A number of financial institutions including UBS and Deutsche Bank have agreed to provide details of trades on dark pools.
Other banks involved in the new initiative include Citi, JPMorgan Casenove, Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse.
According to Markit, a provider of global financial information, it will collect data from the banks on a daily basis as part of a wider strategy to increase transparency within the industry.
Information will be validated then be available on Markit’s website the following afternoon.
Data will only feature trades matched on systems such as CS Crossfinder, JPM-X, UBS Pin and DBA.
John Serocold of the Association for Financial Markets in Europe, said: “This initiative is designed to bring further transparency into this area of over-the-counter trading by providing verified data where previously there has been only speculation, and by giving a clear indication of the actual levels of trading in crossing engines.”
“As a further step in support of making more information freely available to all market participants, it should provide useful data for the MiFID review being undertaken this year.”
The new system went live yesterday (May 24th) following two weeks of testing.
Showing posts with label dark pools. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dark pools. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
NYSE calls for crackdown on dark pools and their brokers
NYSE Euronext said it will propose to the Securities and Exchange Commission restrictions on dark pools aimed at getting investors better prices on their trades. Duncan Niederauer, CEO of NYSE Euronext, said the SEC should establish rules to govern how a trade is handled by a dark pool when it doesn't quote a price in advance. "They should have a pre-trade transparency-reporting requirement," Niederauer said.
Friday, April 16, 2010
SEC proposes new trading system
New proposals to introduce a trading system which would enable greater analysis of participants and their activity have been unveiled by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
According to the regulator, ‘larger’ traders would be required to make a filing to the SEC before receiving a number of identification.
Broker dealers would then receive the number, which would enable more efficient tracking of traders and their activity, the organisation explained.
Mary L Schapiro, SEC chairman, said: “This rule is designed to strengthen our oversight of the markets and protect investors in the process.
“It would give us prompt access to trading information from large traders so we can better analyze the data and investigate potentially illegal trading activity.”
The SEC defines a ‘large’ trader as an individual or firm whose transactions exceed $20 million or two million shares on any calendar day.
Previously, the commission has proposed a number of changes to legislation to improve fairness within the trading markets.
They included banning unfiltered access to markets and providing more transparency to liquidity dark pools.
According to the regulator, ‘larger’ traders would be required to make a filing to the SEC before receiving a number of identification.
Broker dealers would then receive the number, which would enable more efficient tracking of traders and their activity, the organisation explained.
Mary L Schapiro, SEC chairman, said: “This rule is designed to strengthen our oversight of the markets and protect investors in the process.
“It would give us prompt access to trading information from large traders so we can better analyze the data and investigate potentially illegal trading activity.”
The SEC defines a ‘large’ trader as an individual or firm whose transactions exceed $20 million or two million shares on any calendar day.
Previously, the commission has proposed a number of changes to legislation to improve fairness within the trading markets.
They included banning unfiltered access to markets and providing more transparency to liquidity dark pools.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
SEC moves toward tracking high-frequency firms' trades
The Securities and Exchange Commission is conducting a cost-benefit analysis of tracking transactions of high-frequency trading firms. The agency is expected to move forward with the effort, sources said. The idea is to give each firm a unique identifier that would allow the SEC to monitor traders not registered as a broker-dealer or a market maker. "The SEC can get any data they want, period, but right now it's kind of cumbersome because they have to go through the clearing firm," said a securities lawyer. "This would make it more automated."
The agency is considering reporting requirements that would add transparency in the trading on so-called dark pools, private electronic platforms where large blocks of stock are traded anonymously.
The SEC also has proposed to ban "naked access" for high-speed traders, which allows firms to buy and sell stocks on exchanges using a broker's computer code without authorities knowing who is making the trades.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
UBS to launch new electronic trading facility in Europe
Financial services provider UBS is to launch a “dark pool” Multilateral Trading Facility (MTF) to allow cross trading in Europe.
According to the firm, UBS MTF will work alongside the existing UBS Price Improvement Network (UBS PIN) by offering a wider array of liquidity to its members.
The MTF is still awaiting regulatory approval and will be based on a Central Counterparty (CCP) model, which will allow investors to mitigate certain amounts of risk.
Dr Robert Barnes, head of Market Structures at UBS Investment Bank, said: "As we developed the architecture and interactivity model for UBS MTF, we were committed to greater simplicity, lower transaction costs and reduced market impact.
“As a global bank and one of the top equities trading firms, we aim to leverage our broad and deep market experience to help us to bring innovation, quality liquidity and a unique value proposition to our clients.”
All completed transactions will be reported in real-time to Markit Boat following the trade.
Previously, global investment bank Nomura announced the launch of NX MTF in December 2009, the first broker-owned dark pool MTF of its kind.
According to the firm, UBS MTF will work alongside the existing UBS Price Improvement Network (UBS PIN) by offering a wider array of liquidity to its members.
The MTF is still awaiting regulatory approval and will be based on a Central Counterparty (CCP) model, which will allow investors to mitigate certain amounts of risk.
Dr Robert Barnes, head of Market Structures at UBS Investment Bank, said: "As we developed the architecture and interactivity model for UBS MTF, we were committed to greater simplicity, lower transaction costs and reduced market impact.
“As a global bank and one of the top equities trading firms, we aim to leverage our broad and deep market experience to help us to bring innovation, quality liquidity and a unique value proposition to our clients.”
All completed transactions will be reported in real-time to Markit Boat following the trade.
