Omega ATS Drops Subscription Fee

Omega ATS, low-cost alternative trading system for Canadian exchange-listed equities and fixed income instruments, is dropping its standard pricing and subscriber model. As of May 2, 2011, Omega ATS will no longer charge monthly $350 CDN subscriber fee allowing all subscribers to maintain their Omega subscription for free.

In a press statement, Mike Bignell, president of Omega ATS, comments: “Our new fee structure has been designed to ensure that smaller players no longer subsidize the largest market participants. Under the new plan, the vast majority of our clients will see a significant reduction in fees. Our new fee structure enables us to continue to live up to our ethos of creating a level playing field for all, and we remain committed to offering a lower-cost alternative in order to make the Canadian trading landscape more transparent and efficient.”

Omega has also announced a new pricing schedule for TSX Venture securities:

· For all TSXV securities where the price per share is below $1.00, the fee will be $0.0008 per share charged to the active side. Passive executed orders will receive a rebate of $0.0006 per share. Where the price per share is $1.00 or more the fee will be $0.0020 per share charged to the active side. In this case, passive executed orders will receive a rebate of $0.0016 per share.

· For all fixed income and listed debenture transactions, the fee remains $0.05 per $1000 of face value charged to the active side. No fee will be charged, or rebate paid, for passive orders that execute with the exception of shares listed on the TSXV. In addition, there will be no fee charged for orders placed in Omega ATS that do not execute. Internal crosses will also continue to be subject to an indefinite fee holiday and will not pay any rebates.

· For all TSX and foreign equities where the trade price per share is $1.00 or more, the fee will continue to be $0.0007 per share charged to the active or ‘take’ side. Where the trade price per share is below $1.00, the fee will be $0.0002 per share charged to the active side.

· Fees for market data will be charged at $2.85 per month per user for Level 1 real-time data while full depth-of-book Level 2 real-time data is also subject to an indefinite fee holiday.

Ivy is Editor-at-Large for Advanced Trading and Wall Street & Technology. Ivy is responsible for writing in-depth feature articles, daily blogs and news articles with a focus on automated trading in the capital markets. As an industry expert, Ivy has reported on a myriad ... View Full Bio