Agency broker Instinet Europe has become the seventh liquidity partner for TQ Lens, the non-displayed liquidity aggregation service run by Turquoise, a pan-European multilateral trading facility (MTF).
TQ Lens – which executed its first trades yesterday – offers central, anonymous access and routing capabilities to dark liquidity from its liquidity partners. All orders are executed with immediate post-trade transparency.
Instinet Europe joins existing liquidity partners Bank of America Merrill Lynch, CA Cheuvreux, Citadel Securities, Citi, Deutsche Bank and Nomura. Central counterparty services for TQ Lens are provided by pan-European clearing house EuroCCP.
“We have had a very encouraging response to TQ Lens; it is clear that our members have a genuine and growing need to trade large orders and illiquid stocks anonymously and cost-effectively,” said Eli Lederman, CEO of Turquoise, in a statement. “Executions on displayed markets are taking place at smaller sizes and a higher frequency than ever before, which does not suit every trading strategy.”
“TQ Lens is an important offering for investors seeking to access otherwise fragmented liquidity, particularly when executing large orders,” added Instinet Europe CEO Richard Balarkas. “Turquoise members will be able to send block orders to access Instinet’s institutional liquidity, while Instinet’s clients will also have the choice of routing their orders to access the liquidity provided by the TQ Lens liquidity partners.”
It was revealed yesterday that Turquoise appointed UBS earlier this year to find a potential buyer after less than a year of operation. Turquoise officially opened for business in September last year, following a soft launch period that began in August.