The international exchange industry remains in flux. Most people assume that the trend toward globalization is intact and going strong, but then again, we've recently seen the LSE's effort to buy TMX fall apart. And the jury is still out on the Deutsche Bourse-NYSE Euronext proposed merger.

All this is playing out amid an increasing sense of urgency among exchanges, a sense that the future is not guaranteed unless they do something dramatic. In addition to deals, the activity of choice at the moment is to fundamentally rethink their infrastructures, investing in technology to attract volume and make themselves a critical venue for traders. This presents an opportunity for dark pools, which have been suffering from lower volume all year.

LiquidNet, for example, is aiming for more partnerships with overseas exchanges that would provide access to the firm's platform. Liquidnet recently launched a new service with the SIX Swiss Exchange, giving Swiss brokers access to block liquidity via dark pools. According to Wall Street & Technology, "While exchanges are single market focused, this partnership will give the Swiss access to a total of five European markets. Next, Liquidnet is going live with the four next major European markets: The U.K., France, Germany and the Netherlands, and plans to add other markets. Apparently SIX Swiss Exchange had a previous block system and they closed that down."

This globalist strategy seems to be working, and the company is pursuing more revenue in Europe, Asia and Latin America. It is forecasting a healthy bump in revenue from its global operations this year.

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