BATS Volume Gains Despite IPO SNAFU

BATS Global Markets was the worst of the worst of botched initial public offerings in recent financial history.  How bad is it when an exchange cannot adequately handle its own offering?  It was a disaster.  What is amazing is that the botched IPO has apparently not destroyed its use an alternative exchange.  The company is sending around media relations emails showing that the trading volume in April was one of its months ever as far as U.S. equity trading volumes.

The firm noted, “BATS reported one of the best U.S. equities months in its history, with 11.5% market share in April, up from 10.6% one year ago and 10.9% in March. The BATS BYX Exchange earned a new monthly market share record with 2.8% U.S. equities market share, and BATS Options reported 3.1% U.S. equity options market share, up from 2.4% in March.  Seven new exchange traded funds were launched on the BATS Exchange in April, bringing the total number of ETFs now listed on BATS Exchange to 16.”

The NYSE Euronext, Inc. (NYSE: NYX) and Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. (NASDAQ: NDAQ) may have to be alone as far as the publicly traded exchanges that trade U.S. equities.  BATS may keep its relevance in share volumes, but its chances of coming public have dwindled severely.

By the way, our inquiries never were answered over how many programmers and IT-workers were fired after that botched IPO.

JON C. OGG