Today, Bank CIC (Switzerland) Ltd. started trading on SIX Swiss Exchange. This brings the total number of trading participants on SIX Swiss Exchange to 113. Gregor Braun, Head New Member Sales, comments: "We welcome our newest participant on our Exchange and wish it successful trading on our high-performance platform."

Swiss banking tradition

As a Swiss bank that has been in business since 1909, Bank CIC (Switzerland) places its trust in the traditional values of the Swiss banking industry. With 100 years experience at its head office in Basel coupled with the backing of CIC (Crédit Industriel et Commercial), which is integrated with the Crédit Mutuel Group, Bank CIC (Switzerland) Ltd. offers all the services of a Swiss universal bank.

State of the art trading technology

SIX Swiss Exchange offers outstanding liquidity across a wide range of attractive trading segments. Participants benefit from cutting-edge trading technology and rapid admission while enjoying first-class services combined with expert support. Find out more on our website and in our publication Benefits for trading participants.

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Algomi provides access to SIX Swiss Exchange as a standalone connectivity service or integrated as a component of its Synchronicity pairing platform that is transforming the sales and trading of larger and less liquid instruments within banks and with their end clients.

"Algomi is pleased to extend its relationship with SIX Swiss Exchange and become a certified Application Service Provider", said Stu Taylor, CEO of Algomi. "We have a lot of demand for connectivity to SIX Swiss Exchange from our clients and we are excited to be able to offer access in a convenient package." Formed in 2012 by senior bank traders and technologists, Algomi has rapidly attracted top tier bank and exchange attention with its innovative capabilities that support credit trading in the new regulatory regimes.

Maneesh Wadhwa, Relationship Manager at SIX Swiss Exchange, commented: "We are very happy to see Algomi join our range of Service Providers. Our participants now enjoy more options to access the reference market for over 35'000 securities and to benefit from the world's most advanced trading technology."

A list of all approved Service Providers of SIX Swiss Exchange is available on our website.

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With today's launch of the segment for Sponsored Funds, investors in traditional mutual funds can enjoy for the first time all the benefits of regulated exchange trading on SIX Swiss Exchange. Thanks to the continuous pricing and instant order execution, investment decisions in fund trading can now be implemented immediately and at known prices.

Oliver Heusser, Head Fund Secondary Trading at Bank Julius Baer, and Alain Picard, Head Product Management at SIX Swiss Exchange, commented: "We are delighted that with Sponsored Funds, we are launching an innovative solution for the Swiss financial center that offers genuine added value for trading participants and their clients." Both will provide insights into the new segment on a joint launch event.

The segment for Sponsored Funds is yet another attractive exchange service that SIX Swiss Exchange is launching as part of its "Over the Exchange" initiative. Further information about the new segment and its many advantages as well as the broad product universe is available on our website.

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In a joint Media Release issued today, SIX and Deutsche Börse have announced that the Scoach cooperation agreement, launched in 2007, is to be terminated as of 30 June 2013. The contributing markets of Scoach will return to the parent companies, and the successful exchange for Structured Products in Zurich will be continued.

Strategic focus

The purpose of this decision is to target each market more specifically. Christian Katz, CEO SIX Swiss Exchange, commented: "Trading in Structured Products is strategically very important for SIX. We therefore intend to focus even more strongly on the needs of the issuer and the Swiss market as a whole in future and provide support with appropriate measures."

With this step, SIX reinforces its commitment to the Swiss market for Structured Products and will decide in the following months, which organizational structure offers the biggest potential for its future development.

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At the sixth annual Buy-Side Technology Awards, organized by Waters Technology in November 2012, Liquidnet was awarded "Best Buy-Side Execution Venue". This category's award goes to the dark pool/crossing network provider that is best able to provide investment managers access to liquidity.

Continuing internationalization

According to Waters Technology, Liquidnet remains the most important player in the movement of institutional orders, with an average trade size twice as large as its next competitor. The award also acknowledged Liquidnet's global expansion including SLS, its partnership with SIX Swiss Exchange. Launched in July 2011, it was the first time an exchange and a trading network joined forces.

Numerous advantages for participants

The SIX Swiss Exchangee Liquidnet Service (SLS) offers access to a non-displayed liquidity pool where clients benefit from reduced market impact and significant price improvement. All SLS transactions are executed at the mid-price of the real-time bid/ask spread on the primary exchange. In July 2012, six new markets were added to the initial five. September and October were record months in terms of SLS trading volumes of SIX Swiss Exchange participants.

Our website provides detailed information and further publications related to SLS.

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More than 160 delegates attended the second annual SIX Swiss Exchange Open Day for Exchange Participants, held on Wednesday, 3 October 2012 in Zurich. The event allows its participants, banks, financial institutes and third party companies to discuss industry issues, sharing knowledge, exchange ideas and shaping the global markets of the future.

Leading speakers with a broad cross-section of financial industry professionals shared their insight on the present financial crisis. SPOT 2012 was opened by Christian A. Katz, CEO SIX Swiss Exchange. In his speech, Christian A. Katz spoke about the challenging environment facing the financial community today, and how SIX Swiss Exchange is positioning itself to address these challenges.

Up-to-date expert knowledge

Also speaking at the SIX Swiss Exchange Open Day was Prof. Dr. Manuel Ammann from the Swiss Institute of Banking and Finance, University of St Gallen who led a fascinating discussion on the subject "Eurozone Rescue: Success or Disaster?". The presentation by Thomas Liebi, CFA, Dr. rer. oec., who is Chief Economist at Swisscanto Asset Management, on the subject "Demographics and the Global Economy - Are the Financial Markets set to Retire?" led to an animated discussion amongst the Open Day delegates.

Closing the event, Chris Landis, Head Operations SIX Swiss Exchange, presented an outlook on "SIX Swiss Exchange in 2013 and Beyond". He focused on the strategic initiatives that will allow SIX Swiss Exchange to become the Independent Investment Network of Choice, such as strengthening partnerships, developing attractive exchange services and continuous improvement of the trading platforms.

At its booth, the experts of SIX Swiss Exchange Providers shared their knowledge, discussing industry issues and exchanging ideas with all delegates. A summary of the SIX Swiss Exchange Open Day 2012 program and the list of exhibiting companies is available in the handout of the event.

