Off-exchange trading

[lostsoul]

Off-exchange trading refers to equity trades that occur outside of public stock exchanges like the NYSE and Nasdaq. It includes:

• Dark Pools: Private trading venues used by institutional investors to execute large orders anonymously, reducing market impact.
• Internalization: Broker-dealers match client orders internally instead of sending them to an exchange, often benefiting from bid-ask spreads.
• Negotiated Trades: Trades executed directly between parties, often through investment banks or market makers.

These methods have grown in volume due to institutional demand for lower costs and reduced price impact, but they also raise concerns about market transparency and fair price discovery.

[lostsoul]

The fact that off-exchange trading—dark pools, internalized trades, and other negotiated trades—now represents a larger share of equity trading volume than traditional exchanges means that price discovery is increasingly happening outside of public markets.

This shift has been happening for years, driven by:

• Institutional trading preferences: Large investors often use dark pools to avoid moving the market with their trades.
• High-frequency trading (HFT): Internalization allows broker-dealers to match orders internally rather than routing them to exchanges.
• Regulatory changes: Some regulations (like Reg NMS in the U.S.) have incentivized off-exchange trading.

It raises concerns about transparency and fairness. With a smaller portion of trades occurring on public exchanges, it becomes harder for the broader market to determine fair prices based on supply and demand.