Chi-X

Chi-X is a "multilateral trading facility" (MTF). Licencing by the UK's Financial Services Authority means it has been passported through to provide services to firms throughout the European Economic Area due to the MiFiD.

The owners, (majority owned by Instinet Europe) claim their platform is of a faster, cheaper and higher capacity alternative to trading on-exchange. Chi-X was the first order driven pan-European matching engine and central limit order book or Multilateral Trading Facility (MTF) to start trading.

Details of claims are:

TRADING ON Chi-X IS CHEAPER - Equity trading is up to ten times cheaper (estimated cost advantages based on an Chi-X internal review) than trading on Europe's traditional stock exchanges. Built on a low cost business model, Chi-X offers lower explicit transaction costs [Click here to find out more]

TRADING ON Chi-X IS FASTER - Traders can execute trades on Chi-X up to ten times faster than major European exchange order driven systems measured by Transact Tools

MiFID COMPLIANCE - Market participants have the opportunity to route orders and trade report to help satisfy MiFID best execution and transparency requirements

STANDARDISED CONNECTIVITY - Chi-X connectivity is provided using the FIX (Financial Information eXchange) protocol 4.2

TRADING ON Chi-X REDUCES YOUR MARKET IMPACT - Traders can slice and represent their orders across a number of liquidity pools to reduce their market impact

REDUCTION OF IMPLICIT TRANSACTION COSTS - Chi-X could help reduce implicit transaction costs

WIDER TRADING OPPORTUNITIES - We offer trading opportunities when the main markets are closed

ARBITRAGE OPPORTUNITIES - Trading on multiple venues in the same instruments offers arbitrage opportunities

TIMING AND OPPORTUNITY COSTS ARE REDUCED - Real time clearing and greater certainty of execution significantly reduces trading costs

LIQUIDITY FLOW - In addition to the flow of market participants who can smart route to Chi-X as part of their MiFID compliant best execution policy



Chi-X


The Chi-X core is comprised of three primary applications: the Matching Engine, FIX, market data connectivity and a number of secondary applications. The Matching Engine is a proprietary system that resides on the Linux operating system.