NEWS UPDATE
EQUITIES
Cboe looks to add speed bump to
equities exchange
LP² four millisecond delay mechanism will be applied to the Cboe EDGA exchange to
protect market makers from high-frequency traders.
C
boe Global Markets has submitted an application to
US authorities to implement a ‘speed bump’ on its
equities exchange.
Cboe confirmed in a statement that it plans to intro-
duce a Liquidity Provider Protection feature, known as
LP², on its EDGA exchange in a bid to improve liquidity
and to allow market makers to take more risk and
quote tighter spreads with greater size.
Under the exchange’s proposal, which is open to
industry feedback, liquidity-taking orders sent to EDGA
will have to wait four milliseconds before trading with
resting orders in the order book. Cboe said that this
will provide market makers with sufficient time to
re-price their resting orders before ‘opportunistic’, or
high-frequency traders (HFTs), can trade with them at
old prices.
“Our proposed LP² initiative is the result of vital and
ongoing consultation with customers and investors,
and we will continue to actively seek out ways to deliv-
er innovative and flexible solutions that best meet their
needs,” said Bryan Harkins, co-head of markets division
at Cboe Global Markets.
Cboe’s speed bump will be the third implemented at
major US exchange groups after IEX and NYSE Ameri-
can deployed the tool in recent years, despite wide-
spread outcry from incumbent exchanges over IEX’s
first move to slow down HFTs with a speed bump.
The exchange added that existing delay mechanisms
applied by IEX and NYSE do not provide protection to
market makers and participants that post two-sided
markets, whereas LP² would promote price forming
displayed liquidity.
TECHNOLOGY
Refinitiv to acquire cloud-based OMS provider AlphaDesk
Acquisition to further Refinitiv end-to-end trading solution with order and portfolio
management capabilities, expanding on existing execution and analytics services.
R
efinitiv has announced it is to acquire order manage-
ment system specialist AlphaDesk to boost its end-to-
end trading portfolio.
Refinitiv will integrate the AlphaDesk platform, which
provides order and portfolio management, risk, and
compliance solutions for buy-side users, into its existing
front-office suite that includes the EMS platform from
REDI, which it acquired in January 2017.
The vendor currently provides pre-trade data and analyt-
ics through its Eikon platform, and will use the multi-asset
and multi-currency reach of the AlphaDesk OMS platform
12 // TheTrade // Summer 2019
to expand its workflow capabilities as the roles of buy-side
traders and portfolio managers continue to converge.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, although Refinitiv
stated it expects the acquisition to close in the second
quarter of 2019.
“Our past collaboration with AlphaDesk makes them a
strong fit for us, and the integration of their platform with
our existing products further expands Refinitiv’s presence
as a premier trading solution for professionals across the
buy-side community,” said Michael Chin, managing direc-
tor and co-head of trading at Refinitiv.