Encanto Potash Corp V.EPO.H

ATS - Alternative Trading Systems (Tri-Act et al)...hmmmmm

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Often times, institutional investors use an ATS to find counterparties for transactions instead of trading large blocks of shares on national stock exchanges. These actions may be designed to conceal trading from public view since ATS transactions don’t appear on national exchange order books. For example, a hedge fund interested in building a large position in an equity may use an ATS to prevent other investors from buying in advance. ATSs used for these purposes may also be referred to as dark pools.


To avoid the transparency of public exchanges and ensure liquidity for large block trades, several of the investment banks established private exchanges, which came to be known as dark pools. For traders with large orders who are unable to place them on the public exchanges, or want to avoid telegraphing their intent, dark pools provide a market of buyers and sellers with the liquidity to execute the trade. In 2016, there are more than 50 dark pools operating in the United States, run mostly by investment banks.