BioVaxys Technology Corp. C.BIOV

FYI: Regarding high volume trading platforms

[frankman]

FYI ATS (Alternative Trading System) was used by anonymous trading today so far for over a million shares has been the main trader. 

Summary

• Alternative Trading Systems (ATS) are a trading venue that matches buyers and sellers for transactions.
• ATS face less regulation compared to traditional stock exchanges and primarily focus on finding buyers and sellers of securities.
• Trading conducted on ATS is not publicly available, which is especially popular for traders, such as institutional investors who wish to trade large amounts of securities altogether.

What Do Alternative Trading Systems Do?

Alternative Trading Systems play an important role in public markets as an alternative to traditional stock exchanges to access market liquidity or how quickly an asset can be sold for goods or services

An ATS is particularly useful for those who are conducting large quantities of trading, such as investors and professional traders, since the skewing of the market price can be avoided as with regular stock exchanges. It is because trading conducted on ATS is not publicly available and does not appear on national exchange order books. There are also fewer rules involved, other than those governing conduct.

Alternative Trading Systems – Examples

Some examples of ATS include electronic communication networks, dark pools, crossing networks, and call markets.

1. Electronic Communication Networks

Electronic Communication Networks (ECN) are a type of ATS that enables major brokerages and individual traders to trade securities directly without going through a middleman. Thus, traders from different geographical areas of the world can conduct trades easily.

The system allows trades to happen outside the traditional trading hours associated with stock exchanges, which means that traders can make trades based on after-hours news. An ECN makes money by charging a fee for each transaction through access fees and commissions, which are a downside for traders since per-transaction charges quickly add up.

2. Dark Pools

Dark pools are another type of Alternative Trading Systems that are considered controversial since the trades are done out of the public eye, clouding the transactions.
Trading that is done through the private exchanges often involves a large volume of securities conducted through block trades by institutional investors (organizations that invest money on behalf of others), such as mutual funds, pension funds, and insurance companies. Sometimes, such investors are known as the “Whales on Wall Street.”

3. Crossing Networks

Similar to dark pools, crossing networks allow trades to happen outside of the public eye. Since the details of the trade are not relayed through public channels, the security price is not affected and does not appear on order books.
Often, the accounts in which the trades are conducted can be anonymous, which is highly advantageous for traders. It should be noted that dark pools and crossing networks are legal, although they’ve undergone scrutiny by the financial press and news outlets in recent years.

4. Call Markets

Call markets are a subset of ATS that group together orders until a specific number is reached before conducting the transaction. As such, trades are done at predetermined time intervals. A call market, therefore, determines the market-clearing price (the equilibrium value of a traded security) based on the number of securities offered and bid on by the sellers and buyers, respectively.
A key component of call markets are auctioneers, who are responsible for matching the supply and demand for a traded security before arriving at an equilibrium clearing price, which is the price at which market orders are traded.
In contrast to call markets are auction markets, which conduct trades as soon as a buyer and a seller are found who agree upon a specified price for the security.