Omega ATS, the low latency alternative trading system for exchange-listed equities and fixed income instruments, today announced that it has introduced Smart Order Routing (SOR) based on OSC sanctioned TSX/TSXV CBBO.
Omega ATS can now provide SOR at no additional cost to users and send orders to each marketplace even when a quote is not displayed in the CBBO. As a result, all orders placed via Omega ATS are able to participate in both dark and lit liquidity markets to deliver price improvements where possible.
With Omega's SOR, routed orders will be sent sequentially to each marketplace and kept intact, ensuring maximum share limits of orders are not exceeded, and at the same time reducing the probability of additional ticketing costs to the participant. Intact orders tend to avoid the creation of a 'trading footprint' that might result in the investor being beaten to liquidity by algorithmic trades. In addition, the SOR can work in conjunction with Omega's book through protection when properly tagged, while secondary routing priority for other protected marketplaces is configurable. All orders routed out are IOC, and the remainder may be booked on Omega if desired.
The intact order routing system offers a further advantage with respect to removing liquidity from semi-dark books such as icebergs, as the entire order could be filled at once even if the liquidity is not entirely visible.
"In Canada, the decision about whose SOR to use is now much more challenging," states Mike Bignell, President of Omega ATS. "Almost every broker offers a router, and with venues also getting in on the act, there is now a confusing array of options available to investors. By making our SOR available for free, we offer access to all pools of liquidity at first sweep achieving the best possible execution price."
With the launch of SOR, Omega ATS provides an impartial alternative to broker offerings that are in many cases tied to 'liquidity partners'.