IEX grabs attention in Wall Street debut: first full day of trading

Sept 2/16

Wall Street’s “speed bump” hit the markets on Friday — ironically, one of the slowest trading days of the year.

IEX, the exchange upstart featured in Michael Lewis’ bestselling “Flash Boys,” had its first full day of trading all major listed stocks.

It captured about 1.4 percent of the stock market, making it the ninth-largest exchange by volume.

“We just finished a toast of champagne,” said Ronan Ryan, IEX’s president.

IEX took about two weeks to do a full rollout, starting out with just two stocks on Aug. 19. A few days later, it experienced a small glitch — a delay between some data feeds — that was patched the next day.

The exchange, led by Chief Executive Brad Katsuyama, incorporates a 350-microsecond delay, or “speed bump,” that aims to level the trading field and prevent superfast traders from jumping the line.

That controversial feature sparked a Wall Street war. Exchange rivals like the Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange, as well as high-speed trading outfits, tried to derail IEX’s application to become a public exchange operator.

http://nypost.com/2016/09/02/iex-grabs-attention-in-wall-street-debut/