Liquidnet, the electronic institutional block trader, announced the launch of Canadian equity trading.

Trading began on October 24. Including Canada, Liquidnet supports trading in 17 equity markets globally and has nearly 400 member firms who collectively manage more than $12 trillion in equity assets under management.

Since launching Canadian equity trading, Liquidnet’s exclusive liquidity pool of Canadian equities averaged 108 million available shares per day, it reports.

“The block-dominated nature of the Canadian marketplace is particularly well suited for the Liquidnet model of peer-to-peer large-block trading,” said Robert Young, managing director of Liquidnet Canada Inc. “During members’ first four days of trading, the average execution size was more than 80,000 shares, and the highest volume on any one day was more than 2 million shares. Our early success marks the formation of a new marketplace for Canadian equities that is built exclusively for the needs of the buy-side trader.”

“Liquidnet’s launch of Canadian equity trading has changed the way Canadian equities are traded on a global scale,” said Seth Merrin, CEO of Liquidnet. “Nearly half of all equity stock in Canadian-based public companies is held by asset managers based outside of Canada. Many of these firms are already Liquidnet members. It was remarkable to see them connect and trade Canadian equities in Liquidnet.”