A startup in London Monday said it plans to launch a trading venue where large block trades are negotiated through anonymous online professional networking.
Squawker Trading, which draws its name from the intercoms known as ‘squawk boxes’ that used to be using on trading floors to communicate about block trades, said its venue “will enable investment banks, market makers, agency broker, proprietary and principal trading firms to find, negotiate and unwind large positions anonymously, cost-effectively and within a single transaction without the risks of market movement or information leakage.”
The operation, headed by former Fidessa LatentZero executive Christopher Gregory and former BNP Paribas sales executive Christopher Brazier, is projected by its founders to go live in the first quarter of 2013.
Squawker does not describe its professional social networking technology in detail. But the firm says it will eliminate both algorithmically driven orders as well as middlemen in negotiations.
Its approach will combine “personal interaction and behavior with the efficiencies of electronic processing” to produce “an electronic venue free of toxicity.”
Here’s how Squawker describes the process:
Instead of a central algorithm deciding what, when and how things trade, Squawker provides an electronic communication environment with social networking principles that gives control over the entire trading process to the user, from liquidity discovery through to negotiation and trade execution.
The venue will be the equivalent of a centralized, electronically run interdealer brokerage, it said, “with the benefit of end-to end transaction processing, compliance monitoring and audit trail.”
Institutions will connect to Squawker using the Financial Information Exchange protocol and communications connections.
Squawker plans, on launch, to operate in these countries:
* Austria
* Belgium
* Denmark
* Finland
* France
* Germany
* Great Britain
* Ireland
* Italy
* Luxembourg
* Netherlands
* Norway
* Portugal
* Spain
* Sweden
* Switzerland
And these types of financial instruments:
* Shares
* ETFs
* Unit Trust
* Warrants
* Convertibles
* Bonds
* Swaps
* Rights
* Futures
* Forwards
* Currencies, Money Markets and FRNs
