Alternative trading firm Alpha Group will launch its new exchange on April 2 and shutter its alternative trading system.
The Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada announced Wednesday that Alpha Exchange Inc., which was approved as an exchange in December 2011, will officially begin operations on April 1, and will start trading on April 2. With the launch of the new exchange, the last day of trading on Alpha ATS will be March 30.
Once the exchange replaces the ATS, all open orders with an expiry date beyond the last trading date on Alpha ATS will be automatically migrated over to Alpha Exchange. The IIROC notice says that this means that all open good-till-cancel, good-till-time, and good-till-date orders will continue to be open orders when trading commences on Alpha Exchange.
Alpha Exchange will be able to list and trade equities, debentures, exchange-traded funds and structured products. It will also offer trading in securities listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the TSX Venture Exchange. Only dealers that belong to IIROC are eligible to be a member of Alpha Exchange.
IIROC says it will administer the timely disclosure requirements imposed on issuers that are listed on the Alpha Exchange, such as coordinating halts and monitoring trading for disclosure-related issues, as it does with other Canadian exchanges. Short position reports for securities listed on Alpha Exchange must be filed with the exchange, and then it will use this data to report to aggregate short positions to IIROC.