REPORT
    Execution Quality in the NYSE Market
    9th January 2009

    New York, NY, USA January 9, 2009

    An extensive study from Celent compares and ranks execution venues for NYSE stocks.

    In a new report, Execution Quality in the NYSE Market, Celent examines the execution quality achieved by market centers for NYSE-listed securities for the period July 1, 2008 to September 30, 2008. A total of 179 market participants covering more than 18.8 billion orders for over 7 trillion shares were measured and ranked by Octavio Marenzi, head of Celent, and Chermaine Lee, analyst with Celent’s Securities and Investments group according to the execution speed and prices.

    Overall, market centers’ frequency of price improvement has increased for all types of venues since the last report, which covered the period December 2007 to March 2008. Electronic order books have gained ground by growing their share of the NYSE market from almost 25% to more than 40%. On the other hand, exchange specialists have experienced the most significant fall in market share from 65.6% to 44.4%.

    Overall, BIDS Trading retained its leading price performance in NYSE-listed issues from the last execution ranking, while alternative trading system-turned-exchange BATS Trading was ahead in the speed rankings.

    Table 1: Overall Ranking of Market Centers

    Price RankingMarket CenterSpeed RankingMarket Center
    1BIDS Trading1BATS Trading
    2EBX2Nasdaq MC
    3NYFIX3ArcaEx
    4E*Trade Cap Mkt4Van der Moolen
    5Nasdaq MC5Direct Edge (ADF)
    Source: Celent analysis

    In this report, Nasdaq MC (Nasdaq Market Center) achieved the best prices, whereas BATS Trading retained its top speed ranking in this study among major electronic order books. In the market maker category, E*Trade Capital Markets achieved the best prices for client orders, while Knight executed incoming orders at the fastest rate. With Susquehanna dropping its services and Van der Moolen being bought over by Lehman Brothers (now Barclays Capital), there has been a shakeup among the NYSE specialists. La Branche and Van der Moolen ranked first among their peers in the cumulative price and speed tables.

    Table 2: Ranking the Major Electronic Order Books (EOB)

    Price RankingMajor EOBSpeed RankingMajor EOB
    1Nasdaq MC1BATS Trading
    2ArcaEx2Nasdaq MC
    3Direct Edge ECN3ArcaEx
    4BATS Trading4Direct Edge ECN
    5LavaFlow5LavaFlow
    Source: Celent analysis

    Table 3: Ranking the Major Market Makers

    Price RankingMajor Market MakersSpeed RankingMajor Market Makers
    1E*Trade Capital Markets1Knight
    2Citadel Derivatives UBS Securities2UBS Securities
    3Getco Execution Services3ATD
    4ATD4Citadel Derivatives
    5Citadel Derivatives5E*Trade Capital Markets
    Source: Celent Analysis

    Table 4: Ranking the NYSE Specialists

    Price RankingMajor SpecialistsSpeed RankingMajor Specialists
    1La Branche1Van der Moolen
    2Wagner Stott Bear2Wagner Stott Bear
    3Spear Leeds & Kellogg3Spear Leeds & Kellogg
    4Van der Moolen4La Branche
    5Banc of America Specialists5Banc of America Specialists
    Source: Celent Analysis

    The 38-page report contains 23 figures and 9 tables. A table of contents is available online.

    of Celent's Securities & Investments research services can download the report electronically by clicking on the icon to the left. Non-members should contact info@celent.com for more information.