BrokerTalk says its has signed up 34 institutions - including Lehman, Bank of America, Citigroup, Barclays Capital, JP Morgan, Cantors and Tradition - for a free trial of the service.

The service will report on the key trading activities — known as the flow — which are driving the price action in the markets. BrokerTalk reports activity that influences the price actions of futures, options, cash government bonds and the foreign exchange markets.

David Fuller, MD at BrokerTalk, says: "There is no doubt that the flow of information is the missing ingredient of today's increasingly electronic markets."

All messages posted to BrokerTalk over the MindAlign platform will be monitored and the more dubious referred back to market and City contacts.

Says Fuller: "Our own experience together with our huge contact list will make it virtually impossible for false information to end up on the site."

As well as market rumours, the platform will seek to provide news about which type of participants are active and deal sizes as they influence prices. It will also offer up-to-date technical analysis, suggesting the likely market reaction when certain key levels are breached.

Fuller's last job in the City was working for Tradition Securities on the cash government bond desk doing sales/trading. He says he left early this year to start BrokerTalk, realising a severe lack of flow information in the market.

"By providing 'the flow', BrokerTalk will help the markets to become even more efficient than they already are and also level the playing field to those participants who don't necessarily have access to it through their customer base," he says.

Fuller claims that the firm's other founders and investors all work for banks and brokers in the City, but is reluctant to disclose any names.