SmartPool, the European dark liquidity pool created by NYSE Euronext in partnership with HSBC, J.P.Morgan and BNP Paribas, has expanded its pan-European mid cap service.
From January 2010 the SmartPool product universe will be expanded to include the constituents of the following European indices:
FTSE All Share Index (UK)
CDAX Index (Germany)
AEX All Share (Dutch)
CAC All Share (French)
The total number of securities traded on SmartPool will increase by 110%.
Launched in February 2009, SmartPool offers trading in indices of the 15 European equity markets, including securities listed on the 4 NYSE Euronext markets. SmartPool expanded its dark order book in September 2009 to include a pan-European mid-cap segment.
Lee Hodgkinson, CEO of SmartPool commented: Our expansion into offering mid-caps across Europe is proving to be of great value to customers. By capturing a diverse pool of liquidity, users of SmartPool regularly achieve price improvement of between 4 to 6 basis points. For smaller securities where liquidity is scarce and implicit execution costs tend to be higher even greater efficiencies can be achieved. During November 2009, for example, over 30% of trading on SmartPool took place outside the leading European blue-chips.
SmartPool, along with sister MTF NYSE Arca Europe, has also connected to Quod Financials Adaptive Execution Platform (AEP). Ali Pichvai, CEO, Quod Financial, comments: This latest connectivity demonstrates Quod Financials ability to access lit and dark liquidity and to adapt in real-time to changing conditions in liquidity venues. Our Adaptive Smart Order Router (ASOR) and algorithmic trading technology intuitively uses real-time market data and post-trade data to identify the most efficient execution venues. This enables our clients to find the trading destination that offers best execution on European securities and to overcome the challenges of fragmentation. With this focus in mind Quod Financial have integrated NYSEs complete offering of lit and dark venues into our liquidity seeking algorithm.
Hodgkinson adds: “Our linkage with Quod Financial further evolves our strategy to attract the largest and most diverse dark pool trading community in Europe. With an average price improvement of 5bps, we offer a compelling dark value proposition for Quod Financial customers.