase of derivatives trading technology provider TORC Financial in 2009.
The new platform, called Instinet Options CBX, is designed to support mid-point crosses and allow for sub-increment prints on exchanges where permitted.
According to Brendan Logue, head of options product management, Instinet, Options CBX will be different to existing options dark pools such as those offered by Ballista and 3D Markets because of the way it can be integrated to the buy-side's existing workflow.
“Rather than building a standalone dark pool, we have created Options CBX to complement our existing options execution capabilities such as our algorithms and smart order router,” Logue told theTRADEnews.com. “Although customers can rest block orders in Options CBX, they can also pass through our dark pool on the way to displayed exchanges, as part of their overall execution strategy.”
Logue adds that the platform has been live for two weeks and has built up liquidity by signing up a wide range of clients to use the pool.
“People have been accessing the pool through our Newport front-end execution management system, smart order routing or directly, which has given us an interesting and diverse mix of liquidity,” added Logue.
Since its purchase of TORC in August 2009, Instinet has been leveraging the firm's options trading technology comprising algorithms, smart order routing, FIX routing, risk control and multi-asset analytics technologies.