Best non-bank site for equity trading
Island
Island wins the award for best non-bank site for equity trading because it is a simple and efficient platform that offers a lot of liquidity. “Trading stocks is a commodity business,” says Jack Vensel, vice-president of sales at Island. “We need to be faster and more reliable than anyone.”
In August of this year, Island executed 11.9% of Nasdaq trades, beating Instinet by 1.5%. This was despite having fewer than half as many Nasdaq orders on its book, and despite being only three years old compared with Instinet’s 30 years.
“I think Island is terrific,” says Scott Gruder, an OTC trader at Win Capital. “I found Instinet extremely expensive so I went to Inlet [Island’s web-based platform], and I hardly use Instinet now. In the past four to five months, since I’ve been using it, I do about 50% of my business on it. I think it is the first preference of a lot of users, which is great for me.”
Island claims it can receive, match and confirm trades in three milliseconds. It also says that its system can handle up to the combined total volume of trade at both the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq on their heaviest trading days.