Hypocrisy? NYSE Opposes Dark Pools, But May Start One of Its Own

by YCharts Staff July 05, 2012

NYSE Euronext (NYX) chief Duncan Niederauer had an op-ed in yesterday’s Financial Times, with the headline “It’s time to bring ‘dark pools’ into the daylight.” In the piece, he said policy makers need to preserve open and transparent financial markets and “take a stand” against so-called dark markets to give investors more confidence in the system.

But while acting as the public champion for exchange-type trading, Niederauer has also proposed a program patterned after the dark pools run by places like Knight Capital (KCG) and Citigroup (C). That proposal has ticked off big brokers who stand to lose profits, reports the Wall Street Journal.

NYSE already runs a dark pool in Europe, called "SmartPool," in partnership with BNP Paribas, HSBC (HBC) and JPMorgan (JPM). But it's hard to fault the NYSE. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em to keep investors happy.