http://www.batstrading.co.uk/resources/press_releases/BATSExchange3rdLargestFINAL.pdf The further establishment of BATS will basically enable the entire spectrum of the the world's securities to trade at extremely low rates.... BATS is shaping the framework of the future of trading all stocks....and other tradable securities.... Just a step closer to a truly "Universal" account from which one will be able to choose which stock, which security, which actual currency, commodities, cds....in the language of choice.... It will get there.... BATS has advanced quickly....and will continue to do so....
Until recently BATS was run out of a strip mall in Kansas City. Their costs are extremely low. The people who work there are also very talented. Their average round trip execution for equities is now well under 1 millisecond. This crushes the NASDAQ whose chairman, months ago, promised to focus on latency like a "laser". Latency is very important as the world moves to algo trading. A friend of mine knows the Founder and Chairman. This friend described the BATS founder as "needing a Dale Carnegie course", because he is abrasive. This is just the sort of personality that can shake up the entrenched players. BATS is faster, better, and cheaper than the NASDAQ and NYSE. And, I don't see how the latter two can compete on costs, being based in New York. The continual pull of gravity is dragging the NASDAQ and NYSE closer to BATS' volume.