纽约证券交易所＆纳斯达克高跟鞋的Liquidnet nips

随着8月份鼠标少数点击，360万股太阳微系统公司从一个机构转移到另一个机构。大而瞬发，交易对于它缺乏：传统的交易台。由于一家名为呼叫的公司，在一天内发生了超过1,000个类似的交易Liquidnet。And if the company is able to flourish despite significant challenges ahead, institutional power may consolidate further at the expense of Wall Street trading houses.

五年前推出，Liquidnet帮助改变了制度贸易的Staid世界，并促进了远离经典贸易办公桌的运动。结合技术创新与市场洞察力，创始人Seth Merrin.旨在规避传统交易商和弹射液进入贸易公司的上部梯队。自2001年以来经营，纽约州祖先报告了一个平均每天15亿股的流动性池 - 美国的第三大股纽约证券交易所和Nasdaq。

Liquidnet在市场上的流动性可以比较Napster’s effect on the music industry: it was achieved by creating an electronic community where member firms trade directly with each other. This community – or private crossing network – has become a venue of choice for executing large block orders. Averaging more than 40,000 shares per execution, block trades on Liquidnet surpass those of rivals like the NYSE that average just below 30,000 shares.

“块命令的一部分难以找到流动性，”注意到丹尼斯福克斯，头交易者Munder Capital Management.。

彼得·卡西米斯, a former Liquidnet employee now with New York competitor管道交易系统，解释了系统的普及：“驱车转移到液体网是创新的产品和与交易所的挫败感，”他说。“基金经理们不觉得他们在执行方面得到了公平对待......管理人员在沸点上几乎是愿意在地板上的任何地方交易。”

依靠现有经验作为风险套利交易员CIBC Oppenheimer，Merrin试图解决这个问题，专门为洞穴机构设计系统，以解决像狐狸这样的交易者的流动性问题。它可以通过允许选择成员直接绕过华尔街和贸易 - 块命令匿名匹配，并从交易楼盘上执行。

电脑大师

该公司的起源回到了簇绒大学，Merrin于1982年毕业，作为一个罕见的词处理器的学生。Merrin通过同学的需求实现了工作场所计算机的价值，并将这种技术应用于他的第一份工作作为CIBC交易员。标记为“计算机大师”，在Merrin耦合有关技术专长的实践经验之前，他指的是“技术和域名经验的交叉体验” - 影响机构贸易世界。

Beginning in 1985, Merrin founded and sold two companies prior to Liquidnet:vie systems.，金融服务应用整合公司和Merrin金融，在机构OMS中的先驱。在此期间，Merrin的Buyside客户将他暴露在市场上的基本缺陷：在传统市场中越来越难以在传统市场中离心和有效地执行块交易。

复杂的订单处理规则和小数化，减少流动性通过增加增量价格点，除了风险厌恶和佣金下降等市场力量，鼓励华尔街执行较小的交易。纽约顾问Tabb Group报告称，每次贸易的平均股份数量从1,500年前减少到今天到400人。

“如果你看过每次交易的平均股票，很明显，为了执行大型街区而努力变得更加困难，而Liultnet沿着解决方案，”Adam SussmanTabb组。“订单处理规则和小额化为营业零售和巨大的损失而获胜。”

Sussman说，对Buyside的亲密知识使LiumentNet A追捧。“Liquidnet是一个有意义的技术公司，但真的很有探讨市场结构如何为使他们取得如此成功的营业机构;他们在市场上显然填补了一个未满足的需求。“

事实上,Liquidnet的成就往往莱斯ed in the context of broader dissatisfaction with traditional trading desks, occasionally with the suggestion that the company is helming a sort of alternative assault on established systems.

“通过为交易所创造竞争，”很多交易者都在一定程度上叛逆，“桑李，波士顿咨询公司的管理合作伙伴Aite群体。

如果在区域交易所和电子系统的扩散投资是任何指示，这种运动可能是强迫的。“我同意人们认为，最近对区域交流和替代交易系统的投资主要是为了应对纽约证券交易所和纳斯达克整合，”迈克尔海耶斯，波士顿秩序管理系统供应商主任查尔斯河开发。

And like the regional exchanges in Philadelphia and Boston, which recently completed high profile financings, Liquidnet has profited from this trend – with two private equity firms buying a $250 million minority stake, the company’s total valuation is over $1 billion.

新投资者可能很满意：Liultnet连续第十一季度的班次增加，每日平均每日3500万股或50％。十一月亚博赞助欧冠named the company alongside雷曼兄弟兄弟,Merrill Lynch.和Citigroup作为前10名NYSE和纳斯达克贸易公司 - 这家白鞋内唯一的替代交易员。

“Anytime a new market is this successful in disrupting the status quo the established players are forced to react,”Rob Hegarty., managing director at Boston consultantTowerGroup, notes, adding that traditional brokers may not represent the biggest threat at the moment. “They have some insight and plenty of resources but they don’t have first mover advantage and are now up against a significant pool of liquidity. Seth really built up a beachhead with this”

成功简单

Executing a trade on Liquidnet, such as the 3.6 million shares of Sun Microsystems, is relatively straightforward. Proprietary software scans members’ order books and anonymously indicates potential matches between two traders. First appearing “passive,” if a trade interests a buyer she can designate it “active.” The seller is then notified of the active interest and both parties are relocated to a “negotiating window.” Essentially a chatroom for the two contras, this window consists of a sliding bar on which the seller makes an initial offer on price and minimum quantity. The buyer has 40 seconds to accept this trade or repeat the process with her own offer.

