Dark pool trader Liquidnet pledges more AI use to boost portfolio performance
‘We’ve evolved from being a simple dark pool operator into a global fintech player,’ says Seth Merrin, Liquidnet’s CEO and founder, boosted by its recent acquisition of Otas Technologies
Officials at Liquidnet say the US-based institutional “dark pool” trading operator has pledged to make even greater use of artificial intelligence in future, to provide more analytical information and increase the use of computer power to improve client portfolio performance.
Dark pools are a type of alternative stock trading system that gives investors the opportunity to place mainly large orders and trades without publicly announcing their intentions.
Liquidnet directly connects large-scale investors. It claims to have created an improved global institutional marketplace for those seeking higher investment, better performance, and capital-raising opportunities on a bigger scale.
This new generation of stock-trading venues are used mostly by institutional investors for “block trades” involving large number of securities, and have caused considerable debate among the industry over their ability to price stocks more flexibly than exchanges.
The rapid adoption of such technology by Liquidnet, and other start-up networks, has already allowed successful and extensive expansion of online investment platforms, so-called robo-advisers, and various wealth management operations, while the overall performance of traditional active managers has declined.
