Dark Pools for futures trading?

Discussion in 'Order Execution' started by laputa, Apr 21, 2008.

  1. laputa

    laputa

    I wonder if there is any dark pool for trading futures? It doesn't seem possible right cos the future contracts are actually created by the exchange?
     
  2. From my understanding, it does not exist.
     
  3. The problem is that with options/futures contracts is that the order has to be crossed back at the exchanges but this doesnt mean that its not possible to create a dark pool for futures. This is a pretty new space even for Equity options space. Two companies off the top of my head who are provding this in the equity options space is Ballista and 3D Markets.
     
  4. laputa

    laputa

    Hopefully (for me anyways) they would never have dark books for futures. No one knows what kind of impact there is to the price discovery process. For now I guess it's still safe to trust the price action in futures markets...
     
  5. In order to have dark books you'll first need to have the possibility of executing at more than 1 venue... as long as all executions are centralized there's no room for dark books...
     
  6. That's not true. You could essentially build your own ECN/ATS and match and negotiate orders internally before printing them to the open markets, you basically match buyers with sellers then cross the orders back at the central exchange once everyone agrees on the order you now force the central exchange to take everything and in essense provide a dark pool of liquidity for everyone using your proprietary system.
     
  7. hmm... you're right, ex-pit transactions...