JERSEY CITY, N.J., July 16, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Edge ECN announced that yesterday's volume for its Enhanced Liquidity Provider ("ELP") Program was over 100 million shares, the first time daily volume has crossed the 100 million share threshold. ELP volume crossed the 50 million share mark for the first time less than three months ago, on April 23. Direct Edge's overall touched volume yesterday was a record 1.23 billion shares, the second time overall volume has crossed the billion share mark in the last week. ELP volume was 119 million shares, accounting for 9.73% of the total.
"Being the first market center to provide access to numerous pools of dark liquidity has given Direct Edge a substantial advantage in the marketplace," said William O'Brien, Chief Executive Officer of Direct Edge ECN. "The extraordinary growth of ELP volume confirms the value proposition behind this innovation: bringing together both displayed and dark liquidity in a way that provides superior execution quality and flexibility for both sides of the trade."
About the ELP Program
Direct Edge's pioneering ELP Program offers subscribers integrated access to multiple sources of displayed and dark liquidity. Historically, traders had to seek executions in either the displayed market or a single "dark pool." Direct Edge was the first displayed market center to offer a comprehensive solution for firms looking to aggregate liquidity of all types. By facilitating dark liquidity participation in its market, and giving subscribers access to a vast network of non-traditional liquidity, the ELP Program improves the Direct Edge trading environment by increasing a subscriber's opportunity for price and size improvement and lowering potential market impact.
Direct Edge launched the ELP Program in the spring of 2006, years ahead of its competition, and is now seen as the standard for how a market center can offer a comprehensive set of liquidity options to a broad variety of market participants. The ELP Program has helped Direct Edge establish itself as a recognized leader and innovator in offering next-generation trading solutions.
About Direct Edge ECN
Direct Edge ECN offers the next generation of displayed markets. Through multiple platforms and unique order types, Direct Edge matches complementary forms of liquidity based on sensitivity to transaction cost, fill rate, fill speed, and contra-side sophistication while maintaining high execution quality and low latencies. Direct Edge is owned by a consortium that includes Knight Capital Group, Citadel Derivatives Group LLC, and The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. Direct Edge's average daily touched volume for June 2008 was 720 million shares. More information about Direct Edge is available at http://www.directedge.com. Everybody Needs Some Edge.
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