Previously, global investment bank Nomura announced the launch of NX MTF in December 2009, the first broker-owned dark pool MTF of its kind.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Goldman Sachs defends market practices in report to SEC
In a lengthy report to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Goldman Sachs Group defended high-frequency trading, dark pools, short-selling and other market strategies. "The investing community (especially retail) has benefited from the evolving market structure and industry competition," Goldman said in the report. Lawmakers have criticized the practices and are looking into ways to increase their transparency.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Dark Pool Trade Limit Said to Be Cut 95% in SEC Plan
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will propose toughening its limits on the amount of anonymous trading carried out on stock platforms called dark pools, according to two people familiar with the deliberations.
The commission will propose lowering the amount of daily volume in a company’s shares that can be executed in private on any of the networks to 0.25 percent from 5 percent at a hearing tomorrow in Washington, said the people, who declined to be identified because the discussions weren’t public. John Nester, an SEC spokesman, declined to comment.
The rule change may curtail the number of transactions on dark pools, off-exchange platforms run by firms such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Getco LLC that have drawn scrutiny from Democratic Senators Ted Kaufman of Delaware and Charles Schumer of New York. The systems usually shut down trading in a security when they approach the current 5 percent limit.
The commission will propose lowering the amount of daily volume in a company’s shares that can be executed in private on any of the networks to 0.25 percent from 5 percent at a hearing tomorrow in Washington, said the people, who declined to be identified because the discussions weren’t public. John Nester, an SEC spokesman, declined to comment.
The rule change may curtail the number of transactions on dark pools, off-exchange platforms run by firms such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Getco LLC that have drawn scrutiny from Democratic Senators Ted Kaufman of Delaware and Charles Schumer of New York. The systems usually shut down trading in a security when they approach the current 5 percent limit.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Kaufman Praises SEC Proposed Ban On Flash Orders, But Seeks Broad Review
Yesterday, in a speech on the Senate floor, Sen. Ted Kaufman (D-DE) praised the SEC for its proposal to ban flash orders and for agreeing to undertake a broad review of high-tech trading practices.
But it's clear from Kaufman's remarks that he's keeping the pressure on the SEC to carry out a much broader review of rapid technological developments that have transformed trading and led to computer-driven millisecond speeds.
"I'm hopeful that last week's action was a true beginning," Sen. Kaufman said. "Banning flash orders is only a small—though significant—step in the review of recent market developments," stated Kaufman in the speech.
In late August, Kaufman sent a letter to SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro demanding a comprehensive independent "zero-based regulatory review" of a broad range of market structure issues. Kaufman said he is now pleased that the SEC was taking the review seriously. Schapiro and other SEC officials have indicated the Commission is reviewing these matters. (In her response to Kaufman, Schapiro indicated that the SEC is looking at Regulation ATS threshold levels, direct market access, high frequency trading and colocation).
Kaufman is concerned that the SEC has approved a number of innovations such as dark pools, high frequency trading and collocation, in a piecemeal manner. Specifically, he cited the rise of high frequency trading — a phenomenon, which has been building for many years but allows buy and sell orders to trade in milliseconds. He also singled out the emergence of dark pools, "which permit confidential in growing volumes to take place away from the public eye. We now have some trading firms' computer servers enjoying the advantage of onsite location at an exchange, a practice known as co-location." Later on in the speech, Kaufman pointed out that when exchanges began to allow traders to place their computers on-site and to allow direct market access, the SEC did not require approval.
But it's clear from Kaufman's remarks that he's keeping the pressure on the SEC to carry out a much broader review of rapid technological developments that have transformed trading and led to computer-driven millisecond speeds.
"I'm hopeful that last week's action was a true beginning," Sen. Kaufman said. "Banning flash orders is only a small—though significant—step in the review of recent market developments," stated Kaufman in the speech.
In late August, Kaufman sent a letter to SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro demanding a comprehensive independent "zero-based regulatory review" of a broad range of market structure issues. Kaufman said he is now pleased that the SEC was taking the review seriously. Schapiro and other SEC officials have indicated the Commission is reviewing these matters. (In her response to Kaufman, Schapiro indicated that the SEC is looking at Regulation ATS threshold levels, direct market access, high frequency trading and colocation).
Kaufman is concerned that the SEC has approved a number of innovations such as dark pools, high frequency trading and collocation, in a piecemeal manner. Specifically, he cited the rise of high frequency trading — a phenomenon, which has been building for many years but allows buy and sell orders to trade in milliseconds. He also singled out the emergence of dark pools, "which permit confidential in growing volumes to take place away from the public eye. We now have some trading firms' computer servers enjoying the advantage of onsite location at an exchange, a practice known as co-location." Later on in the speech, Kaufman pointed out that when exchanges began to allow traders to place their computers on-site and to allow direct market access, the SEC did not require approval.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
SEC to increase scrutiny of dark pools, Schapiro says
Mary Schapiro, chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, requested that her staff look closely at the effects of dark pools. "This lack of transparency has the potential to undermine public confidence in the equity markets, particularly if the volume of trading activity in dark pools increases substantially," Schapiro said.
more at
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
NYSE Euronext to urge stricter regulation of dark pools
Lawmakers are expected to hear testimony today from a NYSE Euronext executive who wants the Securities and Exchange Commission to regulate dark pools like exchanges. Critics have been scrutinizing dark pools because the SEC gave the green light to new order types at BATS Exchange and Nasdaq OMX. The order types route trades through dark pools. SIFMA asked the commission to look more closely at the practice.
more at
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