Thomson Reuters and Canadian alternative trading system (ATS) provider Alpha plan to launch a suite of services intended to address market fragmentation data fragmentation in the Canadian markets, including an independent consolidated tape and hosted direct feeds, both companies said today.
Leveraging the two organizations’ combined expertise in the Canadian markets and Alpha’s technology facilities, the new tape, slated for launch in the first quarter of 2010, will allow traders to see share prices offered across the various exchanges and alternative trading facilities in Canada, including Alpha ATS, Pure, Chi-X and the TMX Group, the companies said. It will be derived from order and trade data from the various Canadian equity marketplaces, and will include access to pre- and post-trade market data.
Thomson Reuters feed handlers will be placed adjacent to most information sources including Alpha Trading Systems, providing market data access at the lowest possible latency, the companies explained. Clients will be able to access all best bid and offer data from and across all contributing marketplaces. In addition they will have full order book access attributed by dealer and marketplace. Furthermore the Thomson Reuters offering will include time and sales data from the sources.
“This is a significant breakthrough for the Canadian marketplace, delivering a consolidated view of all liquidity across multiple venues, enabling each individual trader to operate with absolute confidence that they are trading at optimum levels for their clients,” said Jon Robson, president of enterprise at Thomson Reuters. “Well managed consolidated data is a key means to help drive efficient trading and market liquidity. We are delighted to be working with Canadian participants in Alpha to provide this benchmark standard for the market.”
Jos Schmitt, CEO of the Alpha Group, which was established in May 2007 by nine of Canada’s leading financial institutions, said access to adequate consolidated market data is an issue of major concern in the Canadian marketplace.
“Without it, market participants cannot discover and exploit the best trading opportunities,” he said. “Working in close collaboration with Thomson Reuters will enable us to provide the Canadian marketplace with a competitive solution that is driven by the industry and addresses key concerns around cost, reliability, low-latency and quality.”
This article can also be found at SecuritiesIndustry.com.
Alexa Jaworski is senior editor of Securities Industry News, a SourceMedia publication. She can be reached at alexa.jaworski@sourcemedia.com.
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