5. Secondary Markets Flashcards
What are the 3 main purposes of exchanges?
- Central location: facilitates trading by providing a central location for buyers and sellers to meet
- Regulated: both members and traded companies regulated - this gives greater confidence in market
- Transparency: Price discovery mechanisms; both pre and post-trade transparency requirements
What is the major exchange in Europe and its trading system?
- Euronext
- Electronic
What is the major exchange in Japan and its trading system?
- TSE
- Electronic
What is the major exchange in Germany and its trading system?
- Deutsche
Börse - Electronic
What is the major exchange in the UK and its trading system?
- LSE
- Electronic
What are the major exchanges in the US and their trading systems?
- NASDAQ; Electronic
- NYSE; Electronic with some open outcry
What is post-trade transparency?
Obligation to declare price, volume, time etc after a trade is executed
What is pre-trade transparency?
Makes investors aware of prices available for security before
What is pre-trade transparency?
Investors must know prices available for a security before executing a trade
- this can be through market maker quotes or orders set out on order-book platform
What is the overarching purpose of exchanges?
LIQUIDITY - ability to buy and sell at a fair price
Difference between developed and underdeveloped markets?
Developed:
- offer sophisticated formal markets
- high degree of regulation
Underdeveloped:
- lower degree of sophistication
What are the unusual features of China’s market structure (two main types of shares and where they are traded)?
A shares:
- traded on Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges
- subject to restrictions
H shares:
- mainland Chinese companies listed in Hong Kong
What are the 6 typical conditions for listing on a main market?
- Must be a publicly traded company (Plc in the UK)
- Protection against dilution of ownership
- minimum market value and/or number if share brought to market
- established trading record
- production of a prospectus
- ability to meet ongoing requirements
What are the features of a public traded company to be accepted onto main market?
- shares are freely transferable (from public person to public person, company to company etc.)
- most exchanges will set a minimum free float; this means a minimum number of shares that must be freely available to every investor
- hence shares cannot just be freely transferrable, but also freely available to be transferred
What are the conditions set by exchanges to prevent dilution of ownership?
- pre-emption rights (built into ordinary shares - usually a condition of most exchanges)
- restrictions on shares issued through warrants and convertibles
What are pre-emption rights?
Gives existing shareholders first opportunity to buy any subsequent issues
What is the LSE restriction on shares issued through warrants/convertibles?
No more than 20 % of total issued shares
What is the typical time period to be considered as having an established trading record in Europe?
3 years
What are examples of the ongoing requirements firms must meet to be accepted onto an exchange?
- disclosure requirements around price sensitive info
Through what do firms disclose price sensitive information?
- Primary Information Provider PIP (aka. Regulatory Information Services - RIS)
What is the LSE primary information provider?
RNS (Regulatory News Services)
What are the 4 main alternative trading systems?
- MTF
- OTF
- Dark Pool
- Systematic internalisers (SIs)
What is an MTF?
Crossing network (matching engine) for equities
What is an OTF?
Crossing network (matching engine) for bonds and derivatives (and some structured products)
What is a Dark pool?
For off-exchange transactions
Exchange traded liquidity with OTC confidentiality through hidden orders
What are systematic internalisers?
Where an investment bank facilitates cross trades but as principal for their clients
- eg. an investment firm facilitates a trade between 2 of their clients - IB buys from seller and sells to buyer
What are the features of an MTF?
Operator: Market operator
Regulation: Treated as an exchange
- defined rules for members
- pre/post trade transparency requirements
Users: banks, mutual funds, insurance companies
Benefits: Alternative to exchanges
What are the features of an OTF?
Operator: Investment firms and private organisations
Regulation: Treated as an exchange
- defined rules for clients
- pre/post trade transparency requirements
Users: banks, mutual funds, insurance companies
Benefits: Alternative to exchanges
What are other names for an MTF?
- Electronic Communication Network (ECN)
- Alternative Trading System (ATS)
(used in the US - MTF is a European term)
What are the features of a Dark Pool?
Operator: Investment firms and private organisations
Regulation: Considered OTC unless volumes are too large a share of trading
Users: funds
Benefits:
- reduces market impact of large orders (as they are not visible to wider market)
- better pricing
- lower execution costs
- confidentiality
What is a DarK Pool treated as if trading volumes are v high?
An MTF
What are the features of systematic internalisers?
Operator: Investment banks
Regulation: Investment bank takes role of central counterparty
Users: Investment banks and their clients
What are the 3 main features of a quote-driven platform?
Market makers:
- prices controlled by price makers (market makers)
Bid/offer spreads:
- market makers quote bid/offer spreads (volume that can be bought/sold has a limit to stop firms forcing market maker to buy/sell too large volumes of shares)
Screen and phone based:
- market makers advertises prices on screen
- interested investors can call up an execute trades
What happens to the prices market makers are bound to beyond the specified limit?
These prices are ‘firm prices’ up until the limit (market maker is bound to sell/buy at these prices)
Beyond this level the prices become indicative and investors can negotiate directly with market maker
What are the 3 main features of an order-driven platform?
- Prices determined by buy and sell orders
- Orders awaiting execution placed on order book
- Electronic trading
What happens in the case of price agreement on an order-driven platform?
Automatic execution of trade
What does the electronic trading in order-driven platforms allow for?
- automatic execution
- automatic matching
- automatic reporting
What are the 5 main participants on exchanges?
- Brokers
- Dealers
- Dual capacity
- Market makers
- Acting as an inter-dealer broker
What does a broker do?
Act as an agent for a client
What does a dealer do?
Act as principal for their own account
What does a dual-capacity participant do?
Able to act as both agent and principal
What can dual-capacity participants be referred to as?
broker-dealer
What do market makers do?
Must provide prices at which it is willing to buy and sell a minimum of its chosen shares throughout the trading day
What does it mean to act as an inter-dealer broker?
- acts as an agent between two firms (central counterparty) in a riskless principal transaction
- provides a facility for trading amongst dealing community
- although it acts as agent it settles the transaction as if it were principal
Does an inter-dealer broker make profit from falls/rises in market?
No - they do not hope to make profits from price rises or falls by taking a position in the market
What is the main motivation to use an IDB?
- provides anonymity
- avoid having impact on market by buying into/getting out of a v large position (eg. by a market maker)
What is the process of executing a trade via IDB?
runs like a mini exchange
- take buy and sell orders from dealers
- when they can match an order they perform a cross trade
What is a cross-trade?
- buy from seller and then sell to buyer
- become a ‘central counterparty’
- this protects identity of each side of trade
How are IDBs regulated?
- must work on riskless principal transactions
- this means that they should act as a broker
- cannot take risk of transaction on themselves
- therefore only buy if they are immediately ready to sell
How do IDBs make money?
Charge fees/commissions