The furore spawned by last month’s news that Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and UBS are to go head-to-head with European stock exchanges in trading the continent’s most liquid stocks proves nothing if not the schizophrenic forces at play in financial markets.
While market participants push stock exchanges to consolidate, other (and sometimes the same) participants have launched or invested in new electronic exchanges and alternative trading systems in direct competition.
