NYFIX, a provider of solutions that optimize trading efficiency, said that the total number and value of all shares matched in its Euro Millennium dark pool crossing network, during the month of December 2008, was 251.0 million shares representing over 1billion of value, an increase of over 500% compared to November 2008.
With a December average of over 2 billion shares of liquidity available on a daily basis, two records were set on December 17th, when 50.7 million shares and over 150 million of value were matched. New single-day records continue to be set in January 2009, with a new record of over 200 million in value matched on January 13th.
"We are delighted with the recent increase in trading activity in the pool. Now that clients have begun resting a greater percentage of their orders in the pool, hit rates have gone up and clients are experiencing Euro Millennium's potential for sourcing liquidity with maximum price improvement and minimal market impact. The range of securities in the pool also continues to grow with a wide range of large-, mid-, and small-cap stocks being actively traded. With Millennium as a leading dark pool in the U.S., and Euro Millennium emerging as a front-runner of dark liquidity discovery in Europe, NYFIX is well positioned to offer our clients deep and broad sources of liquidity on a global basis," said Chris Smith, director, NYFIX International.
"On Euro Millennium, the first dark-only European MTF, UBS has seen and taken advantage of the recent increase in liquidity for our clients. As an early participant on Euro Millennium, UBS has both experience and comfort with the platform. Our algorithms, particularly "UBS Tap," our liquidity-seeking strategy, are designed to effectively access Euro Millennium in combination with all other sources of liquidity," said Tim Wildenberg, managing director, head of European direct execution at UBS, in a press release.
