UNX, Inc.'s New ECNSweeper Option Provides Investors More Control Over Their Trades; Unique Order Routing Feature Finds 'Hidden' Orders on the ECNs.Business Editors/High-Tech Writers BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 19, 2001 UNX UNX Universal Network Exchange , Inc., a real-time(1) professional trading firm, has added an ECNSweeper(TM) option that uses UNX's proprietary smart order router to search multiple ECNs in seconds for the best price, but doesn't send the order to market makers, minimizing market impact. Unlike other trading systems that simply send trades to the ECN (Electronic Communications Network) A computerized, private financial trading system. Terra Nova Trading (www.terranovatrading.com) and Instinet (www.instinet.com) are examples. that quotes the best price, UNX's ECNSweeper hunts for hidden orders on the ECNs that aren't reflected in the visible spread. The company, known for its basket trading capabilities and trade execution quality, also announced that it has made it easier to trade single stocks. "Our ECNSweeper is the most powerful tool available to take advantage of electronic liquidity," said Matt Ridenour, Chief Executive Officer of UNX. "UNX's unparalleled ability to sweep all Sweep All is a card game which from Eastern China. the liquidity out of the ECNs will be particularly useful for large money managers who want to unwind Unwind 1. The closure of an investment position. 2. The reconciliation of an error previously unseen by a brokerage house. Notes: 1. Sometimes referred to as closing out a position. positions quietly." Trades routed on the ECNSweeper may be partially filled if there isn't sufficient liquidity at the ECNs. Rather than being sent on to market makers, the remainder is then cancelled, but can easily be resubmitted as a standard market order to be filled by either ECNs or market makers, or periodically run through the ECNSweeper until the order is filled. UNX customers can use the ECNSweeper for both stock basket trades Basket trades Related: Program trades. and for the newly enhanced feature -- single stock trading. "Our clients have already traded over 200 million shares through the UNX system. We found that some traders were so impressed with our execution quality for basket trades that they started using the system for single-stock orders," said Randy Abernethy, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of UNX. "To make it easier to trade individual securities on the UNX system, we added a separate single stock trading function." The company recently released results from a study by Elkins/McSherry that demonstrate UNX's world-class execution quality. The study showed that UNX trades have beaten the spreads of NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange stocks 99.9 percent of the time and the spreads of NASDAQ/AMEX stocks 79.0 percent of the time (2). UNX has always given its customers trade performance transparency, a feature that will be increasingly important in coming months as the SEC mandates increased performance reporting. "The ECNSweeper and our enhanced single stock trading platform demonstrate UNX's commitment to roll out features that meet the needs of current customers and to broaden our appeal to all types of institutional investors Institutional Investor A non-bank person or organization that trades securities in large enough share quantities or dollar amounts that they qualify for preferential treatment and lower commissions. ," said Mr. Ridenour. UNX's patent-pending technology allows investors to select or create custom portfolios of stocks or "stock baskets" and trade them as easily as they trade a single security(3). UNX is the only online basket trading firm that offers investors unlimited, real-time trading, not just a few windows each day in which investors can execute trades. UNX investors are also free to build a stock basket with any NYSE, NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on or AMEX AMEX See: American Stock Exchange stock they choose, rather than having to pick from a limited selection. About UNX Founded by a software architect and a trader, the mission of UNX, Inc. is to provide a sophisticated, yet easy to use, electronic brokerage system for professional traders and money managers. The UNX trading platform allows professional investors to create, trade and track, in real time(1), unlimited numbers of NYSE, AMEX and NASDAQ stocks in unlimited numbers of baskets for their portfolios. To date, UNX has traded over 200 million shares, representing $11 billion in principle. Average executions, from the time the order is placed to the time an execution is recorded, take place in less than 40 seconds with less than 4 basis points of slippage Slippage The difference between estimated transaction costs and the amount actually paid. Notes: Slippage is usually attributed to a change in the spread. See also: Spread, Transaction Costs Slippage from the National Best Bid or Offer (NBBO NBBO National Best Bid and Offer )(1). UNX was the first Web-based basket trading firm and uses a proprietary, patent-pending smart order router to execute transactions. UNX is a member of NASD/SIPC (1) Market volatility and volume may delay system access and trade execution. Past performance is not indicative of future results. (2) The study, conducted by Elkins/McSherry (E/M E/M Electro/Mechanical E/M Evaluation Model ), evaluated all 170.8 million shares traded by UNX from January 3, 2000 to December 5, 2000. E/M calculates the spread by measuring the volume weighted average purchase and sale prices for trades executed during the time the order was handled by UNX. (3) One click will put in motion individual orders for the securities selected in a basket. |
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