Pan-European multilateral trading facility (MTF) Turquoise has confirmed its Block Discovery service will go live in October.
Turquoise first revealed the new service, which will make it easier for market participants to trade blocks of shares on its dark book, to theTRADEnews.com in April.
In a note to members, Turquoise said it plans to push the service live on 20 October, subject to customer readiness.
The service enables market participants to place block indications subject to a minimum size threshold, enabling provisional child orders to be recalled should a block match present itself.
Turquoise has made available full details of the service as well as updates to its existing services description available for members.
Block Discovery is currently available in Turquoise’s Customer Development Service for testing, enabling members to ensure it is compatible with existing software.
Brokers that do not wish to directly support Block Discovery will also be able to opt-in to have passive orders resting on Turquoise Uncross be exposed to block indications to identify additional potential matches.The service already has the backing of JP Morgan, Instinet and Bank of American Merrill Lynch and Turquoise expects more to come on board before the launch date.
James Baugh, head of pan-European sales and marketing at Turquoise, said Block Discovery has also been well received by the buy-side. "The buy-side is demanding alternative block crossing opportunities and block discovery will enable us to step this up to the next level."
"The timing is right with end clients facing the double volume caps and the direction of travel in the industry is towards more large-sized trades for institutional investors," he added.