Bloomberg has announced access to its US equity pool as part of a new service called Bloomberg Pool, or BPool.
Developed in conjunction with BIDS Trading, BPool enables traders to interact with liquidity present on Bloomberg’s equities trading platforms and BIDS Trading’s alternative trading system (ATS), which acts as BPool’s order matching engine.
BPool shares the broker-sponsored access model implemented by BIDS Trading, which enables buy-side traders to fully allocate commission dollars to the broker of their choice and pay for brokerage services, such as research.
"BPool provides access to what the US equity markets have been looking for, a centralised, active and diverse marketplace," says Daniel L. Doctoroff, president and chief executive officer of Bloomberg. "Our clients now have a more efficient way to implement trading strategies and achieve better execution results."
As an integrated component of the trading tools available with Bloomberg’s order and execution management platforms, BPool gives traders the option to interact with centralised liquidity and configurable orders to help automate and optimise liquidity capture. From order-entry to execution, traders can monitor and control orders sent to BPool.
BIDS Trading’s ATS was founded by leading US brokerage firms in 2006 to provide an alternative, dynamic electronic marketplace for US equity block trading. BIDS Trading adopted policies designed to preserve broker relationships and bring counterparties together to trade large blocks of shares efficiently, confidentially and anonymously.
"Bloomberg joins more than a dozen financial services firms that created BIDS Trading in an effort to build an open marketplace that gives traders the flexibility to direct commission dollars to the broker of their choice," says Tim Mahoney, chief executive officer of BIDS Trading. "The injection of Bloomberg’s diverse order flow creates a deep and efficient liquidity pool in an otherwise fragmented marketplace."
As part of its alliance with BIDS Trading, Bloomberg made an equity investment in BIDS, joining a consortium of more than a dozen financial services firms. Raymond Tierney, president and chief executive officer of Bloomberg’s agency brokerage business, Bloomberg Tradebook, will represent Bloomberg as a BIDS board member. Jim White, an executive with more than 20 years of experience working with electronic equities markets, was named the global head of operations for BPool.
BPool technology is developed in conjunction with Bloomberg’s EMSX and SSEOMS product teams, while the decision engine is developed and operated by Bloomberg Tradebook, a US registered broker-dealer and member of FINRA.
