Canadian Trading and Quotation System Inc. (CNQ) today announced a new volume-based trading fee schedule which reduces the cost for investment dealers participating on its listed market.

The new fee model will take effect on Friday, Oct. 17, in conjunction with an upgrade of CNQ’s trading system to the X-stream platform used for the last two years by CNQ’s Pure Trading.

“The new ‘per share trading fee’ competes directly with the other stock exchanges offering significantly lower rates, taken as a whole. The new fee model provides much better incentives to liquidity providers in low priced stocks and caps fees at a maximum amount per trade, which the other exchanges in Canada do not,” says Rob Cook, president of CNQ.

A fee per share model is standard on most other marketplaces including Pure Trading, CNQ say.

For securities priced at $1 or above, the new fee per share is $0.0014. with the maximum fee being $50 and the minimum fee being $1.

For securities priced below $1, the new fee per share is $0.0006, with the maximum and minimum fees the same as for securities priced at $1 or above.

Odd lot trades will be charged at the same rate per side with the maximum fee per side reduced to $0.50 and with no minimum fee.

Crosses will be charged a flat fee of $9.75 per trade

Designated Market Makers’ passive orders, in their designated stocks, will receive a credit or rebate of $0.0003 per share per trade for stocks trading below $1 and $0.0007 for stocks trading at or above $1, with a maximum credit of $25 per trade. This credit will also be applied to any and all market maker odd lot trades in their designated stocks, to a maximum of $0.50 per trade.

As before, there are no monthly access fees for dealer’s participating in CNQ’s listed market.

CNQ says it has been able to introduce lower fees than exist in any other Canadian marketplaces for “active trades” in small cap stocks due to the unique features of the CNQ market. The fee for cross trades is also reduced by more than 50% from the current fee schedule.