Cowen and Company Signs Sponsorship Agreement with BIDS Trading
NEW YORK, NY – April 26, 2011 – Cowen and Company, the Broker/Dealer unit of Cowen Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: COWN), and BIDS Trading, L.P., an alternative trading system (“ATS”) designed to increase competition and liquidity in the U.S. equity block trading market, today announced the signing of a sponsorship agreement that allows Cowen and Company to provide customers direct and anonymous block liquidity in both BIDS Trading and NYBX.
“We are pleased to become a sponsoring broker with BIDS Trading, which will give our clients access to reliable liquidity in the markets,” said John O’Donoghue, Head of Equities of Cowen and Company. “This value-add service, combined with our already robust trading platform, demonstrates our commitment to best servicing our clients’ increasingly diverse trading needs.”
BIDS Trading supports a sponsored access model that allows buy-side clients to select a broker to pay for their trading activity in the BIDS ATS. Buy-side clients benefit by more effectively utilizing their commission dollars to pay for the goods and services provided by their broker/dealer partners. BIDS Trading allows market participants to trade large blocks of equities without revealing their order. Information disclosure is controlled by the trader via customizable trading tools: traders set their minimum block size to help protect their order and they can filter out counterparties based on past trading behavior.
“We are very excited to add a firm of Cowen and Company’s caliber to our growing list of sponsoring brokers,” said Tim Mahoney, CEO of BIDS Trading. “This agreement furthers our efforts to continue to create an open, efficient marketplace in the BIDS ATS, and offer the broadest participation and deepest liquidity pool possible to anonymously trade blocks of U.S. equities.”
Media Contacts
Zoë Norinsky, BIDS Trading, L.P.
Email: zoe.norinsky@bidstrading.com
Tel: +1.212.618.2600
Peter Poillon, Cowen Group, Inc.
Email: peter.poillon@cowen.com
Tel: +1.646.562.1983
About BIDS Trading, L.P.
BIDS Trading, L.P. is a registered broker-dealer and the operator of the BIDS Alternative Trading System (ATS), which was designed to bring counterparties together to anonymously trade large blocks of shares. Developed by a consortium of leading financial services firms, BIDS Trading resolves the classic paradox of the block trader – the need to find legitimate trading counterparties without prematurely revealing trading intentions. For more information, visit www.bidstrading.com.
About Cowen and Company
Cowen Group, Inc. is a leading diversified financial services firm providing alternative investment management, investment banking, research, and sales and trading services through its business units, Ramius and Cowen and Company. Its alternative investment management products include hedge funds, fund of funds, real estate funds, healthcare royalty funds, cash management and commodity trading funds, offered primarily under the Ramius name. Cowen and Company offers industry focused investment banking for growth-oriented companies, domain knowledge-driven research and a sales and trading platform for institutional investors. Founded in 1918, the firm is headquartered in New York and has offices located in major financial centers around the world. For more information, visit www.cowen.com.
©2011 New York Block Exchange, LLC. NYBXSM and New York Block ExchangeSM are service marks of NYSE Group, Inc. and are used by New York Block Exchange, LLC under license. BIDS Trading® is a member of FINRA, NYSE, and SIPC. BIDS Trading and the BIDS Trading mark are protected in the United States and countries throughout the world.