Asset Classes

BATS unveils plans for US options exchange

BATS Global Markets, the operator of US equities exchange BATS, has announced plans to launch a US equity options exchange, and is targeting live trading on the platform in early 2010.

SOR delays thwart BlocSec growth

Ned Phillips, CEO of Asian dark pool BlocSec, has acknowledged that plans to bring sell-side liquidity on stream are taking longer than expected, but he denied that the crossing network had stopped taking on new clients.

European tick sizes: a compromise too far?

While the industry has largely applauded last week’s agreement between exchanges, multilateral trading facilities (MTFs) and brokers to harmonise tick sizes across Europe, many acknowledge it is only a first step, and more effort is needed to create true unity.

Approval process delays BNP Paribas HK dark pool

BNP Paribas has pushed back the Hong Kong launch of its proprietary dark pool, BNP Paribas Internal eXchange (BIX), to Q4 this year because of a longer-than-expected approval process, according to Quentin Limouzi, the bank’s execution product head for Asia and Japan.

Spanish exchange becomes fully electronic

Bolsas y Mercados Españoles (BME), the Spanish stock exchange, has announced that it will transfer the remaining shares traded by open outcry to an electronic system.

Liquidnet Europe’s traded value up 30% in Q2

Buy-side dark crossing network Liquidnet’s total principal traded in Europe in Q2 2009 was £13.38 billion, a 30% increase over Q1 and a 21% year-on-year rise. The figure equates to an average daily principal traded of £219.3 million.

Nasdaq MTF to launch dark routing, employ EBBO

Nasdaq OMX Europe, a multilateral trading facility (MTF) for European equities, has announced enhancements to its order routing functionality and dark pool.

MTFs change tick sizes in response to FESE agreement

Multilateral trading facilities (MTFs) Chi-X Europe and Burgundy will change tick sizes for certain indices following last week’s agreement between the Federation of European Securities Exchanges (FESE), the London Investment Banking Association (LIBA) and four MTFs to harmonise tick sizes across Europe.

ITG adds MTFs to European TCA offering

Agency broker and trading technology provider ITG will now base its European transaction cost analysis (TCA) service on consolidated data from both primary exchanges and multilateral trading facilities (MTFs).