TSX Datalinx today announced it will be launching a consolidated market data feed of pre and post trade data for equity marketplaces in Canada.

TSX Datalinx says the Consolidated Data Feed (CDF) will be independently operated and the feed will be distributed in a common standard format so that market participants and technology intermediaries can easily and quickly integrate the data into their current applications.

According to TSX Datalinx, this offering will reduce the time to market and costs of building to multiple feed formats for these stakeholders and will help facilitate best execution and trade through obligations.

“TSX Datalinx has been an aggregator of marketplace content for some time,” says Eric Sinclair, senior vp, TSX Datalinx. “This product brings much of the industry marketplace content together under a single format while still ensuring that all pre and post trade data from each participating marketplace is distributed to the industry”.

TSX Datalinx will pass through all the pre and post trade market data that each participating marketplace produces, including depth of book data, and will apply a common format. TSX will also pass through each individual marketplace’s fees for their respective data.

Some Alternative Trading Systems (ATSs) have also expressed their early support for the initiative. “The market needs a consolidated data feed”, says Douglas Steiner, chairman and CEO of Perimeter Financial Corp. “We support TSX Datalinx in their efforts and look forward to the successful implementation of the CDF for Omega and BlockBook ATS data feeds”. Tal Cohen, senior vp of Instinet Canada says “We recognize that the proliferation of market centers like ours will require participants to review their best execution criteria, so by disseminating our data through a recognized provider we hope to make this process as seamless as possible”.

The CDF will be launched in the first quarter of 2008. Information on launch date and specifications on format will be provided shortly, TSX Datalinx says.