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NASD, Instinet discuss link
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March 2, 1999: 8:23 a.m. ET
Informal talks explore ways to centralize trading of Nasdaq stocks
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - The Nasdaq stock market and brokerage firm Instinet Corp. reportedly may team up to centralize the trading of Nasdaq stocks.
Instinet is holding informal talks with the National Association of Securities Dealers about a possible joint effort, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. Instinet, a unit of Britain's Reuters Group PLC, revealed earlier this week that similar discussion are under way with the New York Stock Exchange.
The talks have not progressed to discussion of money or equity stakes, the paper said.
The outcome of the talks could help determine who will dominate the trading of Nasdaq shares. The NYSE has become increasingly concerned about competition from the Nasdaq, where some of the biggest, most prestigious technology and Internet stocks are traded.
And both the Nasdaq and the Big Board face competition from electronic communications networks, or ECNs, such as the one run by Instinet. ECNs make trades at all hours for big financial institutions that don't want to be constrained by limited sessions on the Big Board or Nasdaq.
Instinet is the country's largest ECN, and trades about 15 percent of Nasdaq volume.
Instinet has talked informally with Nasdaq about a link for several years, the Journal reported, but discussions have accelerated recently as a result of changes in the market. Doug Atkin, Instinet's chief executive, told the paper Nasdaq is potentially interested in having Instinet act as its "consolidated limit-order book," a place to centralize all customers' orders to buy or sell stock within specified price limits. 
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