• Contact us
      • Contact Us
      Have a question?
      Try speaking to one of our experts
      Contact us
      Information
      • Careers
      • Privacy Notice
      • Cookie Notice
      • Terms of Use
      • Office Locations
      Sign up for industry updates
      Stay up to date on Celent's latest features and releases.
      Sign up
      • Privacy Notice
      • Cookie Notice
      • Terms of Use
      REPORT
      Execution Quality in the US Equities Markets
      21st December 2005
      //Execution Quality in the US Equities Markets
      Boston, MA, USA December 21, 2005

      In an extensive study, Celent re-examines the quality of trade execution in the NYSE and Nasdaq National Market.

      In an update to a study first conducted in May 2005, Celent revisits the execution quality provided by market makers, ECNs, specialists and other venues in the US equities markets. The leading execution venues for NYSE issues and for the Nasdaq National Market were ranked according to their execution based on numerous criteria. The top three overall execution venues for each market are shown below.

      The Three Best Execution Venues

      Rank NYSE Nasdaq
      1National Stock ExchangeInstinet
      2Automated Trading DeskFidelity (NFS)
      3MadoffBear Stearns
      According to Octavio Marenzi, author of the study, "we refined our approach to measuring execution quality, in particular how price improvement is analyzed. Many participants in the markets rely on overly simplistic approaches to measuring execution quality, which can lead to specious conclusions". The report found very large differences between market centers, even for the same types of orders and same equities. The survey considered market centers' speed, as well as frequency and size of price improvement. The following market centers were included in the final rankings (in alphabetical order):
      Nasdaq NYSE
      AG Edwards ArcaEx
      ArcaEx ATD
      ATD Brut
      Attain Commonwealth
      Bear Stearns E*Trade
      Brut Fleet Meehan
      Citigroup GVR
      E*Trade Inet
      Goldman Sachs Knight Cap.
      Inet La Branche
      Instinet LaSalle Capital
      Knight Sec. Madoff
      Madoff MITS
      Merrill Lynch National Financial
      Morgan Stanley NSX
      Nasdaq MC NYFIX
      National Financial NYSE ITS
      Oppenheimer Pershing
      Pershing PSG
      Scottrade Scottrade
      TD Waterhouse Spear Leeds & Kellogg
      Tradebook Susquehanna
      UBS Cap. Mkts. UBS Cap. Mkts.
      UBS Securities Van der Moolen
      Wachovia Wagner Stott Bear
      Details
      Geographic Focus
      Asia-Pacific, EMEA, LATAM, North America
      Industry
      Capital Markets, Wealth Management