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On Wednesday 3 October, the SPOT - SIX Swiss Exchange Open Day 2012 will take place in the ConventionPoint in Zurich. The 2nd annual Open Day for Exchange members and for the extended financial community provides a unique opportunity to meet with thought leaders from the financial industry, to network with your peers from other institutions, and to meet a wide range of independent providers of software, services and connectivity relevant to the exchange business.

Broad range of discussion topics from first-rate speakers

A number of third party companies with close relationships with SIX Swiss Exchange will exhibit at the Open Day, showcasing the solutions, services and products that they offer. With prestigious guest speakers sharing their views on highly topical issues, this year's Open Day will have something of interest for all finance professionals. The cast of speakers includes Christian Katz, CEO SIX Swiss Exchange, Prof. Dr. Manuel Ammann from the University of St Gallen, Thomas Liebi of Swisscanto Asset Management and Chris Landis, Head Operations SIX Swiss Exchange.

To find out more about the program or the exhibitors, and to register for the event, please visit our event page or send an e-mail to . Closing date for registration is Thursday 27 September 2012. The event will be held in English.

Shaping tomorrow's markets

SIX Swiss Exchange successfully launched the first SPOT Open Day in 2011. By hosting numerous information and networking events, we aim to connect exchange participants, banks, financial institutions and third party companies, as well as providing valuable platforms for discussing industry issues, sharing knowledge, exchanging ideas and actively shaping the global markets of the future.

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On 23 April 2012, SIX Swiss Exchange introduced X-stream INET, the world's most advanced trading technology for equities. After the successful launch, the SWXess trading platform has now been running smoothly for a 100 days and the announced average roundtrip latency of just 37 microseconds has been confirmed under production load.

Rolf Broekhuizen, Head Business & Market Development, adds: "Our measurements on production have shown that even two thirds of all transactions are executed in less than 37 microseconds, making SIX Swiss Exchange the world's fastest exchange". For information about the latency calculation please consult the Performance Measurement Details.

State-of-the-art trading technology

SIX Swiss Exchange is the first exchange in the world to implement X-stream INET by Nasdaq OMX. To achieve such outstanding latency figures, SIX Swiss Exchange also introduced a co-location service and standardized low-latency interfaces for trading (OUCH) and market data dissemination (ITCH). In the future, SIX Swiss Exchange will extend the benefits of X-stream INET to its other attractive trading segments.

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With the internationalisation of SLS, six new markets have been added: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Portugal and Sweden. Clients of SLS can now trade in eleven markets with over 4'200 equities from the bluechip, small and mid-cap segments. Previously, SLS already provided access to all shares listed on SIX Swiss Exchange as well as those from Germany, France, the Netherlands and the UK.

With the market extension of SLS, SIX Swiss Exchange is creating a stronger link between its members and the globally active investor community and offers them access to institutional liquidity that is not exposed to any other trading venue. John White, Head Equity Product Management SIX Swiss Exchange, explains: "An increasing number of our clients are adding SLS to their execution strategies. Their clients, in turn, value the material difference which SLS can make to the implementation cost of their trades."

Numerous advantages for clients

Trades via the non-displayed liquidity pool SLS offer significant price improvements, because they are based on the mid-price of the real-time bid/ask spread of the relevant primary exchange. Clients also benefit from no market impact, while higher average execution sizes considerably reduce operational costs. Clients can use SLS via the existing infrastructure.

Between the launch of SLS in July 2011 and the end of May 2012, total turnover was EUR 1'282 million. The average daily liquidity of all SLS markets in the first half of 2012 stood at CHF 10.74 billion. Our website provides detailed information and further publications related to SLS.

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On 4 and 5 July 2012, the second edition of TradeTech DACH was held in Frankfurt. SIX Swiss Exchange was present with a stand and a four-person delegation comprising Alain Picard, Head Product Management, Gregor Braun, Head Member Acquisition, John White, Head Equity Product Management and Kevin Schmid, Equity Product Management.

Current topics

In addition to presentations about current topics such as MiFID II, fragmented markets, dark pools, best execution and asset management, podium discussions with experts from various areas of the financial world were held. John White, Head Equity Product Management, represented the position of SIX Swiss Exchange in the podium on the topic of "Evolving market structure and fragmented liquidity: finding liquidity in fragmented markets to ensure you can execute in good time at a good price!"

The representatives of SIX Swiss Exchange used the opportunity of TradeTech DACH to engage in interesting dialogue with other participants, exchanging experiences and addressing open questions and to make new contacts. On our website you can see further events SIX Swiss Exchange is organizing or attending.

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The Federation of European Securities Exchanges (FESE) has appointed Ian Cornwall, Head Market Structure SIX Swiss Exchange, as the new Chair of its Management Committee. The approval was given by the General Assembly which met during the FESE Convention 2012 held in Istanbul on 21 and 22 June 2012.

Ian Cornwall commented: "It is a privilege to be elected Chair of the FESE Management Committee and to work with and represent the views of the Members in the work of the Federation. I aim to maintain and build upon the constructive and open dialogue already evident between members. This will enable us to continue to provide informed, effective and practical contributions which help shape policy solutions and which also promote recognition of the valuable contribution exchanges make to issuers, investors and to the economy in which they operate".

Shaping the markets

FESE represents 46 securities exchanges (in equities, bonds, and derivatives) through 21 Full Members - including SIX Swiss Exchange - from 30 countries as well as 4 Observer Members from European emerging markets. FESE members have over 9'000 companies listed on their markets.

Through membership of key international bodies such as FESE, SIX Swiss Exchange is able to actively participate in shaping the global financial markets of the future in the interests of its customers and all market actors. Find out more about our network.

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The third issue of SLS Highlights was published today. This report is published on a regular basis and contains detailed statistics on turnover and traded blocks of shares in SLS, the SIX Swiss Exchange Liquidnet Service. The unique non-displayed liquidity pool was introduced in July 2011. Since then, total turnover has risen to EUR 1'282 million as at the end of May.

The average trade size has also increased significantly, from EUR 337'394 in the last report (period: July 2011 to end-January 2012) to EUR 412'061 for the period from January to the end of May 2012. This figure is significantly higher than for other dark MTFs.

