SuperMontage is a fully integrated order display and execution system for the trading of NASDAQ-listed securities. The new trading platform enables investors to get better prices and helps brokers better serve their customers by providing more transparency. "SuperMontage redefines what is possible for a stock market by providing a wealth of new information for investors, market participants, and NASDAQ-listed companies," said Wick Simmons, chairman and chief executive officer, NASDAQ. "The new trading platform is the culmination of a commitment to provide investors with transparent, deeper and more liquid markets."
The five securities trading on SuperMontage on the first day include: WVS Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: WVFC); Willamette Valley Vineyards, Inc. (NASDAQ: WVVI); Waste Industries USA, Inc. (NASDAQ: WWIN); Excel Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: XLTC); and Yardville National Bancorp (NASDAQ: YANB). Additional securities will be added over the coming weeks, with all NASDAQ-listed securities trading on the new platform by the end of the year.
The launch of SuperMontage is a significant development in the evolution of trading NASDAQ securities. SuperMontage provides the ability for firms to list multiple quotes and orders for the same security and creation of a central trading book for NASDAQ-listed securities. Furthermore, SuperMontage enables market makers to input all or part of their buy or sell interest, by name or anonymously. This buy and sell interest will be available to view at five price levels - not just the best price.
"Since the implementation of decimalization, there are fewer shares available at each price point. However, SuperMontage will make it easier for market participants to access depth of trading interest because of the system's five levels of displayed depth," said Rick Ketchum, president and deputy chairman, NASDAQ. "Traders will have a higher level of confidence that they can achieve their best execution responsibilities since there will be more liquidity available on a single trading platform."
The new corresponding data packages derived from SuperMontage will help investors make better-informed investment decisions by showing the landscape of interest in a particular stock and in the market as a whole. These new data packages include:
- DepthView - A service that provides the aggregated size of all quotes and orders available for execution in the SuperMontage system at the top five price levels.
- PowerView - An offering that bundles DepthView with Level II information, allowing users to view the depth at and near the prevailing inside price.
- TotalView - A data package that displays each participant's total size at each of the top five price levels plus all the information in PowerView.
SuperMontage was conceived in 1999. During a discussion of how NASDAQ could more efficiently aggregate, display and access trading interest in all the market's securities, the idea for SuperMontage began to take shape.
The original SuperMontage proposal, which was filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on September 29, 1999, was modified in 2000 to take into account issues raised by industry participants. The SEC approved SuperMontage unanimously on January 10, 2001.
Since its approval, NASDAQ has been dedicated to making SuperMontage a reality and by the end of 2001, design, coding and programming of SuperMontage had been completed. Internal and external user testing started early this year and continued right up to today, giving market participants ample time to test and prepare for using the system.
On August 29, 2002, the SEC unanimously approved trading on the new platform beginning this month.
Today, NASDAQ trades over 1 billion shares each day, provides its real-time market data to over 1,000,000 terminals around the world and processes more than 5,000 transactions per second. With SuperMontage's new computer architecture, quotes and orders will go through a single-computer architecture, adding even greater speed and efficiency to the market and allowing for easy expansion as trading volumes grow.
NASDAQ (OTCBB: NDAQ) is the world's largest electronic stock market. With nearly 3,800 companies, NASDAQ lists more companies and trades more shares per day than any other U.S. market. Over the past five years, NASDAQ has outpaced all other U.S. markets in listing IPOs. It is home to category-defining companies that are leaders across all areas of business including technology, retail, communications, financial services, media and biotechnology industries. NASDAQ is a key driver of capital formation. For more information about NASDAQ, visit the NASDAQ Web site at www.NASDAQ.com or the NASDAQ NewsroomSM at www.NASDAQnews.com
