Since the introduction of Xetra MidPoint six months ago, trading activities and liquidity in this closed Xetra order book where orders are executed

Since the introduction of Xetra MidPoint six months ago, trading activities and liquidity in this closed Xetra order book where orders are executed at the midpoint of the best bid/ask-spread, have continuously increased, with the average number of daily orders in the last month totaling around 12,000.

Xetra MidPoint saw a peak level of 28,000 orders, while the highest daily turnover to date was in the region of EUR40 million.

'Market participants are increasingly making use of Deutsche Börse's offer of trading orders at a neutral trading venue without market impact or conflicts of interest,' says Rainer Riess, Managing Director of Xetra Market Development at Deutsche Börse. 'Xetra MidPoint is the most successful offering in Europe for executing orders fairly and neutrally on an independent and regulated platform and we expect more success when we introduce Minimum Acceptable Quantity in June.'

Riess believes that the introduction of Minimum Acceptable Quantity on June 8, will make Xetra MidPoint more attractive for large-volume orders. Market participants will be able to define a minimum quantity for each individual order below which it should not be executed. Xetra MidPoint can also be used for all order sizes.

The previous minimum volumes of EUR25,000 in DAX securities and EUR10,000 in all others are to be abolished. This makes Xetra MidPoint even more interesting for most small orders in algorithmic trading.