Lava Strives To Handle More Order Routing

Lava Trading is in talks with several exchanges to be selected as their private linkage and order routing service provider once Regulation NMS becomes effective. James Weber, managing director, said several deals are likely to be announced in the coming weeks. He declined to say which exchanges Lava is talking to. Lava and the American Stock Exchange inked a private linkage deal last week. The partnership makes Lava responsible for routing out orders to other markets that display a better price, the central requirement of Reg NMS. Lava has similar partnerships with both the Boston Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange. All Exchanges must be Reg NMS compliant by Feb. 5.There are still exchanges that have not decided their order routing solutions under Reg NMS, including the Chicago Board Options Exchange. The Philadelphia Stock Exchange and the ISE Stock Exchange chose Order Execution Services, Lava's chief competitor, to handle order routing. Officials at OES said they are in discussions with several exchanges as well.