BIDS Trading, the alternative trading system (ATS) designed to increase competition and liquidity in the US equity block trading market, executed more than 60 million shares yesterday.
Since its launch in the spring of 2007, BIDS Trading has surpassed a total volume of 2.86 billion shares, with average daily volume breaking a new record of over 18.7 million shares in January 08.
The ATS has remained focused on its mission to unite the buy-side and sell-side communities, connecting to eleven Order Management and Execution Management Systems, including FlexTrade Systems’ FlexTRADER, Goldman Sachs’ REDIPlus, JPMorgan’s Neovest, Portware, and UBS Pinpoint.
Using the BIDS Trading ATS, market participants can trade large blocks of equities without revealing their order. Information disclosure is controlled by the trader via various customisable trading tools: traders can choose to auto-match their order or negotiate; they can set their minimum block size to help protect their order; and they can even filter out counterparties based on past trading behavior.
BIDS Trading is accessible to all qualifying broker-dealers and their institutional clients, subject to basic credit and regulatory considerations. Use of the BIDS Trading ATS as a block trading service is not exclusive or subject to volume commitments and each participant may continue to use any ATS, ECN or exchange service that supports the trading needs of its customer base.