BIDS Trading, the newly formed alternative trading system (ATS) designed to increase competition and liquidity in the U.S. equity block trading market, has announced that it has established a direct connection with an additional electronic trading platform: UBS Pinpoint.
“As one of the original partners in the BIDS Trading consortium, we can say that both the quality of liquidity in the BIDS ATS and its level of participation are high. Connecting Pinpoint to the BIDS ATS is another way we can provide our clients with access to institutional block liquidity -- it is a complement to UBS PIN,” says Will Sterling, head of direct execution, UBS.
“Having Pinpoint connect to BIDS Trading serves to reinforce our sponsored access model,” says Tim Mahoney, Chief Executive Officer, BIDS Trading. “As the BIDS ATS continues to grow, we remain focused on our mission to unite the buy- and sell-side by developing a truly open, efficient marketplace for traders seeking to execute large block orders in an anonymous environment.”
This advancement further increases the number of buy-side firms that can access BIDS Trading’s non-displayed liquidity pool. In addition to UBS’s Pinpoint, BIDS Trading has direct connections with FlexTrade Systems' FlexTRADER, Goldman Sachs Execution & Clearing's REDIPlus, JPMorgan’s Neovest, and Morgan Stanley’s Passport.
A growing number of sell-side and sponsored buy-side firms are now able to anonymously trade large blocks of US equities via the BIDS ATS, increasing volume and liquidity on the BIDS platform. During the past six months, daily volumes on BIDS Trading have been steadily increasing. Over 2 billion shares have been executed since the platform’s formal launch in April 2007.
The BIDS ATS is open to sell-side firms and their sponsored buy-side firms, as well as algorithms, hedge funds and program traders. BIDS Trading offers customisable tools to empower end-users to successfully negotiate trades: information disclosure and minimum block size are controlled by the trader and users can choose who to trade with based on past trading behavior.
The BIDS ATS is accessible to all qualifying broker-dealers and their institutional clients, subject to basic credit and regulatory considerations. Use of the system as a block trading service is not exclusive or subject to volume commitments and each participant may continue to use any ATS, ECN or exchange service that supports the trading needs of its customer base.