New markets and more information

SIX Swiss Exchange is set to make its globally unique service more international by expanding the SLS market to new countries. In addition, SIX Swiss Exchange launched the SLS Daily Execution Report in May 2012 in cooperation with Liquidnet. It provides an overview of the activities for the prior day for each market and equity.

Globally unique benefits

SLS enables clients to efficiently localize and consolidate block liquidity (measured by consideration and/or ADV for the stock being traded). All transactions executed in SLS are based on the mid-price of the real-time bid/ask spread on the primary exchange. This represents a significant price improvement and reduced market impact for participants when compared to trading on the primary markets.

Would you like to know more about SLS? Our website contains more information on this exclusive non-displayed liquidity pool.

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In an article (in German), Chris Landis, Managing Director and Head Operations at SIX Swiss Exchange, presents the advantages of X-stream INET. This new trading technology developed by Nasdaq OMX has been successfully introduced by the Swiss exchange on 23 April 2012. The article was published in issue no. 39 of the Swiss financial magazine B2B.

The world's fastest exchange

By simultaneously introducing a co-location service in partnership with Equinix, SIX Swiss Exchange sets a new benchmark: with its average roundtrip latency of only 37 microseconds, it is currently the fastest exchange in the world.

Advantages for all market participants

The higher speed and capacity benefits all market participants, as investment decisions can now be made much quicker and risks adjusted more efficiently. Market data is distributed faster as well. As a result of these combined advantages, risk management is significantly improved.

Our website provides more information on X-stream INET and our co-location service . For an overview of their combined advantages, please consult our factsheet on High-performance Trading.

Participants who want to take advantage of co-location can benefit from a fee holiday until 31 July 2012.

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Today, Liechtensteinische Landesbank (LLB) began trading on SIX Swiss Exchange. The company looks back on a history of 150 years. LLB has offices in four countries and employs over 1000 people.

Gregor Braun, Head Member Acquisition SIX Swiss Exchange, comments: "We're happy to welcome our new participant and wish him successful trading. At SIX Swiss Exchange, Liechtensteinische Landesbank enjoys excellent trading conditions and first-rate services combined with expert support."

World-class Stock Exchange Trading

Besides an average latency of only 37 microseconds, participants of SIX Swiss Exchange benefit from high liquidity, attractive spreads and customized services. That means they can trade successfully in a highly diversified market.

Interested in becoming a trading participant on the world's fastest exchange? Find out more about our efficient Membership Onboarding Process.

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FlexTrade will provide direct access to SIX Swiss Exchange via its award-winning execution management system (EMS), FlexTRADER, which is a multi-asset trading solution with pre-defined strategies and tactics for both portfolio and single stock trading. Founded in 1996, FlexTrade Systems Inc. today has offices in North America, Europe and Asia, its worldwide client base spanning more than 150 buy- and sell-side firms.

"It's an honour to become a certified ISV with SIX Swiss Exchange," said Vikas Kedia, managing director of FlexTrade's EMEA office in London. "We are fully committed to providing the exchange and its members with the latest in state-of-the-art risk management and trading technology software."

Linking exchange and participants

"Third Party Service Providers play a vital role in facilitating participant access to the SIX Swiss Exchange infrastructure. We welcome new and innovative companies wishing to become approved Service Providers", commented Maneesh Wadhwa, Relationship Manager at SIX Swiss Exchange.

The forms to apply for approval as a Service Provider are available on our website. Our regularly updated list contains all approved Service Providers that enable various aspects of participant connections to SIX Swiss Exchange.

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The SLS Daily Execution Report is being provided to help clients find liquidity in stocks they wish to trade particularly where the trading requirement is significant in comparison to the stock's average daily volume (ADV). The report shows a summary of the trading activity with individual trades aggregated by stock and has a separate column showing the total number of executions. In addition, the report indicates the sector, industry, daily volume executed, daily turnover, daily turnover as a percentage of the ten-day ADV, and the total price improvement achieved expressed in basis points.

The SLS Daily Execution Report is compiled jointly with our partner Liquidnet and is distributed daily. If you would also like to receive this report or make changes to the current distribution, please .

Simplification for clients

The new report is being produced in response to client demand, and underlines SIX Swiss Exchange's strong client focus. All SLS trades are "printed" post-trade with Trade Type Code "LN" (for Liquidnet) and can be accessed via your normal data vendors. This report however provides a useful and simple point of reference for the previous day's activity.

SIX Swiss Exchange Liquidnet Service (SLS) provides clients with direct access to the first-class non-displayed liquidity pool by Liquidnet, enabling block trades to be executed efficiently based on mid-point matching. SLS covers more than 2'500 shares from various European markets (Switzerland, Germany, France, Netherlands, UK). The market coverage will be extended in 2012.

Our website provides detailed information and further publications related to SLS.

Today, SIX Swiss Exchange welcomes RBC Europe Limited as new trading participant. The company is part of RBC Capital Markets, the investment banking branch of Toronto-based Royal Bank of Canada. RBC Capital Markets operates globally with more than 6'500 employees in 15 countries and 70 offices, including in Switzerland.

"We're happy to welcome RBC Europe Limited as a new participant. As the fastest exchange in the world, we offer our clients ideal trading conditions", comments Gregor Braun, Head Member Acquisition at SIX Swiss Exchange. Since the introduction of X-stream INET and co-location participants of the Swiss exchange benefit from a latency of only 37 microseconds.

Interested in becoming a trading participant? Find out more about our efficient Membership Onboarding Process.

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As the first exchange to introduce X-stream INET, SIX Swiss Exchange offers participants the world's most advanced trading technology for equities. In combination with its new co-location service, trading on SIX Swiss Exchange is now almost 22-times faster than before, as average roundtrip latency is reduced to only 37 microseconds. Christian Katz, CEO SIX Swiss Exchange, comments: "Besides faster execution and higher order volumes, participants also enjoy quicker adjustment of their investment decisions. This results in much more efficient risk management which benefits trading participants and end investors alike."

