Smartpool link reflects Instinet’s open door policy

Instinet Europe, the European arm of the agency brokerage owned by Japan’s Nomura Holdings, has connected to Smartpool, the non-displayed multilateral trading facility from exchange group NYSE Euronext.
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Instinet Europe, the European arm of the agency brokerage owned by Japan’s Nomura Holdings, has connected to Smartpool, the non-displayed multilateral trading facility from exchange group NYSE Euronext.

The deal, which means Instinet Europe’s institutional clients will have access to Smartpool from today, is part of the broker’s strategy to offer connectivity to a full range of equity trading venues across the region.

”We have always taken the view that we are not going to be observers and wait for evidence that a venue is worth connecting to,” Richard Balarkas, CEO of Instinet Europe, told theTRADEnews.com. “It’s so cheap and easy to connect that we are happy to connect to as many as we can. If there’s nothing in there, then fine, the cost is minimal.”

Smartpool, which started trading today, offers anonymous trading to 15 European markets and will also give participants the opportunity to route to Euronext central order book comprising the group’s lit markets in Lisbon, Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels.

Balarkas believes that the importance of independent dark pools will come into sharper focus this year, at the expense of broker-run dark pools.

“Our trading philosophy is not to hoard liquidity in our internal network, rather to go to as many destinations as possible to get the best results for our clients,” he said. “More and more people will be adopting this philosophy as they give up on alternative policies that rely upon prop trading. As that model continues to fail, more will look to connect to external venues and see that dark liquidity can open doors to a huge amount of latent liquidity.”

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