Nickel ECN

Purpose:  Create a public lit market that has a minimum tick size of five cents rather than the current one cent tick size offered at stock exchanges today.  

Incentives for Brokers: The ability to internalize orders with bid/ask spreads of five cents rather than the current one cent spreads which will greatly enhance the profitability of internalization. 

Incentives for Market Makers:  Two cent price improvement beyond national best bid or offer (NBBO) and first access to sweep better priced quotes for instant profits.

Incentives for Liquidity Providers: A new way to peg block sized orders against the market and receive a two cent price improvement beyond national best bid or offer (NBBO). 

Incentive for Liquidity Takers:  The ability to access a competitively lit public market that offers block sized limit orders at market driven prices.  

Description: Deep ECN is a two sided lit market that will always price an offer quote and a bid quote at $.02 cents above or below the national best bid or offer (NBBO) at any given time.  Only the single largest bid and offer quote for each symbol represents the book.  Top of book in Deep Nickel ATS is largest order in the book which is very different than top of book based on time/price priority.  Smaller orders are encouraged to increase their size by at least a 100 shares to become top of book.   Size is bargained for price/first access to market.