37 microseconds for all market participants

To allow participants to benefit fully from the outstanding performance of the X-stream INET trading technology developed by Nasdaq OMX, SIX Swiss Exchange offers a new co-location service in partnership with Equinix. "Participants from around the world have equal access to the Equinix data center in Zurich and can install their technical equipment next to the SWXess trading engine. This enables them to all enjoy the same superior latency and capacity regardless of their geographical location", adds Chris Landis, Head Operations SIX Swiss Exchange.

Along with X-stream INET and co-location, SIX Swiss Exchange introduces the standardized low-latency interfaces for trading (OUCH) and market data dissemination (ITCH). Market makers in ETFs, ETPs or Structured Products can now identify price movements in underlyings more quickly and execute corresponding investment and market-making decisions more effectively.

Investing in future growth

A prerequisite for the launch of X-stream INET had been the separation of the trading platform for order and quote driven securities in October 2011. In the future, this will allow SIX Swiss Exchange to extend the benefits of X-stream INET to its other attractive trading segments such as ETFs, Bonds and Derivatives, in order to attract more volume and liquidity in Swiss securities and strengthen its position as their reference market.

Our website provides more information on X-stream INET and co-location . For an overview of their combined advantages, please consult our factsheet on High-performance Trading. Information about the latency calculation is available in the Performance Measurement Details. Participants who want to take advantage of co-location can benefit from our fee holiday until 31 July 2012.

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SIX Swiss Exchange extends the data offering on its website with a unique new service. "Intraday Activity" is a user-friendly tool that allows investors, participants and listed companies to get an instant picture of intraday turnover levels on SIX Swiss Exchange and Scoach Switzerland. It offers the most detailed and up-to-date information available free of charge for the Swiss market.

Dynamic display of trading activity

"Intraday Activity" covers all trading segments, with a particular focus on Swiss Blue Chip shares, Swiss Mid & Small Caps shares, ETFs and derivatives. Thanks to four dynamic progress bars, you can easily monitor the current level of trading activity, while corresponding benchmarks allow for immediate assessment of the information. A table offers even more granular data, organized by market segment and orderbook type.

Increasing market oversight and transparency

Marc Berthoud, Deputy Head Data & Index Products at SIX Swiss Exchange, comments: "We have launched 'Intraday Activity' because we want to deliver insightful information on our markets. After MQM, the Market Quality Metrics and ELM, the Equity Liquidity Matrix, it is yet another client-oriented service that allows us to further increase market oversight and transparency."

MQM allows ETF investors to monitor and analyze the cost factor spreads. ELM highlights the quality of the order books of SIX Swiss Exchange, helping participants to scan the markets for best liquidity. All three services are offered free of charge.

SIX Swiss Exchange is the reference market for over 40'000 securities. One of its key objectives is to provide the highest level of transparency. Thanks to the high data quality of its statistics, investors, issuers and participants benefit from reliable, neutral information.

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As of 1 April 2012, SIX Swiss Exchange has introduced the new training document Trading on SIX Swiss Exchange 2012. It will serve as the basis for the Trader Examinations after 1 May 2012. The practical guide provides all the key information on trading and describes the latest innovations and developments on SIX Swiss Exchange. It therefore enables candidates to prepare themselves effectively for the exams.

Christina Sandau-Jensen, Head Member Education, comments: "Our training concept is aimed at all SIX Swiss Exchange traders with or without a license recognized by SIX Swiss Exchange. For all of those who wish to take the exam after 1 May 2012, the new preparatory document is now already available."

Quality and client service

SIX Swiss Exchange training and examinations for traders set a high benchmark in terms of quality and client service. They ensure that traders have the necessary expertise in securities trading and that transactions are executed correctly. Further information can be found in the section Trading License & Training on our website.

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As part of the introduction of X-Stream INET and Co-location, SIX Swiss Exchange, together with Equinix, the data centre provider, has decided to offer a waiver of fees for the new Co-location service.

The fee holiday starts on 23 April 2012 with the introduction of SIX Swiss Exchange Maintenance Release 2 (SMR2). Until 31 July 2012, all participants will benefit from the waiver by SIX Swiss Exchange of the technical connection fee and by Equinix of the fees for Cross Connect.

Fastest trading and high flexibility

Co-location allows for the shortest connection between the trading platform of SIX Swiss Exchange and the trading systems of its participants, meaning that this connectivity option offers the lowest latency. Furthermore, it becomes irrelevant where participants are located: whether they have their offices in Zurich or anywhere else in the world, they can all trade at the same speed thanks to co-location.

Please do not hesitate to contact Member Services if you have any questions.

Prior to the market opening on Friday 13th January 2012, SIX Swiss Exchange identified apparent issues with the initial order book snapshot. As a result, the ability to trade for some trading members was affected. In order to ensure the integrity of the market, SIX Swiss Exchange decided to delay the start of trading by three hours.

Unbiased assessment

In order to assess the impact of the delayed opening on overall liquidity and market trading volumes, SIX Swiss Exchange appointed the London based software company Intelligent Financial Systems (IFS) to perform a quantitative analysis leveraging its LiquidMetrix data. The LiquidMetrix Report focuses in particular on liquidity and trading in the 20 SMI stocks that occurred on MTFs during the outage. IFS's key findings are listed below:

• During the time of the market outage at SIX Swiss Exchange, very little trading occurred on the MTFs.
  
  
• Spreads on the MTFs widened and were more than twice their normal size. The liquidity within 10 bps of mid-price was sharply lower.
  
  
• Market makers on the MTFs were clearly moving the prices of their orders albeit with much larger spreads and less volume than normal.
  
  
• Virtually no OTC and MTF dark pool trading occurred during the outage as the SIX Swiss Exchange reference price is required for these markets to function.
  
  
• After SIX Swiss Exchange opened, the pattern of trading volumes/spreads and liquidity for the remainder of the day quickly reverted to normal. I.e. 50 bps order book liquidity for SMI instruments reverted to normal patterns for the rest of the day (see graphics below).
  
  
• At the end of the day the value traded on all venues was approximately 92% of the average value traded of the preceding 5 days. Given normal intraday variations this would tend to suggest that overall volume traded on the day as a whole was largely unaffected and shifted to the afternoon session.
  
