The Great Dexia Debate – a resolution

Those of you who follow this blog will know that we have been thinking hard about how we should best treat stocks that are listed on multiple order books within Euronext (see The Great Dexia Debate). Below is a note from the labs on the planned changes to address the problem. Given the aim of this site is to examine fragmentation between primary exchanges and the new MTFs I think this approach achieves that goal. FFI for Dual Listed Stocks Around 2% of our stock coverage includes... Read More

The plot thickens

Interesting day yesterday in the ever-changing world of fragmentation. During the MTF v Traditional Exchanges debate at TradeTech Liquidity it seemed like there were two strategies emerging. The big primary markets are trying to leverage their distribution and multi-asset capabilities whilst the smaller, more nimble, MTFs are looking to focus around specific areas of the European equities market. The big boys also cast doubt over the viability of EMCF (owned by Fortis) which acts... Read More

VWAP is dead – long live FWAP

I have been having all sorts of conversations with people about different ways that the FFI might be used. One such area concerns how fragmentation distorts common trading benchmarks such as Volume Weighted Average Price (VWAP). This is commonly used to measure a broker’s ability to execute a large block of shares over the day without impacting the market price of the stock concerned. By comparing each trade that comprises the original order with the average market price at... Read More

20,000 Hits – Wow!

Today marks the end of the first week for the FFI. The response we’ve had since its launch has exceeded even our most optimistic expectations and so thanks to everyone who has been involved in making it happen. It is very rewarding to be a part of something that really seems to have captured people’s attention and imagination. We have had over 20,000 hits on the site this week and amongst them we’ve had registrations from right across Europe and the US and I even heard that... Read More

Think I’ll do my Xmas shopping at PLUS Markets this year

Yesterday, while looking at the PLUS Markets website I noticed that they are now advertising mobile phones and coffee makers. (Check it out at http://www.plusmarketsgroup.com/PLUS_myplus.shtml). When I wrote yesterday that the trading landscape was still to undergo fundamental change I didn’t think that alternative venues would be diversifying into the household goods market for a few more years yet. Anyway, thanks to PLUS, the Mrs and one of the boys are sorted for this... Read More

BATS Gets its First Slice of the FTSE Pie

One of the great things about fragmentation is that there are no clear answers, although I have to admit it can make achieving consensus quite difficult at times. Thanks to all the input we’re getting, the Great Dexia Debate continues to rage internally within Fidessa and I almost felt the need to use the baseball bat kindly given to me by BATS Europe to help express my own viewpoint more clearly. On this subject, yesterday was a good day for BATS as it traded nearly 2%... Read More

Fragmentation within NYSE Euronext – The Great Dexia Debate

Since the official launch of this site yesterday, we have had thousands of visitors and many emails with questions and suggestions (thanks for the input, great to see you are reading it.) One area that a number of you have asked about concerns our treatment of NYSE Euronext - currently we treat each sub-market separately. Your feedback has reignited an internal debate as to what “fragmentation” really means.  The original goal was to take into account all the order... Read More

Steady Start for BATS and Nasdaq OMX but LSE still needs to be worried

Now that BATS and Nasdaq OMX Europe have been operational for a short while, it looks like they still have a bit of work to do before they can get into the same league as a Chi-X and Turquoise. Both BATS and Nasdaq OMX Europe, however, have yet to extend their stock coverage fully and they have a number of firms waiting to be connected to their platforms. Sage Market Share But if the LSE thinks it can sit back and ride out the fragmentation storm then it should look at what’s... Read More

MTF Price War Hots Up 2

Interesting to read Jeremy Grant’s piece in the FT today about the LSE charging 1 basis point on any trade that arrives from an external trading venue such as Nasdaq OM Europe. This will also apply to BATS Europe and other MTFs when they make similar onward routing services available from their platforms next year. Nasdaq has previously branded this move by the LSE as uncompetitive, but Nasdaq’s own aggressive price model (launched last week) was criticised by the other MTFs... Read More