Turquoise, the pan-European equity trading services company, announced today that Instinet Europe has become the latest firm to join TQ Lens, its liquidity aggregation and order routing service, as a liquidity partner.
TQ Lens offers centralised and anonymous access to networks of connected liquidity partners, routing and distributing non-displayed orders which execute with immediate post-trade transparency. The first orders were executed on the service yesterday.
Instinet Europe is the seventh firm to sign up as a liquidity partner, joining Bank of America Merrill Lynch, CA Cheuvreux, Citadel Securities, Citi, Deutsche Bank and Nomura. Low cost and efficient clearing and settlement is provided by EuroCCP.
Eli Lederman, Turquoise Chief Executive, commented: "We have had a very encouraging response to TQ Lens; it is clear that our members have a genuine and growing need to trade large orders and illiquid stocks anonymously and costeffectively. Executions on displayed markets are taking place at smaller sizes and a higher frequency than ever before, which does not suit every trading strategy.
"TQ Lens unites the substantial liquidity of our liquidity partners with advanced technology to achieve improved execution rates. We are delighted that Instinet Europe has come on board as we expect to build momentum on TQ Lens in the second half of 2009 and welcome further liquidity partners in the near future."
Richard Balarkas, CEO of Instinet Europe, commented: "TQ Lens is an important offering for investors seeking to access otherwise fragmented liquidity, particularly when executing large orders. Turquoise members will be able to send block orders to access Instinet's institutional liquidity. Instinet's clients will also have the choice of routing their orders to access the liquidity provided by the TQ Lens liquidity partners. As Europe's largest agency-only brokerage, Instinet is pleased to be involved with the innovation TQ Lens represents."