  

50 bps Order Book Liquidity for SMI Instruments

Outstanding reliability

With only three interruptions of trading in the past 15 years, SIX Swiss Exchange is by far the most stable exchange in Europe. Market participants can assess order book quality via the Equity Liquidity Matrix (ELM), a free online transparency tool of SIX Swiss Exchange that uses quantitative data from a neutral provider.

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Since the launch of SLS, the SIX Swiss Exchange Liquidnet Service, in July 2011 to end of January 2012, total turnover rose to CHF 835.75 million. In the same period, the average trade size on SLS was CHF CHF 405'311, which is substantially larger than on other dark MTFs. Detailed statistics are provided in the second edition of the SLS Highlights. This report is published on a regular basis and provides information on turnover and traded blocks of shares in SLS.

More information and new markets

Soon SIX Swiss Exchange will be able to provide SLS participants with an individual daily report on their activities, including the liquidity in all five SLS markets, top executions per market and details of their orders and executions. Furthermore, SIX Swiss Exchange is working to expand the markets available through SLS.

Globally unique advantages

SLS offers participants of SIX Swiss Exchange numerous advantages. Via their existing connectivity with the exchange, they gain direct access to a first-class non-displayed liquidity pool with a choice of more than 2'500 international securities from Switzerland, France, Germany, Netherlands and UK. All trades executed in SLS are based on the mid-price of the real-time bid/ask spread on the primary exchange. This represents significant price improvement and reduced market impact for participants when compared to trading on the primary markets.

Want to learn more about SLS? For more information on this exclusive non-displayed liquidity pool, please visit the
SLS webpage and have a look at the SLS factsheet.

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Today, SIX Swiss Exchange welcomes its first new participant in 2012: Ronin Trading Europe LLP. The proprietary trading firm is headquartered in Chicago and also has offices in New York and California as well as subsidiaries located in Europe and Singapore. Ronin's trading operations cover a variety of markets. For more information, please visit the company's website.

Gregor Braun, Head of Member Acquisition at SIX Swiss Exchange comments: "We welcome Ronin Trading Europe on our Exchange and wish them successful trading on our high-performance platform." There are currently 125 trading participants active on SIX Swiss Exchange. With the introduction of Co-location and the implementation of X-Stream INET in the first half of 2012, SIX Swiss Exchange will set a new standard in terms of speed and capacity, in order to offer market participants first-rate trading technology.

Interested in becoming a trading participant? Find out more about our efficient Membership Onboarding Process.

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For over 30 years, the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) Region of Switzerland & Liechtenstein has organized an annual ski event for ICMA member firms in Switzerland. Ever since, this charity ski weekend has become a major event and is one of the main social gatherings in the calendar year for the Association. By sponsoring this event, SIX Swiss Exchange is facilitating the networking among professionals of the international Bond community.

This year, the event took place in the ski resort of Engelberg from 20 to 22 January 2012. Once again, it attracted many buy-side and sell-side firms not only from Switzerland and Liechtenstein but also from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Scandinavia and Austria. Overall, more than 80 professionals enjoyed the light-hearted and fancy-free mood prevailing at the event, where conversations were not limited merely to the latest hot topics in the financial world. The traditional ski race itself took place on Saturday, featuring 35 participants.

The surplus of revenues from the ICMA Annual Charity Ski Weekend 2012 was donated to Gift2Help Limited. Its website offers a choice of projects where 100% of every donation made goes directly to the charity concerned.

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In order to offer its trading participants more relevant information, SIX Swiss Exchange is now providing new roundtrip time statistics (TCP/IP) for the connection between participant's sites and the primary site of its SWXess trading platform in Zurich Hardturm. Furthermore, this new functionality enables participants to optimize their environment for low-latency performance.

The roundtrip time statistics are published individually for each participant in the Member Section on the website of SIX Swiss Exchange, including historical data of up to 90 days. The roundtrip data is collected by a CorvilNet system deployed in the SWXess primary site from 07:00 to 19:00 CET.

Registration of Emergency Contacts

In order to help its participants gain security as well as being able to proactively contact them as quickly as possible in case of problems or emergencies with the trading platform, SIX Swiss Exchange now offers the possibility to register one or several emergency contacts with its Local Support Center.

Particularly in emergency situations, but also for trouble-shooting outside of office hours and during weekends, fast communication is very important. This is why each emergency contact, participants can even assign an area of responsibility for a SWXess component, which allows the Local Support Center to directly contact the right person or helpdesk within the participants organization.

Further information on how roundtrip time statistics are measured and how to add emergency contacts can be found in the MSC Message of 17, November 2011 (available in the Member Section). If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the Technical Product Support of SIX Swiss Exchange.

As of today, trading participants of the Swiss exchange benefit from a significant increase of the transaction capacity of the trading platform SWXess. At the same time, latency times in the equity market decrease. These improvements result from the launch of a second On Book Matcher (OBM).

Greater efficiency for the cash markets

With this enhancement, a separate On Book Matcher is available for order driven securities (equities in particular) as well as an OBM for quote driven securities (ETFs and Structured Products in particular). As a result, more than twice as many orders and quotes can be processed within the same time frame.

Another advantage: thanks to the new segmentation of markets, the mutual interference between the various market segments is largely eliminated. This has a positive effect on latency times in the equity segment.

Ready for the future

As a key pillar of the Swiss financial sector's infrastructure, SIX Swiss Exchange helps create the best possible trading conditions. Besides the immediate improvements which offer significant added-value for participants, the separation of the trading platform for order and quote driven securities creates an essential prerequisite for the launch of X-stream INET in the 1st quarter 2012, introducing another increase of the efficiency and performance of the SWXess trading platform.

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With the introduction of co-location, scheduled for the first half of 2012, SIX Swiss Exchange is further extending its service offering and improving its competitiveness. By doing so, it can respond even better to the need for fast trading of its existing trading participants and increase its attractiveness for potential clients.

Successful partnership with Equinix

For its new co-location service, SIX Swiss Exchange builds on its proven partnership with Equinix. The provider of data center services is already one of three proximity providers of the Swiss exchange. The new service is part of several measures taken by SIX Swiss Exchange that improve the performance of its trading platform.

Co-location will allow participants to fully benefit from the advantages of X-Stream INET. This new technology by Nasdaq OMX will be introduced in 2012 as well, reducing latency in the equity segment to levels below 100 microseconds.

