Brokerage

Liquidnet, operator of a large block crossing network and brokerage, today announced it is offering the buyside the ability to buy shares of privately-held and pre-IPO companies. To lead this new effort, it has hired Lou Kerner to run the newly formed Private Shares Group.

Exchange operator Direct Edge will introduce a new order type aimed at customers who want to avoid interacting with professional traders.

Friday Pipeline Trading announced it has cut off controversial affiliate Milstream Securities from its dark pool. Now the company is hoping to woo back users who left following a settlement with regulators.

Fidelity Capital Markets launched a new anonymous trading venue designed to help institutional traders find buyers or sellers of large blocks of stock, using retail order flow.

Dark pool operator Liquidnet has hired two senior executives, filling the positions of chief operating officer and head of U.S. equity sales and trading. The firm named John Kelly to the new position of chief operating officer.

San Francisco-based 4th Story has begun to offer trading desks and brokers a full suite of analytics, data visualization and notification features.

Getco today named former UBS veteran Daniel Coleman as the market maker's new chief executive officer.

Time to pull the plug on the back office? The deathwatch and the questions never stop in the clearing industry. The costs of the business, which have been consistently rising at a time of increased regulation and declining margins, are forcing most clearing firms to think seriously about long-term strategy.

With the majority of equities being traded with algorithms, the handling of small-capitalization stocks has been one of the last vestiges of old-school trading. For small-cap stocks, the buyside will actually pick up the phone, call up sales traders and ask them to use their capital or know-how to move some shares. But those days are fading. Algos are now conquering smaller stocks as well.

Goldman Sachs, through its GSET global execution platform, was the top sellside clearing provider in 2012, according to WatersTechnology ratings. J.P. Morgan came in second.