Now Plus Markets have launched their service I thought I would compare their prices against those on the London Stock Exchange. Cant see any compelling reasons (price or volume) for any broker to use Plus markets yet! It'll be interesting to see how it all unfolds. This snapshot was taken at 10.30am today from Plus Markets Top Gainers.

Retail Decisions
Plus markets		Bid	153		Offer	158		Volume	170057
London Stock Exchange		Bid	154.5		Offer	155		Volume	1406484

Armorgroup Plus markets Bid 88 Offer 90.75 Volume 63565 London Stock Exchange Bid 87.5 Offer 90.75 Volume 191277 Eurotunnel Plus markets Bid 23 Offer 25.5 Volume 41010 London Stock Exchange Bid 24 Offer 24.75 Volume 287056 Wyevale Plus markets Bid 500 Offer 525 Volume 2875 London Stock Exchange Bid 507.5 Offer 519.5 Volume 1406484 Helical Bar Plus markets Bid 310 Offer 320 Volume 0 London Stock Exchange Bid 313 Offer 320 Volume 197885 Vernalis Plus markets Bid 74 Offer 77 Volume 11746 London Stock Exchange Bid 75 Offer 75.5 Volume 66488 NSB Retail Plus markets Bid 29.5 Offer 31 Volume 71213 London Stock Exchange Bid 29.75 Offer 30.5 Volume 184500 Moss bros Plus markets Bid 80 Offer 84 Volume 0 London Stock Exchange Bid 81.5 Offer 83 Volume 10000 Jarvis Plus markets Bid 89 Offer 91 Volume 14745 London Stock Exchange Bid 89 Offer 90 Volume 50000 Vitec Plus markets Bid 380 Offer 400 Volume 0 London Stock Exchange Bid 384 Offer 395 Volume 8065

I seem to be increasingly using limit orders these days and not only are some executed via Plus but have just had one "Executed Off Market". What does that mean please?

I suppose as far as volume is concerned as long as it is as low as 2% it's hardly likely to be very significant.

Thanks for flagging it up though chaps, worth checking their site from time to time for individual shares volumes.

Stan it probably means your broker was already working an order in the opposite direction to yours so he simply matched them without routing through an exchange

CC - I don't think Turquoise are transacting yet, but existing trades are being routed through Plus, Virt-x, and Chi-X. I read that Chi-X accounts for 5% of the total trading volume transacted in the Eurozone and I got the impression some of London's business is going that way too. The US-based 'BATS' operation is planning to launch here as well - they are aggressive and likely to take business away from the existing operators by the sound of it.

It's all very well introducing competition to the exchanges, but it seems to me the result is rendering the LSE-based Level 2 and trade reporting obsolete. I can't understand why there isn't a regulatory need to have a unified platform, though I suppose a large attraction of Turquoise is the very fact that they aren't as transparent.

I guess traders can start to throw L2 in the bin within the next couple of years, unless something changes.

European Stock Exchanges: BATS Arrival on Foreign Shores Should Add Competitive Pressure on Equity Platforms

An FT article states that BATS will today announce plans to launch in Europe this autumn. Founded in 2006, the Kansas City, Missouri-based Better Alternative Trading System has quickly become the third-largest share trading market platform in U.S. equities. Last month, BATS handled about 1.1bn shares, or about 11.3% of all Nasdaq-listed stock volume and 8% of NYSE-listed shares.

1 BATS is an exchange operator with a proven ability to take on incumbent exchanges. We regard their decision to launch in Europe as confirmation of our thesis that LSE and Deutsche Boerses Xetra will suffer from stiff market competition and pressure to reduce trading fees.

2 BATS is very competitive on pricing. BATS gained significant market share in the U.S. on the back of an aggressive pricing policy (Exhibit 1).

In January 2007 they started offering heavy discounts on Nasdaq stocks to gain market share, even though this meant they were losing $5m in a month. BATS increased market share from 3% to double digits and managed to hold on to these gains after raising prices again.

1 When they started offering NYSE securities in February 2007 they managed to get 7% share in just 7 months once they introduced discounts in September 2007.

2 Randy Williams, vice-president for sales and communications, said: We are going to be just as aggressive in Europe as we have been in the US.

BATS is backed by brokers and high-frequency traders. BATS is backed by 11 investors, including Citibank, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and Getco, a proprietary trading firm that is one of the largest market-makers in US equities.

1 Of the most often cited competitors to the European players (Chi-X, Turquoise and BATS), so far only Chi-X is fully operational. Chi-X launched last year in the European market, and has gained significant levels of market share, capturing as much as 10% of FTSE 100 trading and 7% of DAX 30 trading on some days. Project Turquoise has been delayed by a lack of a dedicated management team and discussions about the technology platform. These issues appear to be solved and launch is now expected for the middle of 2008.

On the question of volumes I notice today (so far) that there is twice the number of trades on Plus then there are on the main market for XUKS.

First time that I have noticed that there is any more then about 3-4% of volume in comparing the main and the Plus market (on a share that I am interested in), I wonder what it will be like at the close.