Online retailer Overstock.com expects trading to begin on its blockchain-based alternative trading system before the end of the year, according to company officials.

The ATS will be operated by Overstock.com subsidiary TO as part of the company’s Medici Project, and it will only handle trades in the company stock, at least at first. So while it’s not an immediate competitive threat to the existing field of 13 U.S. stock exchanges plus several dozen ATSs, the initiative will be closely watched as a gauge of the potential of distributed-ledger technology in capital markets.

The ATS will write completed trades to its blockchain instead of routing them to the National Securities Clearing Corp., a subsidiary of Depository Trust & Clearing Corp., for clearing.

Overstock.com plans to prime the liquidity on the ATS through a new issue of corporate shares to existing shareholders the day before trading commences on the new trading venue.

T0 officials plan to formally announce its partnership with a broker-dealer on Sept. 12. “For those who want to trade on the ATS, they will have to create an account with the broker-dealer,” said Overstock’s man-in-charge Judd Bagley, who declined to name the brokerage firm.

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Online retailer Overstock has stepped up its plans to issue “digital securities” through the acquisition of a 25% stake in alternative trading system (ATS) PRO Securities, according to Wired.

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BrokerDealer.com blog update courtesy of extracts from ThisDayLive.com

Often referred to as alternative trading system, electronic communication network has revolutionised trading on stock exchanges around the world. Despite initial apathy, dealing member firms of the Nigerian Stock Exchange are now embracing remote trading in a bid to woo retail investors writes, Eromosele Abiodun.

Following the introduction of technology, stock markets around the world have grown in leaps and bounds. The Nigerian stock market is a special example of the extent institutions can go if the right steps are taken in the right direction.

The impact of technology on the Nigeria stock market has been phenomenal, indicating the extent institutions can go when the right tools are employed. Technology indeed has taken control of the guts of business and made it possible for tiny, agile companies and stockbroking firms to become contenders.

In a bid to take the local bourse to the next level, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) had in 2005, introduced remote trading or Electronic Communications Networks (ECN), a system that enable brokers to trade in the comfort of their offices without having to come to its trading floor in Marina.

As you would expect, most stockbroking firms for some reasons (mainly financial reasons) failed to embrace the system, preferring rather to come to the NSE trading floor in Lagos.

Irked by their lukewarm attitude to its effort, the NSE did issue a statement calling on stockbroking firms to embrace remote trading and enjoy the many benefits instead of coming physically to the trading floors on a daily basis.

The NSE’s Deputy General Manager/Acting Head, Market Operations and IT Directorate, Mr. Ogbonnanya Osita, had at that time disclosed that there were already 235 remote trading connections in Lagos besides those deployed in branches across the country.

According to him, the remote trading system enables stockbrokers to trade from their offices without having to come to the floor of the exchange in person, adding however, that stockbroking firms are connected based on request.

Osita had noted that the number of dealing member firms that are using the system is growing rapidly, explaining that most of those stockbrokers who are still coming physically to trade are doing so because of the need to keep relationships with their colleagues.

While the attitude of a few elicited the exchange’s call for change of behaviour, some stockbrokers described remote trading as one of the commendable innovations in recent times.

For instance, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Stanbic IBTC Stockbrokers Limited, Mr. Akeem Oyewole, had told THISDAY that remote trading has helped the growth of the market greatly and has improved the performance of his company.

“We have 10 stockbrokers in our company and it is only one of them who goes to The Exchange’s trading floor to trade physically. The remaining nine trade remotely from our office. It is working fine, it has been a blessing to our operations,” he said.

Also, the Chief Executive Officer of APT Securities and Funds Limited, Mallam Kasimu Kurfi, had told THISDAY that his company was the first to start remote trading at the NSE.

“We have been using it since inception and we have never encountered any serious problem.”

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