Yoichi Ishikawa of kabu.com Securities navigates the developments of PTSs in Japan and their effects on markets, traders and regulators.
(1) Could you tell us about the history of PTS in Japan and its growth over the past 3 years?
The history of Proprietary Trading Systems (PTS) in Japan began with the launch of PTS trading in September 2000 as the country’s first alternative stock trading platform. Initially, two brokerages developed and launched PTS operations geared primarily toward after-hours trading for retail investors, using the closing price at exchanges and VWAP for certain institutional investors. As a result, until April 2007, PTS trading never accounted for more than 0.2% of overall market volume (monthly basis). PTS trading volume, however, gradually began to expand starting in the second half of 2007 owing to the added liquidity provided by new link-ups between PTS operators and brokerage houses. In 2008, PTS midday trading was launched, offering smaller minimum price movements than the exchanges. PTS operators expanded to six firms, and a small number of international brokers began smart-order routing (SOR) operations.
2009 brought even smaller minimum price movements - less than 1 yen - and the launch of PTS stock price streaming through major information vendors such as Thomson Reuters, Bloomberg and QUICK. As a result of these advances, PTS trading exceeded 1% of overall market volume (monthly basis) for the first time in October 2009. Although the launch of the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s (TSE) advanced trading platform, Arrowhead, at the start of 2010 resulted in reduced latency and reduction of tick size, overall market trading value, including the Tokyo bourse, has not witnessed a significant increase. While PTS trading value, too, has not seen much in the way of growth, PTS trading is now primarily used by brokerage houses for algorithmic and electronic trading to capitalize on arbitrage trading opportunities to leverage the price discrepancy between the Arrowhead System and the smaller PTS price ticks. Arbitrage trading will likely grow to represent over half of all trading on the kabu.com PTS platform.
(2) What are the implications of the growth of alternative platforms/PTS - On clients?
Since 2009, Japan Consolidated Tape, which displays the best price from multiple markets (traditional exchanges and PTSs) using streams from major information vendors, has become the focus of attention regarding the trend toward a reduction of tick size, including less than 1 yen. While institutional investors are considering using SOR to efficiently execute trades at this best price, the challenges faced include: developing systems (OMS, back office administration, etc.) to link with PTSs, which have not been used until now; the formulation of internal rules and regulations; and dealing with environmental changes arising from greater liquidity in the Japanese equities markets, including PTSs.
- On sell-side firms?
Brokerage houses have focused attention on organizing internal policy governing PTS usage, the pursuit of reduced latency using collocation and the review of whether PTSs represent a viable alternative market trading platform and the capabilities of SOR, such as whether orders can be routed efficiently to multiple markets. From a policy perspective, after the start of 2010 several brokerage houses in Japan have revised their best execution policy to clarify SOR connections to PTSs.
As for settlement cost and counterparty risk, a growing number of firms, including those who previously avoided connecting to PTSs, are now considering using PTSs more intently because the Japan Securities Clearing Corporation (JSCC) will offer clearing services to alleviate these risks from July 2010. On the other hand, in terms of technology, the ability to develop advanced and sophisticated IT systems, including reduced latency networks and direct feeds from the markets, represents a pressing need in the battle for best execution, especially considering prices can fluctuate by the millisecond in SOR.
