Turquoise clings on to dark pool lead

Turquoise, the multilateral trading facility (MTF) majority owned by the London Stock Exchange, has reported strong performance in its dark pool for the second month running.
By None

Turquoise, the multilateral trading facility (MTF) majority owned by the London Stock Exchange, has reported strong performance in its dark pool for the second month running.

According to figures from data supplier Thomson Reuters' Equity Market Share Reporter, Turquoise's dark pool has traded a total of €4.18 billion in European and Swiss equities up until 28 July, compared to Chi-X Europe's Chi-Delta dark pool, which has amassed €3.99 billion in turnover so far this month.

Before June 2010, Chi-Delta had held its position as the largest dark MTF in Europe for seven months.

But last May, information leakage concerns over the post-trade data published by some dark pools dented Chi-Delta's volumes. The fears originated from a white paper published by US agency broker Themis Trading titled ”Data theft on Wall Street'. While the paper was targeted at US-run dark pools, European traders also began to take note.

Turquoise moved quickly to respond to the Themis paper, noting that it had taken steps to make its dark pool “safer” and confirming that it does not disclose specific details of dark orders in the post-trade data.

Both Chi-X Europe and fellow MTF BATS Europe took steps to remove potentially sensitive information from their post-trade data feeds soon after their volumes dipped.

“Clients are responding to the growing pool of liquidity and expressing their support for our functionality roadmap which will offer participants greater control and choice when trading in our dark pool,” said David Lester, Turquoise's CEO.

Lester added that the MTF has also seen steady growth for its lit market, particularly concentrated in mid- and small-caps.

In a report released earlier this week, European agency brokerage CA Cheuvreux found that MTFs have grown their market share through less-liquid indices in the second quarter of 2010.

“With growing and diverse liquidity in both our order books, we have positive momentum leading up to the launch of our new trading platform,” added Lester. “Given the number of clients and prospects actively testing the new system, we expect the growth to continue once we switch over to Millennium Exchange in October.”

«