Island ECN

From MarketsWiki

This page needs a sponsor.

Put your logo here!

Email us for information on how to support MarketsWiki.

Island ECN (electronic communications network) became one of the financial markets' fastest-growing electronic trading networks in the two years after it was spun off from parent company Datek Online in late 2000, when it was the market's second-largest. From then until its acqusition by Reuters-owned rival Instinet in 2002 for over $500 million,^[1] Island increased its NASDAQ exchange daily share order flow from 200 million to over 500 million and grew its NASDAQ-trading market share from eight percent to 12 percent over the period.^[2]

Parent company Instinet Group then amalgamated Island ECN and its own Instinet ECN into a new electronic marketplace called INET, the company announced in late 2003, shortly after a major fee reduction.^[3] Less than two years later the NASDAQ group announced it would buy the Instinet Group for an undisclosed sum and incorporate the INET ECN platform into its own.^[4] The recently established NASDAQ Options Market trades options electronically using an equities-trading system it acquired from INET.