(pictured: Tristan Baldwin)

Liquidnet, the institutional trading network, has launched a new suite of liquidity-seeking APAC equities algorithms (algos) designed to improve the trading performance for Australian institutional investors.

Liquidnet’s “Next Gen Algos” leverage the company’s pool of institutional liquidity spanning five continents and13 billion shares per day. The suite also offers enhanced control for buy-side traders giving them the ability to set price limits and minimum execution sizes.

The Next Gen Algo suite marks a continuing expansion of Liquidnet’s execution ecosystem throughout its global community of more than 800 institutional investment firms, who collectively represented more than US$14 trillion (AU$19 trillion) in equity assets under management, as of the end of March 2016.

Tristan Baldwin, head of Liquidnet Australia, said the new tools offered institutional traders a complementary option to natural sources of liquidity.

“Asset managers are continuously challenged with a supply and demand imbalance when trading blocks. Our Next Gen suite is designed to free large Australian institutional traders from the ongoing challenge of constantly seeking liquidity so they can instead focus on alpha generation.”

The Next Gen Algo suite includes Liquidnet Dark, which searches for liquidity within Liquidnet and across multiple dark venues. Liquidnet’s existing block crossing network, live in Australia since 2008, directly matches block-sized orders executed by institutional investors, minimising information leakage and price distortion during each trade, while providing institutional investors with a safe environment in which to trade in size.

The Next Gen Algos complement Liquidnet’s natural liquidity pool by selectively sourcing liquidity throughout the market while the order remains represented in Liquidnet, should a natural contra offer appear.