TORONTO, July 6 /PRNewswire/ - Alpha Group today announced that, subject to
regulatory approval, it will implement a new trading fee structure as of
August 1st, 2009.
Jos Schmitt, CEO of Alpha Group, noted that "The rationale behind the changes
is two-fold: to help reduce the cost of trading and to promote liquidity."
To help reduce the cost of trading, Alpha Group will implement three changes:
- Reduce the active fees for low value securities (i.e. (less than) $ 1)
from 7 mils to 5 mils. This is a decrease of almost 30%, which makes
Alpha the lowest cost venue for low value securities. This fee
decrease affects 35% of the total volume traded in Canada across all
marketplaces - those trades where the cost impacts the dealer
community most.
- Remove any fees for trades executed in the opening auction, which
comprises a substantial portion of the overall trading cost for all
dealers in Canada. Alpha Group understands that many dealers are
trying to maximize the volume traded at the opening due to the cost of
trading during the continuous market. Now, not only is the cost of
trading during the continuous market lower, but moreover, trading at
the opening is free on Alpha.
- Remove the premium that was charged for odd-lot trades in TSX-V listed
securities.
To promote liquidity, Alpha Group will implement the following change:
- Increase the passive fee rebate for the high value securities (i.e.
(greater than or equal to) $ 1) from 29 mils to 31 mils. This increase
puts Alpha at the highest rebate levels in Canada and, in keeping with
its philosophy of not privileging anyone, is available to all dealers
regardless of their volume traded. These are the securities where
there is still room for improving the market spread, and increasing
the rebate will support more aggressive quotes.
"The cost of trading in Canada, is getting out of control", added Mr. Schmitt.
"This is the result of multiple factors: a large increase in active trades,
venues applying high active fees for low value securities, venues that apply
complex fee structures preventing dealers from fully understanding what is
driving their trading costs, and venues that put their profitability ahead of
the interests of the industry. Living by our mantra of 'For the industry, by
the industry' and having, thanks to our growth, the financial capacity to
absorb it, we decided it was time to step in and introduce some major
improvements to our fee structure to help tackle this issue. Expect more to
come."
About Alpha Group
Alpha Group was established in May, 2007 by nine of Canada's leading financial
institutions with the aim of increasing the country's equity trading
efficiencies and making the Canadian marketplace more globally competitive.
Its ownership group consists of BMO Capital Markets, Canaccord Capital
Corporation, CIBC World Markets, CPP Investment Board, Desjardins Securities
Inc., National Bank Financial, RBC Capital Markets, Scotia Capital Inc. and TD
Securities Inc.
For further information regarding Alpha Group, visit
www.alphatradingsystems.ca.
SOURCE Alpha Group
Ian Hendry, (647) 259-0410, ian.hendry@alphatradingsystems.ca
