The first day of trading on pan-European trading platform Turquoise has gone well, according to two member banks that placed orders on the platform.
“It has gone well. As far as we can see it has certainly been a successful start,” Brian Schwieger, director of EMEA execution services and head of algorithmic execution, Merrill Lynch, told theTRADEnews.com. “Turquoise started with 10 stocks today and we have either traded or at least had orders in all 10 names.”
He adds, “We took part in their opening auction as well as continuous trading. Everything seemed to go smoothly.”
The first trade on Turquoise was 500 shares in German electronics and engineering firm Siemens at EUR 76, according to Turquoise spokesman Adrian Flook. He confirmed that the first day had gone well. “It has gone exactly as planned – every one of the members that has hooked up to Turquoise traded today,” he said. “Volumes were low, but you would expect that on day one.”
George Andreadis, head of Advanced Execution Services (AES) liquidity strategy, Europe at Credit Suisse, agreed that the launch had been trouble-free. He likened the initial limited trading period to a testing phase. “What we are really looking for is to make sure that from the trading perspective everything is going smoothly and that over the next few days clearing and settlement proceeds the same way,” he said.
Banks reported that they were easing their way into trading on Turquoise rather than rushing. “We are smart order routing to Turquoise but not all of our flow is being routed there from day one,” said Andreadis. “We would rather make sure everything works as advertised before inadvertently exposing clients to any risks.”
Turquoise began trading today with five stocks each in the German and UK markets. The five UK stocks are BP, Vodafone, Royal Dutch Shell, National Express Group and IMI. The latter two will trade in the dark book. The German stocks are Siemens, Allianz, Daimler, Salzgitter and ALTANA, with Salzgitter and ALTANA trading in the dark.
Five French and Dutch stocks will be added on 20 August; Swiss, Finnish and Swedish stocks on 21 August; and Austrian, Belgian Danish, Irish, Norwegian and Portuguese stocks on 22 August.