The Alpha alternative trading system achieved a new activity milestone in April, with over 725 million shares traded during the month, the Alpha Group reported on Wednesday.

The growth was particularly noticeable during the second half of the month with the Alpha ATS reaching an average volume market share in Toronto Stock Exchange-listed securities of almost 8.5% across all Canadian transparent marketplaces. This was accompanied by way of a staggering 300% increase in the number of daily trades over the course of the month, translating to increased liquidity.

“It is the result of market participants pointing more order flow toward Alpha in a progressive and controlled process of adopting a true multiple marketplace environment in Canada,” said Jos Schmitt, CEO of the Alpha Group.

“What fuels our growth is the combination of the fairness of our model, our technology leadership and the support of the industry for an industry driven initiative,” added Schmitt. “Growth also uncovers new challenges or highlights known ones, such as the need for fair and efficient consolidated Canadian market data, the need to determine what the right opening price for a security when multiple markets provide a variety of different prices, and the need for an efficient trade-through protection mechanism. [There are] multiple areas where Alpha voiced its concerns and works with all industry stakeholders to identify the best solutions for the Canadian market.”

Alpha Group was established in May 2007 by nine of Canada’s major financial institutions with the aim of increasing the country’s equity trading efficiencies and making the Canadian marketplace more globally competitive. Its ownership group consists of BMO Capital Markets, Canaccord Capital Corp., CIBC World Markets Inc., CPP Investment Board, Desjardins Securities Inc., National Bank Financial Ltd., RBC Capital Markets, Scotia Capital Inc. and TD Securities Inc.