Meritz Securities will diversify its real-time quote network for U.S. stock daytime trading. The move aims to reduce inconvenience for Korean retail investors trading U.S. stocks after the alternative trading system (ATS) Blue Ocean halted quotes for some tickers. To that end, it signed quote agreements with other U.S. ATSs, including Bruce Market and Moon, and could launch the service as early as next week.
According to the securities industry on the 4th, Meritz Securities is pushing to revamp its U.S. daytime trading system—previously based on Blue Ocean—by adding real-time quotes from other ATSs.
The plan is to pluralize the quote supply network so that investors trading U.S. stocks during Korea daytime hours (10 a.m.–6 p.m., or 9 a.m.–5 p.m. during daylight saving time) can check prices and bids/asks in actually tradable markets regardless of whether a particular ATS provides quotes.
The measure follows Blue Ocean's suspension of quotes for 18 tickers under the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ATS fair access rule, including SOXL (ICE Semiconductor Index 3x leverage), KORU (Korea index 3x leverage), SNDU (SanDisk 2x leverage), and RAM (DRAM ETF 2x leverage), which created a gap in quote provision by domestic securities firms.
Blue Ocean ATS's total trading volume also fell after the related action. According to Blue Ocean's tally, the average daily trading volume at Blue Ocean ATS was 91.43 million shares from Aug. 5–31 (local time), but dropped to 47.5 million shares from Sept. 1–3 (local time). That is a 48.1% decrease compared with the August daily average. On Sept. 1, volume was 44.93 million shares, down 50.9% from the August average, and on the 2nd and 3rd it remained at 47.6 million and 49.97 million shares, respectively.
Meanwhile, demand among domestic investors for U.S. stocks remains high. According to Korea Securities Depository (KSD), the total purchase settlement amount of U.S. stocks by domestic investors rose from $1,011.75 million on the 1st to $1,116.51 million on the 3rd. It topped $1 billion for three consecutive days in September.
A securities industry official said, "With Blue Ocean's quote provision halted, it has become difficult for domestic investors to check real-time prices and bids/asks for U.S. stocks during daytime hours," adding, "Starting with Meritz Securities, multiple domestic securities firms are reviewing various ways to improve services so that quote information can also be checked on other ATSs such as Bruce and Moon."