Asian Dark Pools Boom as Investors Seek to Hide Tracks
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When Kent Rossiter seeks to place large orders to trade Asian stocks -- a common scenario given his employer, Allianz Global Investors, is among the biggest asset managers -- he finds computers are his allies.
To ensure competitors don’t sniff out his plans and make it more expensive to buy or sell, Rossiter turns to platforms such as Liquidnet Holdings Inc. and Investment Technology Group Inc. In the old days, he would’ve used a human broker. The Hong Kong-based trader isn’t alone, fueling a boom in volume at electronic block-trading systems -- sometimes called dark pools -- that give investors anonymity.