Rosenblatt Securities, a New York-based agency broker for institutional investors and BIDS Trading, the alternative trading system (ATS) designed to increase competition and liquidity in the U.S. equity block trading market, are pleased to announce an agreement that allows Rosenblatt to provide its clients with direct access to BIDS Trading's crossing system.
Offering sponsored access to the BIDS Trading non-displayed trading venue, also known as a dark pool, speaks to Rosenblatt's commitment to safely source liquidity for clients wherever it resides. Rosenblatt's trading desk connects to a wide array of non-displayed markets, whose ranks and share of overall trading volume have been growing rapidly of late. The deal with BIDS Trading is the fifth sponsored-access accord Rosenblatt has struck with a dark pool.
For Rosenblatt, these arrangements continue a long tradition of providing automated direct-access tools that help institutions trade more efficiently. In 1989, for example, Rosenblatt became the first brokerage firm to let customers directly access the New York Stock Exchange's DOT system, by putting electronic terminals on their desktops that allowed them to send orders to the NYSE display book without broker intervention.
BIDS Trading, also based in New York, was founded in September 2006 by a consortium of leading financial-services firms. Later this year, BIDS Trading and the NYSE Euronext plan to launch a joint venture that will allow dark orders to interact with both displayed and reserve orders from the NYSE, in an attempt to improve execution quality and access to liquidity for block trading.
"Our traders have been early adopters of dark pools, seeking best execution for clients in BIDS Trading and many other venues for quite some time," said Joe Gawronski, President and COO of Rosenblatt. "Our results in BIDS Trading have been quite positive, so we're happy to be able to also give our customers the flexibility to access it directly from their desktops if they so choose." Gawronski continued, "We're also excited about BIDS Trading's pending joint venture with NYSE, which for the first time will link the exchange's deep displayed liquidity with a dark pool, making BIDS Trading an even more desirable venue for institutions to access directly."
"Being selected by Rosenblatt, a leader in market structure analysis and an authoritative source of monthly adjusted volume figures, is a testament to BIDS Trading's approach, early success and future prospects," said Tim Mahoney, CEO of BIDS Trading.
Volume on the BIDS Trading ATS has reached more than 5.8 billion shares* since its launch in 2007, with average daily volumes reaching 24.65 million shares* in July 2008.