Swiss Stock Exchange Teams with Liquidnet

Swiss Six Exchange is working with buy-side dark pool operator Liquidnet on a new electronic trading platform to let Six members execute block trades in European securities.

The agreement will give Six members access to Liquidnet’s institutional liquidity pool and in return Liquidnet’s members will benefit from the additional liquidity from Six members.

As of Q2 2011, Swiss exchange members will be able to use their existing front-end systems to trade in around 3,600 international securities, covering, initially, Switzerland, the UK, France, Germany and the Netherlands.

The Swiss Exchange said that after minor changes are made to its standard trading interface, members will be able direct flow to the new service. Accessing the newly available non-displayed liquidity will be simple, with members just needing to update their clearing and settlement instructions for international securities.

In the release, Christian Katz, CEO, Six Swiss Exchange, stated: "This agreement with Liquidnet delivers clear value to our members through the interaction with the buy-side who are party to Liquidnet's non-displayed block liquidity pool. Having access to this additional liquidity will greatly simplify and accelerate our members' trading activities allowing for improved investment returns by simply adopting a strategy of directing more order flow to this block trading pool."

Liquidnet will operate as the Swiss Stock Exchange's dark pool and will offer its members unique access to the latent and block liquidity from the Members of the Six exchange, according to a Liquidnet spokesman’s emailed comments. “Our two separate but connecting execution venues will combine our Members' liquidity with the liquidity in the markets served by SIX to provide greater efficiency in getting into and out of positions,” stated the spokesman in a media advisory. “This partnership opens new markets and creates more opportunities for our Members to seek alpha and enhance their performance,” the spokesman further stated.

In the same releaae, John Barker managing director of Liquidnet Europe, said: “This was a new opportunity for both Liquidnet and Six members to access the wholesale market and execute large block trades with the global institutional trading community through a safe and secure trading environment.”

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