Chi-X推出最新的另类交易平台

With the help of five powerful new investors, New York-based alternative exchange operator Chi-X Global Holdings appears destined to grow — and extend its geographic reach into new markets. On October 18, the firm announced that a handful of financial institutions, including Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs Group and Morgan Stanley as well as high-frequency trading shops Getco and Quantlab Group had taken equal minority stakes in Chi-X Global totaling an estimated 25 percent. Although the firm’s primary owner, Instinet Inc., a Nomura company, still remains Chi-X Global’s largest shareholder, the exchange-industry upstart has chosen to work more closely with some of its largest clients to help facilitate its strategic expansion.

“这一轮融资的目的一致our shareholders with our customers more closely as we expand across the globe,” says Tal Cohen, CEO of Chi-X Global. “We want to be able to leverage our investors’ expertise and tap into their intellectual capital as we seek to open up new markets.”

In the three years since its founding in February 2008, Chi-X Global has already established alternative trading platforms under the auspices of its subsidiaries Chi-X Canada and Chi-X Japan; it has also launched Chi-East — the first exchange-backed dark pool (also known as a non-displayed trading platform) in the Asia-Pacific region — as a joint venture with the Singapore Exchange. On Monday, October 31, the company’s newest subsidiary, Chi-X Australia, will go live with a soft launch, offering trading in six securities and two ETFs — which, while still limited, represents a singular achievement after two years of preparatory work to overcome various regulatory hurdles in the Australian market. Some 22 broker-dealers have already signed up to use the new platform — and they may be more than ready to welcome Chi-X Australia’s launch after a technical glitch shut down ASX Trade, the Australian Securities Exchange’s primary equity-trading platform, for four long hours on Thursday, October 27.

“If brokers are unhappy with the services that they are receiving from ASX, they will undoubtedly shift their trading,” says London-based market structure analyst Simmy Grewal of Aite Group, an independent financial services research and advisory firm headquartered in Boston. “People have been waiting quite a while now to trade on Chi-X Australia, so I can understand why so many are standing by, ready to start.”

Chi-X Australia is only one element, however, in Chi-X Global’s expanding portfolio of markets. With the backing of Chi-X Global’s new investors, Cohen is keen to branch out into other regions and has recently discussed the likelihood of targeting markets in Asia — including India, South Korea and Thailand — as well as in Latin America. But the company’s reach will be profoundly affected by regulatory conditions in those individual countries. To date, only a few, like Japan, have adopted regulatory frameworks that even allow the introduction of high-speed, low-cost alternative trading platforms, which have already gained huge market share and transformed equity trading in the U.S., the U.K. and Europe. Although Asia has yet to experience significant market fragmentation, Grewal sees a slight softening of political attitudes toward alternative trading venues, particularly in South Korea.

尽管要释放亚太地区的竞争力量，可能需要进行广泛的监管改革，但像Chi-X Global这样的另类交易所运营商不能坐以待毙——他们必须利用当前的机会。随着新的股权结构的引入，Chi-X Global似乎正在模仿其老兄弟Chi-X Europe的巨大成功，尽管Chi-X Europe是一家完全独立的公司，但它现在是按股票交易价值计算最大的泛欧交易平台，据汤森路透股票市场份额记者报道。由于刚刚入股Chi-X Global（Quantlab除外）的五家金融机构中有四家也是Chi-X欧洲的利益相关者，这种密切的镜像或许是意料之中的。在成立以来的四年里，Chi-X Europe定期向其最大的客户提供股票作为奖励，以鼓励他们的贸易业务，科恩计划在Chi-X Global实施类似的战略。

“We think the optimal ownership model is consortium-based,” Cohen says, “and we don’t want to limit the list to just these five investors.” Although Chi-X Global hasn’t offered any guidance on when it will offer an equity-sharing incentive program to its customers, “we would be willing to explore opportunities to broaden our ownership in the future,” Cohen adds.

对于Chi-xglobal来说，要想继续保持目前的增长轨迹，更广泛的股东财团可能需要更多的支持。增长是代价高昂的，尽管Chi-X Canada有利可图，但整个公司却并非如此。Chi-X Global目前更专注于在新市场站稳脚跟，并为主要银行和经纪交易商提供创新的、低成本的交易替代品，而不是牺牲现有所有者和用户的利益来实现盈利。”科恩说：“全球化已经够难了，创业也够难了，两者都带来了一些有趣的挑战。”。

然而，由于Chi-xglobal的一些关键客户承诺提供新的资金，这家全球初创企业可能还有很长的路要走。Chi-X欧洲增长非常迅速，部分原因是2007年11月《金融工具市场指令》（MiFid）在整个欧盟引入了监管协调的程度。在亚洲还没有这样的协调机制，这使得Chi-X Global的增长前景更加缓慢，而且随着公司从一个监管管辖区扩展到下一个监管管辖区，成本也更加密集。但机会就在那里。”我确实认为，对于Chi-X Global来说，这将是一个比Chi-X欧洲更慢的旅程，”Aite的Grewal说，“但这也是一个更大的机会。这需要时间。”