IG Markets, the CFD trading division of IG Group has announced that as from today clients will have access to the best prices from Europe’s top three Multilateral Trading Facilities (MTFs), now including BATS.
Multilateral Trading Facilities function as an alternate stock exchange venue for DMA traders. These venues can provide better prices than the primary exchanges and are growing in popularity, now accounting for up to 40% of a share’s overall liquidity.
The fast-growing BATS MTF has just overtaken the Turquoise exchange to take second place behind Chi-X, and can now pride itself of a 8.4% market share in FTSE 100 shares. Formerly, traders on IG Markets had additional liquidity already derived from Chi-X and Turquoise prices being accessible via IG Index’s unique Multi-Venue Technology but now they also have the ability to access BATS pricing on leading UK and European stocks.
What are the Benefits?
Put simply, this provides traders with more liquidity, improved prices on share CFDs, and greater stability during market volatility.
The technology works in the background, comparing prices across the major primary European exchanges such as the LSE and Euronext, plus the leading Multilateral Trading Facilities, matching the the narrowest market spread available on each stock. The pricing is then derived from the best bid and offer prices to be found in the underlying market.
The addition of BATS enables IG Markets to broaden search, now including the three Multilateral Trading Facilities that taken together account for almost 39% of FTSE 100 liquidity in January 2010, and so bring you greater access to the most beneficial prices and the tightest spreads.
