NEW YORK — Electronic-stock-market operator Direct Edge announced Monday it has opened up access to seven private trading facilities, letting traders route orders directly to some of the largest U.S. “dark pool” venues. Direct Edge, which runs two U.S. stock exchanges, has forged pathways to alternative-trading systems run by Barclays, Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse, as well as trading firms Knight Capital Group and Getco.
The move is the most recent in a string of agreements between publicly accessible exchanges and the dozens of private dark pools with which exchanges compete for the business of executing investors’ trades. The seven venues hooked up by Direct Edge in March represented more than 8.2 percent of consolidated volume in U.S. stocks.
Dark pools, set up to help big financial institutions carry out massive trades without tipping off competing traders, have drawn fire from critics who see some venues shifting from that role toward small, private exchanges for electronic traders. Bloomberg News
