BeX failure bodes ill for Turquoise

The decision of the Boston Stock Exchange to shutter its new electronic equities trading venture BeX within nine months of its live launch in December last year is bad news for other up-and-coming competitors to established market venues.

BeX was set up with the backing of five of Wall Street’s most powerful investment banks. It was designed to take advantage of the new Regulation NMS rules for introducing more choice in execution venues.  

BSE says the BeX venture "struggled to gain market share in large part due to the overall strength of market incumbents". 

It’s the same argument that LSE chief Clara Furse used to head off entreaties from Nasdaq during its aborted take-over bid. Nasdaq steadfastly refused to raise its valuation of the LSE citing the implied threat to volumes on the London market from new competitors. 

The failure of BeX bodes ill for the ambitions of the Turquoise collective. Instinet Chi-X and Equiduct - the other new ventures seeking to make capital out of new European trading rules under MiFID - must also wonder what the future holds