Instinet is a division of Reuters. They offer access to their proprietary books (very similar to ISLD) for a fee and a per share charge. Usually they charge about a penny an a half per share so a thousand shares would cost you $15 plus any clearing charges.
Because of the cost assocaited with INCA, I strongly recommend that traders trade ISLD, Island, rather than even considering INCA. I find ISLD to have more volume to INCA, but that it is just an informatl evaluation.
ISLD is oriented toward traders while INCA is more for larger institutions. INCA had a monopoly for a while and so they could get away with their fees, now that ISLD is around, they might have to give in a bit.
As an example, lets say I were to go on the nasdaq terminal and trade against INCA 1000 shares. They would send me a bill for $15. Can you believe that? There they are, presenting themselves on the inside market, affecting soes cues, and the overall conditions of the market in the stock, and I enter an order to them, and then send me a bill? I would like to know where I ever signed up for that? Nasdaq says firms must comply. This is why most firms will avoid INCA and rather do it against ISLD which has no fee to the SNET trader.
Personally, I will always do the trade in whatever, against whatever firm that gets my client the best trade, but similar to firms that route away from listed exchanges because of floor brokerage fees, I am sure many firms dont go against INCA because of the fees.
Regards,
Steve@yamner.com
yamner.com |
