Liquidnet, the top institutional brokerage firm for global trading(1), today marks one year since its Members began trading Canadian equities.
Liquidnet Canada Inc. has helped usher in a new era of global institutional trading in Canada by working to renovate the "upstairs" market for block trading outside the exchanges and improve execution quality for an international Membership of buy side investors trading Canadian equities.
In its first year, Liquidnet Canada, Inc. was the country's top alternative trading system (ATS)(2) and in the first half of 2007, it facilitated an average trade size of 77,000 shares, compared with an average trade size of 845 (3) shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
"The pace at which liquidity in Canadian equities has consolidated into Liquidnet's new, brokerless marketplace has been phenomenal," said Robert Young, Liquidnet Canada president. "While liquidity continues to grow, we are now seeing pension and mutual fund managers reap benefits for their customers, as trade size and volume growth set new records each quarter."
In the third quarter, Liquidnet Canada, Inc. offered its Members a market-leading daily Canadian liquidity pool of approximately 175 million shares offered in more than 350 Canadian symbols and had an average daily volume of 732,800 shares traded.
Of Liquidnet's 440 Members worldwide representing $15.5 trillion in assets, 177 traded Canadian securities during the quarter ended September 30, 2007.
(1) According to Institutional Investor December 2006 issue (includes brokerages with greater than $2.25 billion in principal traded).
(2) As of July 31, 2007 according to a Market Regulation Services Inc. report. Market Regulation Services is the independent regulation services provider for Canadian equity markets.
(3) Source: tsx.com