Scared Monkeys Discussion Forum

The shadowy world of dark pools is about to get a whole lot darker. Credit Suisse (CS) has announced it will no longer make public any data related to its Crossfinder platform, by far the biggest among a growing group of private trading venues known as dark pools. The investment bank on April 19 said it will stop sending data to Tabb Group or Rosenblatt Securities, two research firms that publish monthly statistics about dark pools. That data is pretty much the only clear window the public has into these private venues, which over the last few years have siphoned trading activity away from public exchanges such as the New York Stock Exchange (NYX) and Nasdaq (NDAQ).

Now, an increasingly important segment of the market threatens to become even more opaque than it already was. Unlike public exchanges, dark pools have no obligation to post pricing or trading-volume information, which is, of course, part of their appeal to investors seeking either better prices or to mask their activity from other market participants.