In response to strong demand from their members, SIX Swiss Exchange and Liquidnet, the global institutional trading network, announced today the expansion of the SIX Swiss Exchange Liquidnet Service (SLS).
From today, the platform for executing block trades will include 1,200 additional stocks from the Belgian, Danish, Finnish, Austrian, Portuguese and Swedish equities markets. This increases the number of markets covered by SLS to 11.
SLS was launched in July 2011 and originally covered 3,000 stocks from markets in Switzerland, Germany, France, the UK and the Netherlands.
SIX Swiss Exchange's partnership with Liquidnet, launched in 2011, is the first time an exchange and a trading network have joined forces. SIX Swiss Exchange members are able to direct executable block orders to Liquidnet's global trading network which includes 700 of the world's leading asset management firms who collectively manage USD 12.4 trillion in assets.
SLS is an efficient and cost-effective way to execute large block trades increasing liquidity in executions without compromising security and anonymity. All trades are executed at the mid-point price of the primary exchange and further cost savings are made possible by avoiding market impact costs, a key benefit of Liquidnet's global trading platform. As of July 2011, the average trade size through SLS was CHF 725,000, which is significantly larger than any other MTF and exchange (dark or lit).