DIY Investor Magazine
/
September 2016
10
WE CAN HELP THEM MAKE BETTER INFORMED
TRADING AND INVESTMENT DECISIONS
THE BATS ADVANTAGE AT A GLANCE
REAL TIME DATA
Bats Indices change the way investors see the
market allowing them to track market movements as
they happen, better informing trading and investment
decisions.
HIGH QUALITY PAN-EUROPEAN DATA
Bats is the largest pan-European stock exchange
with coverage in 15 national markets. Its Indices are
valued using trading taking place on its exchange;
the quality of the stock prices on Bats markets are
better than or equal to those on national markets.
ROBUST, TRUSTED, REGULATED
Bats is a stock exchange regulated by the UK’s
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) committed to
improving markets; it delivers world-class technology,
products and services that bring choice and
competition to the benefit of all investors.
BETTER BY DESIGN, CHEAPER, MORE
FLEXIBLE
Bats Indices are highly correlated with comparable
benchmarks that investors use every day and provide
accurate and reliable index data.
Transparency:
Bats publishes the rules
and calculation methodology behind its indices.
Consistency:
Each index has a base value
of 10,000 from 31 December 2010 which
makes the performance of markets and sectors
easy to compare.
Access:
Simplified index licensing and reduced
costs has significantly increasing the distribution
of Bats real-time index data via broker and
media websites.
Pan-European:
Comparable benchmarks
across Europe for the first time all created with
the same methodology.
Sara Wilson, head of platform proposition at Alliance
Trust Savings said ‘The launch of the new indices
is extremely positive news for the industry, giving
investors the chance to access real-time stock market
information from a respected source,’
A key feature of Bats’ proposition is that its new indices
are available in real-time, a fundamental departure from
the previous practice of showing fifteen minute delayed
prices until the point of trade.
Those using a platform with fifteen minute delayed
prices are shown an indicative price and then receive
a live quote when their order is responded to by the
retail service providers (RSPs) – the market makers;
Bats delivers a major benefit by serving up live prices
throughout.
Bats CEO Mark Hemsley said the indices would bring
competition to a market that had become inefficient,
expensive and lacked innovation to the point where
customers had demanded change.
‘15 minutes is an enormous amount of time in financial
markets,’ he said. ‘You can look to see where your taxi
is in real time, and yet the average retail investor can’t
see the direction of the market in real time.’
‘By giving investors an accurate, immediate view of
precisely where the market is moving, we can help
them make better informed trading and investment
decisions. We’ve sought to make markets
Better, and more cost-efficient, for investors
and traders – a first and very important step in
improving index provision in Europe.’
Another key benefit is that because each of the
indices has a base value of 10,000, it is easy to
compare the relative performance of markets and
sectors.
Bats began in 2005 as an alternative trading
venue aimed at bringing competition and
innovation to the U.S. equities market; it now
trades around a quarter of European stocks every
day and competes strongly for market share with
world-class technology, products and services,
delivering competition to monopoly style market
structures.
