Trader’s Narrative

BATS is a new ECN that is getting a lot of attention. It was founded by David Cummings, who previously started up Tradebot Systems and previous to that was a wheat trader. The upstart company is located in Kansas, away from the major financial centers. Yet it has grown considerably in just a few years. It’s goal is to become a competitor to NASDAQ by undercutting them in price.

If you’re using IB it is one of the ECNs that you can get routed to from the SMART routing algorithm. If you are looking at level II quotes, it shows as CINN. Right now it is a ‘matching engine’ only but BATS has already filed with the regulatory agencies for full exchange status.

Here is an Economist article for more details (don’t know for how long it will be up).