Dark Pools
Dark pools are marketplaces where the price and quantity of orders are hidden, i.e., they provide no pre-trade transparency. While initially developed as electronic crossing networks to facilitate institutional block trades, dark pools now allow for various order types permitting anonymity in order to minimize market impact costs and provide for better execution. These costs are incurred when the execution of an order moves the price of a security above the target price for a buy order (or below the target price for a sell order). Dark pools help to minimize information leakage about a large order before it is executed, whether through broker chatter or otherwise (the forces of supply and demand generally work to move prices down in the face of a large sell order and move them up in the face of a large buy order, so by hiding order size a buyer or seller my get better executions as a result). The benefits associated with dark pools must be weighed against the cost of missed execution on transparent markets. The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) conducted an extensive review of dark pools (among other market structure issues) which began prior to 2009 and has resulted, most recently, in proposals to amend trading rules discussed in detail under “Proposed Changes to Regulations Governing ATSs”.