Through its connectivity links with Royalblue plc and Primark Corporation, announced in April, and this new link with GL Trade, the Tradepoint exchange will be technically accessible to the majority of financial institutions in Europe.
Increased connectivity is expected to improve significantly the ease of trading equities via the Tradepoint exchange and subsequently improve volumes.
Tradepoint members that use GL Trade's trading platform will be able to trade the 2,000 UK equities currently available on Tradepoint. Following the launch of Tradepoint's pan-European exchange on 10 July 2000, GL Trade's customers will also be able to trade the constituents of all the major pan-European indices. This will result in price competition between Tradepoint and the European domestic exchanges for the stocks traded on Tradepoint as GL Trade's trading platform creates a virtual exchange that allows traders to trade at the best price available across exchanges.
Commenting on today's announcement Richard Kilsby, Chief Executive of Tradepoint, said: "This additional connectivity link gives Tradepoint a very strong platform from which to grow orderbook volumes. The addition of GL Trade strengthens our European reach, positioning us well to drive volume in the leading European equities following the launch of the pan European exchange on 10 July this year. "Establishing connectivity links has removed the last hurdle to attaining the Consortium's goal of establishing Tradepoint as the principal marketplace for trading the Eurotop 300 by the fourth quarter of 2001."
Malcolm Donaldson, Managing Director of GL Trade in the UK, added: "The evolving role of electronic exchanges in the world financial market place has influenced our decision to place the highest priority on integrating Tradepoint, seen by us to be an exchange at the forefront of this development, into the GL Trade network.
"A large number of our clients including Tullet and Tokyo in the UK and Optiver in Holland have expressed an immediate desire to be connected to Tradepoint via our network; this will now be possible."
