The end of Turquoise seems to be at hand. Recall that the new-era trading system was set up by nine top banks--including Morgan Stanley (MS), Goldman Sachs (GS) and Citigroup (C)--with an eye on smashing the dominance of the old-line exchanges, notably the London Stock Exchange and NYSE Euronext.

Turquoise was a prime example of the several high-tech upstarts launched by the MiFID revolution. Turquoise and Chi-X were seen as the top alternatives right out of the gate.  But Turquoise anyway was not a huge financial success and the owners promptly put it up for sale--even as market share for all MTFs soared to abut 20 percent.

The LSE certainly seems bent on battling back other MTFs. It has purchased MillenniumIT for $30 million; it aims to use the technology to better compete. There could well be more consolidation ahead for other MTFs. We'll also see traditional exchanges step up their criticism of MiFID, which they believe gives the MTFs an advantage.   

For more:
- here's a Financial Times article

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