Fastest trading and high flexibility

Co-location allows for the shortest connection between the trading platform of SIX Swiss Exchange and the trading systems of its participants, meaning that this connectivity option offers the lowest latency. Furthermore, it becomes irrelevant where participants are located: whether they have their offices in Zurich or anywhere else in the world, they can all trade at the same speed thanks to co-location.

In addition, SIX Swiss Exchange increases its customer-orientation by facilitating connectivity to its high-performance platform SWXess. Furthermore, participants benefit from high flexibility, both in terms of choosing its carrier as well as hardware and rack space, which are customizable to meet customers' needs.

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Today, SIX Swiss Exchange organized the first ever SPOT event, actively bringing people, ideas and organizations together. At this "Service Providers Outreach" a total of 16 exhibitors were presenting their company at the ConventionPoint, in particular independent providers of software, services and connectivity relevant to the exchange business.

This open day for exchange participants also allowed the numerous visitors to attend a series of interesting presentations about the hottest topics in today's exchange industry. The key focus was on latency: how to measure it, how to improve it and how SIX Swiss Exchange is preparing itself for future challenges.

A summary of the program, the list of exhibitors and information about the speakers is available in the handout of the event.

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Yesterday, the CEOs of SIX Swiss Exchange and Liquidnet, Christian Katz and Seth Merrin, were both present in Zurich to meet with journalists and market participants. Along with John Barker, Head of International at Liquidnet, they presented the benefits of SLS, the new non-displayed liquidity platform where large block orders can be executed efficiently.

"Together with Liquidnet, SIX Swiss Exchange is the first exchange in the world to develop a service directly addressing the needs of a large institutional buy-side, offering them a more efficient and more secure way to execute their trades. SLS is offering an option that previously simply didn't exist and presents another choice besides splitting up large orders or going OTC", Seth Merrin, CEO of Liquidnet, pointed out.

Christian Katz, CEO SIX Swiss Exchange, added: "Our aim is to be the independent investment network of choice. With SLS, we are bringing together all our participants and large institutional investors from around the world. This new service allows our banks and brokers to trade shares from Switzerland and the other four largest equity markets in Europe in unrivalled size OTE - over the exchange - with the number one global buy-side pool."

Successful launch

Since the launch of SLS on 8th July 2011, trading volume and average execution sizes have increased significantly. SLS offers market participants refuge from the trend of falling execution sizes on most lit and dark venues by providing access to genuine block liquidity.

All key figures, volume updates and news related to SLS are wrapped up in the new report "SLS Highlights". More information is available on our website and in the SLS factsheet.

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Today, Tullett Prebon (Europe) Limited started trading on SIX Swiss Exchange. It is already the 13th company that has chosen to become a member of the reference market for Swiss securities since the beginning of the year.

Paul Dunkley, Managing director EMEA Volatility division at Tullett Prebon, commented: "Tullett Prebon is delighted to join SIX Swiss Exchange, enhancing the service offered to our clients in our leading pan-European equity division. Notably Tullett Prebon and our clients will benefit from the post trade services offered by SIX Swiss Exchange."

Tullett Prebon is one of the world's largest inter-dealer brokers and operates as an intermediary in wholesale financial markets, in particular for commercial and investment banks. The business covers the following major product groups: Volatility, Rates, Non Banking, Treasury, Energy and Commodities, Credit, Environmental and Equities. In addition to its brokerage services, Tullett Prebon offers a variety of market information services through its IDB Market Data division, Tullett Prebon Information.

Global presence

Tullett Prebon has its principal offices in London, New Jersey, Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo, with other offices, joint ventures and affiliates in Bahrain, Bangkok, Calgary, Frankfurt, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Luxembourg, Manila, Mumbai, Paris, Salt Lake City, Seoul, Shanghai, Sydney, Toronto, Warsaw and Zurich.

Interested in becoming a trading participant? Find out more about our Membership Onboarding Process.

Trading speeds have shown a relentless growth over the past few years and latency is one of the hottest subjects in the exchange industry. In this highly competitive environment, first-rate technology and knowledge are key to develop profitable strategies for the future.

Designed for Business and IT Professionals

By organising the first SPOT event (Service Providers Outreach) on 29 September 2011 at the ConventionPoint in Zurich, SIX Swiss Exchange enables its trading participants and other members of the financial community to meet a wide range of independent providers of software, services and connectivity relevant to the exchange business.

Get access to specialized knowledge

Furthermore, a number of speakers will share their unique and challenging views on the subject of latency. After a welcome introduction by Christian Katz, CEO SIX Swiss Exchange, the following presentations will be held during the day:

• "Driving Down Latency in Supercomputers & Commercial Applications" by David Müller, Member of Management Supercomputing Systems AG
• "Latency in the Real World - The Game of Truth or Dare" by Donal Byrne, CEO Corvil
• "Trade Faster than You Can Blink" by Chris Landis, Head Operations SIX Swiss Exchange

Please join us to take advantage of the opportunity to network, to discuss industry issues and to share knowledge. To find out more about the event's schedule, to see the exhibitors list and to register, please visit our website.

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The launch of the new non-displayed liquidity platform SLS (SIX Swiss Exchange Liquidnet Service) has encouraged more flow into the Swiss market. Furthermore, accessing the largest institutional global block pool in the industry has enabled participants of SIX Swiss Exchange to realise greater efficiencies in trading and execution of large block transactions for themselves and their clients.

Highlights at a glance

Since the launch of SLS on 8th July 2011, SIX Swiss Exchange registered a significant jump in trading volume and average execution sizes. All key figures, volume updates and news related to SLS are wrapped up in the new report "SLS Highlights" , which will be updated on a regular basis.

Extension of fee holiday

Because of the successful launch of this new service, SIX Swiss Exchange is extending the fee holiday for SLS transactions until the end of September 2011. SLS provides trading participants with access to the exclusive liquidity pool of Liquidnet in which block orders can be executed efficiently and with best-execution.

Take advantage of SLS

Want to learn more about SLS? For more information on this exclusive non-displayed liquidity pool, please visit the SLS webpage and have a look at the SLS factsheet. If you have any questions, you may also contact the account managers of SIX Swiss Exchange.

