Despite the gloom and doom, the beat goes on this side of the pond. Plans are in the works to start an electronic futures exchange, known as Four Seasons, to rival the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). Among those said to be backing the platform are Bank of America, Barclays Bank, Citadel Investment, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, eSpeed, Getco, JPMorgan Chase, Merrill Lynch, Peak6 Investments and the Royal Bank of Scotland. Other potential investors include Goldman Sachs and UBS.

Rumour has it the new exchange will be open for business this year, starting with US treasury futures trading. Currencies, stock indexes and wheat products will be added later. This is good news for algorithmic traders anxious to expand their models beyond the equities markets. Algorithms work best in markets with multiple execution venues because they help clients optimise their execution by electronically determining how much of an order should be sent, to which market centre it should be sent, as well as when the order should be sent.

Filed under: Exchanges, MFT, Securities & Capital Markets