Courtesy of MarketsMedia
A new trading venue, which is set to launch across Europe at the end of the first quarter, claims it will revolutionize how sell-side firms can execute block trades.
Called Squawker, the new London-based negotiation venue aims to allow sell-side firms to execute block trades anonymously using social-networking technology by helping firms find liquidity.
“Squawker is all about introducing buyers and sellers together and putting them into a private negotiation to agree trades,” said Christopher Gregory, co-founder and chief executive of Squawker.
And in its latest move, Squawker has just signed a partnership with financial data vendor SIX Financial Information to provide real-time pan-European market data via SIX’s Market Data Feed, allowing Squawker participants to execute pan-European block trades always at the consolidated mid-price and consolidated volume-weighted average price (VWAP).
Squawker, which will be classed as a ‘discretionary system’ and regulated as an investment firm under MiFID rules—and not as a multilateral trading facility—claims it will be unique in its ability to provide best execution for the sell side at the consolidated mid-price and consolidated VWAP.
On Squawker, sell-side firms will be able to negotiate and trade large blocks of shares without causing ‘information leakage’ and exposing the trades to predatory high-frequency trading firms who would thus move the market against such orders.
“Squawker has the potential to redefine the way the market trades block sizes,” said Martin Cole, managing director of SIX Financial Information.
“No longer will firms need to slice up their large trade sizes and drip them slowly into the market over a period of time, risking impact cost or the unwanted attention from detrimental algorithmic flow.”