“Seth wanted the user manual to fit on the back of a business card,” said Franco, emphasizing the system’s simplicity. Aite Group’s Lee believes he may have succeeded. “When I saw Seth’s demo years ago I remember sitting there and thinking it looked so simple,” he recalled. “The demo only took five minutes – they usually take an hour.”

Simplicity was instrumental to getting Liquidnet off the ground, as Merrin had to first convince the OMS operators and their institutional clients to adopt a platform that “lacked both a track record and funding.” He took his pitch directly to the head traders.

“Seth来自OMS空间，并理解机构交易商如何实际上思考他们的桌面，”查尔斯河发展的海耶斯召回。“他了解OMS为贸易商扮演的令人难以置信的重要作用，并知道如果他在此处建立了他的系统，它可以工作。”

But even more critical to this process, Merrin says, was hiring a group that could realize Liquidnet’s potential, because, as he points out, not only was Liquidnet taking the novel step of creating a community of buysiders but it was also seeking access to member firms’ order books - “essentially the most valuable piece of information on Wall Street.”

“起初大多数公司都说不，对它并不太神伴，”Merrin说。“我们能够通过解决他们的头号问题来实现它们。”

成功引起了既定经纪人和交流的关注，以及较新的电子竞争对手。“当我们在这个安静的替代交易系统中，当我们在雷达下面，这是一个很容易的替代交易系统，”该公司的阴谋哀叹的佛朗哥。“这亚博赞助欧冠排名是脸上的真正拍打。“

前方的路

The greatest challenge to Liquidnet may come from either a new generation of electronic trading systems or the exchanges themselves.

“If the NYSE wants to develop a crossing network, that could be a very competitive product with Liquidnet at least conceptually,” saidJoe Gawronski.，贸易公司首席运营官Rosenblatt Securities。“机构世界将更加适合这一点，它不会有储存目的的卷天花板似乎总是击中。”

Gawronski explained that volume on crossing networks can be limited if institutional commission budgets are skewed toward paying for research and other “bundled” products offered by traditional brokers.

Tabb Group的Sussman同意，注意到纽约证券交易所购买电子交易员时，液体网络的竞争可能会更直接群岛并开始监管全国市场结构与其自身的混合动力车市场实施。“但是在某种意义上说：”他指出，“纳斯达克已经介入了与日内十字架的游戏。”

Announced in October, Nasdaq will be implementing this quarter intraday crosses that will compete directly with Liquidnet. The system is designed to promote block executions by offering anonymous trades at set prices during specified periods. “The product will match orders at the midpoint with minimal size requirements,” said布莱恩·赫恩德曼, Nasdaq senior v.p.

“液体网上提出了一种创新的方法来进入Buyside Blotter系统，但我怀疑他们已经有稳定了，”Hyndman补充道。“他们过去已经长大了很多，但我看不到这种模式。据说，我们的客户群确实要求我们开发自己的过境产品。“

While the effect of Nasdaq’s intraday crosses remains to be seen, Hegarty notes another challenge could be more immediate: “The biggest threat to Liquidnet is that they get ‘out-Liquidnetted’ or that someone more innovative comes along and creates an even more liquid market.”

Merrin认识到这种可能性。“对于我们之后的人来说，”他说，“我不建议使用我们的型号或流动性较少。进入的障碍是流动性池的大小。“

Aite Group的Lee表示，这种创新可能来自现有的电子贸易公司，如管道，该公司也专门从事匿名块交易。但是，在留下液体时加入管道的kassimis，否认这两者在争论中。

“我没有将我们视为具有液体目的的直接竞争对手。新闻界肯定会在同一句子中提升我们，但这与我们的平均执行规模有关，“他说。“在机构交易中，我们俩都有绝对的空间。块交易中存在真正的价值，只有两个场地可以完成。“

尽管提供了类似的产品，但Merrin和Kassimis更倾向于担任合作伙伴 - 至少暂时。通过其总成功，这些公司已经帮助建立了远离华尔街书桌的街区交易的制度趋势。

“现实是，交易商需要执行，并且担心我们正在与纽约证券交易所和纳斯达克双级多大迈进，”哈吉格一致。“这促使凸起和喧嚣的公司投资于液体印象等地区和公司。”

Ultimately Merrin’s vision for Liquidnet may be part of a larger movement from the status quo toward a more varied marketplace. This could eventually represent a real threat to established brokers and exchanges, as Lee points out.

“如果一些志同道合的公司决定一起工作，他们可以在舍入错误中建立另一个群岛，”他说。

但与merrin说话一个感官，他成功的秘诀可能专注于他所知道的 - 技术创新和市场洞察力。LiquidNET H20，Merrin的下一个产品，试图通过引入零售订单流程来解决专注于Buyside机构而带来的限制。新系统将匹配未答复的块交易，从尚未命名的流流动性提供者提供额外的流量，例如Lava或者Ameritrade。

This ambitious system, currently being rolled out, is fraught with reputational risk among the buyside as it may challenge the institutional community that Liquidnet has established. But Merrin is applying the same skills to Liquidnet H2O that made the original platform successful, so it should not be discounted.

“Can Liquidnet top their first innovation?” asked Lee. “That would be tough to accomplish: it was a very elegant solution to big problem. But do they need to? Maybe the NYSE will just buy them. Or maybe they’ll just buy the NYSE based on that last valuation.”