On its first day of trading, yesterday, the NYFIX Millennium execution system matched approximately 2.5 million shares, which is about 2 percent of the average number of shares traded each day on the Nasdaq InterMarket.
Investors and traders using NYFIX Millennium are now able to match their specific buying and selling interests directly with each other at prices equal to, and often superior, to the prevailing national consolidated best bid or offer (NBBO). Each of these trade executions are regulated by the Nasdaq MarketWatch surveillance system, reported through Nasdaq's Automated Confirmation Transaction ServiceSM (ACTSM), and publicly disseminated through the Consolidated Tape Association (CTA).
"Transacting approximately 2.5 million shares on its inaugural day of trading is a solid accomplishment and a strong initial statement of support from the street," said Dean Furbush, executive vice president of Nasdaq Transaction Services. "NYFIX Millennium is the newest member of a growing team of market centers seeking to serve investors of NYSE-listed securities within the regulatory environment of Nasdaq InterMarket."
Wes McGrew, Nasdaq senior vice president and managing director of Nasdaq's Alternative Markets, said: "NYFIX Millennium is another example of how investors benefit when additional competition is introduced among market centers. Investors have a new resource competing to meet their specific requirements for liquidity, speed, anonymity, price improvement, and other trading characteristics important to particular investors."
"The removal of NYSE Rule 390 [which prevented NYSE stocks from being traded off the NYSE] and ongoing evolution of technology are creating new options and making trading off the exchange floor an inviting prospect for broker/dealers," said Erich Buckenmaier, director of Nasdaq InterMarket.
The market architecture of Nasdaq InterMarket enables Market Makers, Electronic Communication Networks (ECNs), and ATSs to compete directly with the NYSE, and with each other, to better serve investors in NYSE-listed securities. Nasdaq InterMarket trades over 135 million shares of listed securities daily.
The success of Nasdaq InterMarket is rooted in the ability of its market participants to provide their customers with access to lower execution costs, improved efficiency, enhanced liquidity, near-instantaneous trade executions, and superior customer service.
About NYFIX
NYFIX, Inc. (NASDAQ:NYFX), develops and markets advanced electronic trading systems to brokerage firms, international banks and global exchanges trading in equities and derivative instruments. The company's NYFIX Network, a combined Financial Information Exchange (FIX) Protocol and Exchange Access Network, enables users to communicate trade data electronically among the buy-side, sell-side, and exchange-floor environments. NYFIX is one of the financial community's fastest-growing intranets.
About NYFIX Millennium
NYFIX Millennium, L.L.C., the broker/dealer affiliate of NYFIX, Inc., is an Alternative Trading System which aims to provide investors with a valuable tool for achieving best execution. NYFIX Millennium seeks to help investors achieve price improvement, ensure anonymity and reduce market fragmentation through the electronic linkage of various liquidity sources, including exchanges and ECNs. NYFIX Millennium complements the existing market structure while eliminating many of its inefficiencies. NYFIX Millennium leverages the NYFIX network's large order routing share volume to provide a more efficient liquidity source for the financial community.
About Nasdaq InterMarket
Nasdaq InterMarket is an electronic, quotation-driven marketplace that has a market structure similar to The Nasdaq Stock Market and is guided by the principles of direct competition and high transparency. Participants compete to provide their customers with best executions in terms of price, speed of execution fill rate, trading cost, or some additional service innovations-depending on what their customers value most-without the restriction of sending orders into a queue of a single floor specialist. For more on the Nasdaq InterMarket, visit www.intermarket.nasdaqtrader.com.
The Nasdaq Stock Market lists over 4,300 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.
