Citi said it has launched Citi Cross, a new alternative trading platform that allows clients in its dark pool to receive a more equitable match of shares as opposed to conventional methods based on latency and queue position.
According to Citi, the new alternative trading system is the first dark pool to leverage what it refers to as an "even allocation-matching algorithm" to fill orders on a per-participant basis, thus abandoning the price-time priority and pro-rata conventions. The bank said Citi Cross offers an alternative to the latency arms race by removing the notion of queue position.
"Citi Cross allows our clients with varying trading styles to provide a valuable source of liquidity to institutional and retail flows," stated Hannes Greim, Head of Citi Cross ATS, in the release. "By mitigating those factors which have generated market micro-structure advantages on other platforms, we have created a venue on which historically eschewed flows can interact in a controlled, equitable, and even manner."
In the same release, Dan Keegan, Global Head of Cash Equities, commented: "Innovation is core to our development and what clients have increasingly come to expect from Citi as we continually expand our product breadth and service offerings," said "Citi Cross levels the playing field, affording a low latency platform with commonality in how price improvement is shared across all market participants."
