Investment Technology Group, Inc. (NYSE: ITG), a leading provider of technology-based trading services and transaction research, today announced the addition of the Flexible Participation algorithm to the ITG Algorithms suite of trading tools.
ITG's Flexible Participation algorithm allows clients to customize their desired level of participation in the overall market volume of a single stock at specific index or benchmark levels. As with other ITG Algorithms, Flexible Participation offers aggregated access to liquidity sources through ITG's Dark Algorithm, a liquidity seeking algorithm.
ITG's Flexible Participation goes beyond existing volume participation algorithms by offering clients advanced customization and control. This customization allows clients to trade at a specified rate of participation at all times and within a price limit. Clients also have the ability to vary the volume participation rate depending on the intraday stock performance relative to an index or benchmark. Clients would use Flexible Participation when they want to take part in a steady flow of liquidity while maintaining a specified percentage of a stock's trading volume.
"ITG is constantly adding features and functionality to its algorithmic trading tools to help increase our clients' trading efficiency," said Tony Huck, Managing Director at ITG. "The advanced customization of the Flexible Participation algorithm enables clients to simultaneously utilize four previously separate functions: varying volume participation, relative benchmarking, liquidity aggregation, and opportunistic strategies."
Clients using Flexible Participation can also specify trading style, such as layering, reversion, momentum, and custom rules, while indicating the percentage at which they would like to complete the order. In addition, there is an "I Would" feature that allows clients to determine the price level at which they would execute either a whole trade or a percentage of the trade. Clients can also opt to expose the order via ITG's Dark Algorithm to reach ITG's liquidity pools, POSIT Match(TM), POSIT Now(SM), and BLOCKalert(SM), as well as to other alternative trading systems (ATSs) and electronic communication networks (ECNs).