Steep price cuts have helped Bats ECN set a new daily volume record and claim nine per cent of Nasdaq-listed volume on the first day of trading in the New Year.
The ECN - whose investors include Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and Lehman Brothers - executed 223.3 million share transactions Wednesday, a 47% increase from the previous record of 152.1 million shares in November.
The uplift follows the introduction of an aggressive new pricing plan under which Bats will charge $0.0020 per share in January for removing liquidity or routing to other market centres, and will rebate $0.0030 per share for adding liquidity in stocks priced above $1. The new fee schedule will lose the company $0.001 for every trade, at an estimated cost of $6 million over the month.
The Bats New Year sale was matched by Knight Tradings alternative execution network Direct Edge, which has slashed its prices to $0.0015 per executed Nasdaq share for the month of January. Figures from the Direct Edge Website also show a steep rise in share trading with volumes over the network hitting 126 million on Wednesday.