"For the initial operation of a completely new system, I think this exceeded everyone's expectations," said Gene Lopez, Senior Vice President, The Nasdaq Stock Market. "2.4 million shares amounts to over 1.0% of the volume in the Dow Jones' component stocks. Throughout the day, trading was continuous and without incident."
The Primex Auction™ is a unique trading system that is offered as an optional service to all Nasdaq® participants. Marketable orders of all sizes may be routed to the system, where they are briefly exposed to an electronically-linked crowd of competing broker/dealers, proprietary traders, institutions, and electronic communications networks (ECNs). The auction is conducted continuously for each security at and inside its National Best Bid and Offer (NBBO). Most executions in the system will occur instantaneously.
Nasdaq will phase in the securities eligible to trade during the initial start-up over the first several weeks of the system's operation. In early January, Nasdaq will expand trading to stocks in the Standard & Poor's 100 Index®, followed by the inclusion of the Nasdaq 100 Index® stocks later in the month. This limited list of securities is scheduled to remain in effect through March 2002.
In this initial start-up period, Nasdaq will waive all fees associated with connecting to, and executing in, the Primex Auction System. After the start-up period is complete, Nasdaq will expand trading to include all Nasdaq National Market® and SmallCapSM securities, as well as all exchange-listed securities.
So far, more than 60 broker/dealers have registered as Primex Auction System participants. Some of these firms will access the system directly, while others will use connections established by some of the industry's biggest order-routing and trade-management software vendors.
The Primex Auction provides systematic interaction between retail, institutional, and professional market participants. Orders being exposed receive additional opportunities for price improvement, while larger-sized investors standing in the electronic crowd can interact with order flow that was previously inaccessible.
The Primex Auction is the creation of Primex Trading N.A., LLC, a partnership formed by securities industry brokerage firms and investment banks including Merrill Lynch, Salomon Smith Barney, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities. New York-based Primex Trading N.A., LLC conceives, designs, and licenses trading solutions for the securities industry. For more information go to www.primextrading.com, or contact Glen Shipway at glen.shipway@primextrading.com.
The Nasdaq Stock Market lists over 4,100 companies and trades more shares per day than any other U.S. market. For more information about Nasdaq, visit the Nasdaq Web site at www.nasdaq.com or the Nasdaq NewsroomSM at www.nasdaqnews.com.