Today saw the launch of a number of new improvements on SIX Swiss Exchange's website. The homepage is now visually more attractive, while the navigational structure and content have been reorganized, meaning clients can find their way around the site far more easily.

Dynamic and direct

The centerpiece of the homepage is now a prominent dynamic visual element which provides visitors with a clear overview of SIX Swiss Exchange's current offering and reaches out directly to address the needs of its stakeholders. Potential exchange clients can quickly find the pages they are looking for, while current partners are directed to new services and products.

Modern user interface

The "Participants" and "Issuers" sections, which were previously separated, have now been integrated into the main navigation. A new drop-down menu with a roll-over function gives clients a quick overview of the related sub-pages and direct access to the required content.

At the same time, the product-specific pages such as "Shares", "Bonds", "ETFs" and "ETPs" together with "Statistics" and "Indices" are now all assembled in the new "Market Data" section. Thanks to the new drop-down menus, these areas can still be accessed with a single click of the mouse. The useful investment tools, "myMarketpulse" and the know-how area can now be found under "Investors".

Competent contact persons

Furthermore, life of the clients is made easier by the new contact pages. They will now find a clear overview of the relevant contacts in the respective Participant and Issuer areas, meaning they can get in touch with the right person more efficiently. SIX Swiss Exchange's expert staff proactively work together with clients to enable their success, providing an excellent level of service quality and adopting a solution-oriented approach.

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The Swiss stock exchange welcomes CIM Banque today as its newest participant. This brings the total number of trading participants on SIX Swiss Exchange to 133. Founded in 1990 by the Luxemburgian private banker Francesco Signorio, the Swiss bank currently employs more than 60 staff and has clients in more than 80 countries. As well as asset management, CIM Banque offers a number of services such as online trading, international wire services and credit cards from its two locations in Geneva and Lugano.

Fast and secure internet banking

CIM Banque provides financial services via a high-performance internet banking system to both private and institutional clients. "The speed of settlements and transactions is of as much importance to our clients as guaranteed security. This is why we currently offer a wide range of services but also place great emphasis on processing our clients' transactions as quickly as possible," states Francesco Signorio, founder and CEO of CIM Banque.

Interested in becoming a trading participant? Find out more about our Membership Onboarding Process.

SIX Swiss Exchange increases the appeal of its bond segment: market makers in the CHF Bonds and International Bonds segments receive an extra five quotes per second (QPS) per bond segment in addition to the five free QPS they already receive as well as the QPS they have paid for.

This increased capacity in the bond segments is being made available on a temporary basis, starting on 2 August 2011 and ending on 31 July 2012. "The purpose of this measure is to offer market makers better conditions for pricing as well as achieving a rise of trading volumes in the Bond segments", commented Ueli Goldener, Head Product Management Fixed Income at SIX Swiss Exchange.

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As of today, SIX Swiss Exchange offers its growing number of participants a ground-breaking new service: SLS provides them easy access to an entirely new liquidity pool by linking them to the institutional non-displayed marketplace of Liquidnet, who became a participant of SIX Swiss Exchange today. SLS stands for SIX Swiss Exchange Liquidnet Service, highlighting the partnership that created this unique pan-European securities universe.

A new source of liquidity

The new liquidity pool created by the connection of the execution venues of SIX Swiss Exchange and Liquidnet enables trading in unrivaled sizes. While creating more liquidity in both Swiss blue chips and Swiss mid- and small-caps, SLS gives participants of SIX Swiss Exchange access to almost 3'000 European shares. Markets covered today include UK, France, Germany and the Netherlands, with more countries to follow.

Reducing trading costs

SLS helps to achieve price advantages of up to 70 basis points, as orders are executed at mid-point and liquidity on SLS allows execution of large blocks. The new order type "Minimum Fill" enables the determination of minimum execution size, while negative market impact is averted as trades are only published after execution.

Easy setup

All participants of SIX Swiss Exchange are able to trade in SLS without any additional contractual agreements. They can even use their existing infrastructure to trade via the SIX Swiss Exchange Standard Trading Interface (STI) after just a few minor twitches.

Swiss safety

SLS provides a safe and secure trading environment. It is not only regulated by FINMA, but also governed by the SIX Swiss Exchange Rule Book and Directives, while the market control unit of the exchange monitors trading in real-time. Clearing and settlement via SIX x-clear and LCH.Clearnet helps avoiding counterparty risk, while post-trade transparency is ensured by the immediate publication of executed trades.

Added value for participants

The launch of SLS represents a significant milestone that further establishes SIX Swiss Exchange as the independent investment network of choice. It provides participants with an increased value of their membership and offers them a new "over the exchange" (OTE) service. Furthermore, being the first in the world to pioneer such a unique service demonstrates the innovation power and customer-orientation of SIX Swiss Exchange.

For more information on this new non-displayed liquidity pool, please visit the new dedicated webpage and have a look at the special SLS-factsheet.

As the first exchange in the world, SIX Swiss Exchange will implement X-stream INET. This new system by NASDAQ OMX combines the benefits of its existing platform X-stream and INET. The upgrade will result in significantly enhanced capacity and reduced latency in all product segments for the benefit of all market participants. Going forward, latency times of the trading platform SWXess should drop to two-digit microsecond figures.

Setting a new standard

"We have always believed that a high-performance and multi-functional trading platform remains a key differentiator in order to attract new liquidity", explains Christian Katz, CEO at SIX Swiss Exchange. "This upgrade to X-stream INET allows us to leverage the most advanced trading technology in the world into our unique market structure."

The completion of the system upgrade is scheduled for Q1 2012. As SWXess already runs on X-stream, compatibility is very high. Adjustments for clients of SIX Swiss Exchange will therefore be minimal.

Extension of a reliable partnership

NASDAQ OMX has been the technology partner of SIX Swiss Exchange since 2005, marked by the introduction of the fully integrated trading platform SWXess in 2009. The upgrade to the new system X-stream INET now marks the extension of this successful partnership at the benefit of all members of SIX Swiss Exchange.

SIX Swiss Exchange is the reference market for all Swiss securities. With average trades in SMI securities being more than twice the size of those on alternative trading platforms, no other trading platform for Swiss securities offers the same high quality order-book. Via the free web-based Equity Liquidity Matrix (ELM), order-book quality can be monitored and compared with that of rival trading platforms.

