Plato Aims to Standardize Block Trading Performance with New Utility

The Plato Partnership, the organization comprising asset managers and broker-dealers that work together to introduce services and solutions to the global equities markets, is seeking to solve the issue of assessing block trading performance, as upcoming European regulations limit dark pool trading and forbid Broking Crossing Networks (BCNs).

According to Plato, the changing trading landscape in conjunction with the regulatory framework where buy-side firms will have stricter best execution obligations, creates the need for a product that can help measure different aspects of a block trade.

Essentially, the firm is trying to establish definitions around new protocols and measurements around block trading, as to date the buy side has had no means of measuring block trading performance or the ability to make the necessary comparisons in order to make better trading decisions.

Plato aspires to be the first entity to help standardize this type of execution performance, as so far, there isn’t one commonly agreed methodology to assess it. The new research, which will produce a new entity, will make use of previous attempts of standardization, efforts that have so far have failed due to the lack of data.

According to Plato, the firm, along with LiquidMetrix, will compare one methodology to the other, determine what works and what doesn’t, and then design the utility to match the needs of the industry.