A Conversation with Alasdair Haynes, founder and CEO of Aquis Exchange. AIM-listed Aquis is a process innovator in the field of share trading and stock exchange technology. In offering the World's first subscription-based pricing Aquis offers its customers a marginal cost to trade of zero. The platform also reduces toxicity, or the impact cost of trading, improving execution efficiency. Aquis also runs a primary listings business called the Aquis Stock Exchange which competes with the LSE's AIM market for listings for smaller growth companies. Additionally, as a technology provider, Aquis offers services to exchanges and trading venues in other geographies and product markets.

Over the last four decades, stock market trading technology has changed completely. National stock exchanges have become more focused on data provision creating an opportunity for newer more adaptable businesses to emerge that can focus directly on the needs of their customers. The Aquis platform offers demonstrable improvements in efficiency as well as cost savings for market intermediaries and their customers (investors) which has driven market share gains over recent years. Aquis already provides 22% of market liquidity in European equities but has just a 5-6% share of the volumes traded. This provides significant scope for further market share gains over time.   

Alasdair has a long history of innovation in the exchange technology sector from his early beginnings as a trader with Morgan Grenfell and subsequent leadership roles at ITG, Chi-X and now Aquis. Our discussion covers the role of change in presenting opportunity, how liquidity improvements drive volume gains and how there is an opportunity in primary listings to create the NASDAQ of Europe via the Aquis Stock. Exchange.

Guest, Alasdair Haynes, https://www.linkedin.com/in/alasdair-haynes/ https://www.aquis.eu/aquis-exchange

Guest host, Ben McKeown, Director at Dowgate Wealth https://dowgatewealth.co.uk/our-team/ben-mckeown/