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Today, another participant has joined SIX Swiss Exchange: with the arrival of GETCO Europe Limited, their total number reaches 124. GETCO's range of services includes amongst others electronic market making, managing risk and execution services.

Founded in 1999 as Global Electronic Trading Company, GETCO is one of the pioneers of electronic trading. Today, GETCO has expanded its activities over three continents and is active in over 50 markets in North and South America, Europe and Asia, with offices in Chicago, New York, London and Singapore.

Gregor Braun, Head of Member Acquisition at SIX Swiss Exchange comments: "We welcome GETCO Europe Limited at SIX Swiss Exchange and wish them successful trading on our high-performance platform SWXess. Getco is already our 10th new participant in 2011, and we are looking forward to welcoming further new members."

Further information about GETCO Europe Limited is available on its website.

Interested in becoming a trading participant? Find out more about our Membership Onboarding Process.

Today, SIX Swiss Exchange welcomes its 122. Participant: Banque Syz & Co. SA. The Swiss banking group is exclusively dedicated to asset management through the three business lines Private Banking, Institutional Asset Management and Investment funds. "The sharp increase of our domestic business has prompted us to become a full member of SIX Swiss Exchange, as well as the progress in technology which facilitated the integration with our systems", states Ricardo Payro, Head of Communication at Banque SYZ & Co. SA.

With presences in Geneva, Zurich, Lugano and Locarno, as well as abroad in Milan, Rome, Madrid, Bilbao, London, Luxembourg, Vienna, Nassau and Hong Kong, Banque Syz & Co. SA provides services for private investors, institutions and independent asset managers.

Broad range of services

The services provided by Banque Syz & Co. SA include discretionary asset management, hedge fund portfolios and active advisory services, asset management in a variety of asset classes as well as advice, fund selection and portfolio management in alternative asset classes. Furthermore, its range of services to independent asset managers includes investment recommendations, trading on all financial markets and direct access to the banking IT system of Banque Syz & Co. SA.

Further information about Banque Syz & Co. SA is available on its website.

Interested in becoming a trading participant? Find out more about our Membership Onboarding Process.

Markit has been recognized as the first Approved Trade Data Monitor (TDM) for SIX Swiss Exchange. This agreement provides further flexibility for foreign participants of SIX Swiss Exchange, designated as "Remote Members".

Remote Members have an obligation to report their off-exchange (OTC) trades in Swiss securities admitted for trading on a Swiss stock exchange. Previously this obligation could only be fulfilled by sending activity to the reporting office of SIX Swiss Exchange. Following the agreement with Markit on 18 April 2011, they are also able to report OTC trades via the Markit BOAT platform.

This flexibility allows Remote Members of SIX Swiss Exchange to choose the platform for their trade reporting needs. This simplifies their duty to comply with the Reporting Obligations in Swiss securities.

Markit BOAT Data is published to the market via different data solution providers, including SIX Financial Information . It can be accessed via the modular display service Telekurs iD.

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The company, whose main office is located in London, engages in proprietary trading over various markets in Europe. Spire Europe Limited is affiliated with Tower Research Capital LLC, a New York based financial services firm specializing in quantitative trading and investment strategies. We wish Spire Europe Limited successful trading on SIX Swiss Exchange.

Interested in becoming a trading participant? Find out more about our Membership Onboarding Process.

Today, SIX Swiss Exchange welcomes its 121. participant. All Options is an international market maker providing liquidity to major financial markets. Headquartered in Amsterdam, All Options operates from offices in Curaçao and the People's Republic of China. As a market maker and trader on key exchanges, now including SIX Swiss Exchange, All Options believes in leveraging its insight into the markets and making intelligent trading decisions facilitated by cutting-edge technology. We wish All Options International B.V. successful trading on the high-performance platform of SIX Swiss Exchange.

Further information about All Options International B.V. is available on its website.

Interested in becoming a trading participant? Find out more about our Membership Onboarding Process.

By choosing CorvilNet, SIX Swiss Exchange is able to monitor and plan capacity and latency performance levels in real-time, allowing further optimization and improvement of its environment for low-latency performance. Providing its trading members with the highest levels of efficiency and transparency is a continuous commitment of SIX Swiss Exchange.

Corvil's Latency Management System allows full latency monitoring of service provider performance, client order flow and analysis of market data quality. At the application level CorvilNet is being used to report on the execution speed of customer order flow, including trade-to-tick and order-to-acknowledgement. More information is available in the press release on the website of Corvil.

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The free web-based tool Equity Liquidity Matrix (ELM), originally launched in November 2010, now covers the entire universe of SPI securities. This expansion allows SIX Swiss Exchange to further increase market transparency. Investors, market participants and companies listed and traded on SIX Swiss Exchange are provided with a real-time overview of liquidity levels of Swiss Blue Chips as well as Mid & Small Cap securities.

Order book quality highlighted

Equity Liquidity Matrix provides a global view of five standard liquidity measures. Four of the five measures are focusing on pre-trade data i.e. the measurements of order book constellations before a trade is executed. It includes a ranking of the order books for several index aggregates and their individual constituents that are traded on SIX Swiss Exchange and at least one MTF. All data is aggregated daily at individual securities level. An unbiased assessment of order book quality is guaranteed by using quantitative data from a neutral provider, the Transaction Auditing Group (TAG).

Advantage SIX Swiss Exchange

As the reference market for Swiss securities, SIX Swiss Exchange is assuring liquidity across its entire spectrum of equities in order to maintain a transparent, reliable and efficient price finding mechanism. SIX Swiss Exchange is the only market operator in Europe that discloses advanced order book quality metrics of this kind free of charge.

Further information about the liquidity measures and the data aggregation can be found in the ELM Methodology Factsheet.

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From the second quarter of 2011, SIX Swiss Exchange is set to become the first stock exchange in the world to enable its participants to benefit from a unique and innovative agreement signed with Liquidnet, the institutional marketplace. Through Liquidnet, participants will have access to the leading non-displayed trading platform, with liquidity from more than 650 institutions worldwide. This will allow efficient block transactions to be carried out in both Swiss and European securities.

For more information, please refer to the media release published today.

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