ITG Brings Posit Alert to Mexico

With the launch, buy-side traders sourcing liquidity on the Bolsa Mexicana de Valores (BMV) will be able to anonymously cross blocks of shares with minimal leakage. Eric Blake, ITG's head of Latin America, tells Buy-Side Technology that Mexico's star is still shining bright as opportunity in Brazil has tapered slightly.

"Mexico offers a ripe opportunity," Blake says. "The changes in Latin America over the last couple of years, with the slowing of growth in Brazil and the relatively stable growth [in Mexico] when compared to the other markets in Latin America, have made Mexico an attractive place."

According to the firm, Posit Alert notifies buy-side traders to liquidity that matches orders on their trade blotter, helps them to prevent information leakage on large orders, and reduces their market impact by having their orders matched at the midpoint with no need for negotiation.

"There's a lot of smaller mid-cap names whose costs are quite high in Mexico, when you look at volatility and spread costs. Providing a means to access liquidity at a midpoint without impact is very attractive to our clients," Blake says. "There are also some recent changes in Mexico that now allows for a cross within the exchange. So, in conjunction with the BMV we're looking to leverage that to provide liquidity to the exchange at a midpoint price."

The addition of Mexico marks the 30th market globally where Posit Alert is available, and for future growth in Latam, ITG will continue to look at the Chile, Columbia and Peru in partnership with the Mercado Integrado LatinoAmericano (MILA) integration.

Additionally, the broker is looking to expand its footprint in the Asia-Pacific region. Posit Alert is already available in Hong Kong, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.

ITG recently won the Waters Rankings award for Best Agency Brokerage.