BIDS Trading announced its anonymous alternative trading system (ATS) for U.S. equity block trading saw 355.2 million shares traded during the month of July. On average the system saw about 16.9 million shares crossing per day in July.

The total shares traded for the month of July was up more than 90 percent over the month of June, which stood at a total of 187.5 million shares being traded, averaging 8.8 million per day.

And Tim Mahoney, chief executive officer of BIDS Trading, expects those numbers to continue to rise. “As more firms connect to our platform and liquidity builds, volume on the BIDS ATS will only continue to increase,” says Mahoney.

He adds, “It’s difficult to predict the pace of volume, but as the platform is rolled out to buy-side firms, BIDS Trading’s negotiation features and new order types are likely to be utilized more. This additional interaction should make executions on the platform more flexible and further boost volume.”

Mahoney says that ATS’ for block trading are becoming a more mainstream vehicle for buy-side traders. “Because of the automation and the number of platforms available, the buy-side trader will play a much more active role than they have in that past,” he adds.

As for more clients coming onto the BIDS platform, Mahoney says the company is actively seeking both buy and sell-side clients and he “expects to make some announcements in the near future.”

The BIDS network was officially launched in April and is open to qualifying broker-dealers and their institutional clients. According to BIDS Trading, the shares traded figures are double-counted to include both sides of the transaction.