Nasdaq has launched an experimental pricing program with lower access fees for 14 stocks representing both small and large capitalisation companies traded on US equity listings venues.
The program reduces the access fee to five cents per 100 shares from 30 cents per 100 shares in 14 stocks and reduces the rebates for liquidity provision on The Nasdaq Stock Market. This experiment will generate much-needed data about the impact of the level of access fees on areas that matter most to investors and public companies such as the level of off-exchange trading, price discovery, trading costs, displayed liquidity and execution quality.
"We have a bias to action and finding solutions based on empirical evidence," says Tom Wittman, Head of Global Equities and Executive Vice President of Global Trading and Market Services at Nasdaq. "Today we move forward proactively with our experimental pricing program to see how lowered access fees affects the quality of the markets for investors and public companies."
The duration of Nasdaq's experimental access fee program will be no less than four months. Periodically, Nasdaq's Economic and Statistical Research Group will publicly post the results of the program. Statistics to be analysed and discussed are changes in market share, displayed liquidity, effective spread and volatility amongst other metrics.
Nasdaq's Global Equities group builds and drives trading platforms that support global economies by creating fair and transparent markets, innovating in new regions and enabling greater opportunities for investors.
