Lit pools, also called lit markets, are a type of stock exchange. They are effectively the opposite of dark pools or dark liquidity. Whereas ‘dark’ venues do not display prices at which participants are willing to trade, lit pools do show these various bids and offers in different stocks. Primary exchanges operate in such a way that available liquidity is displayed at all times and form the bulk of the lit pools available to traders.[1] The majority of trades, 70%, are transacted over lit pools.[2] Lit pools are closer to what is generally considered the ideal market, due to their transparency.[3]

If a market is a lit or dark pool has implications for optimal trading strategies, which are debated by scholars[4][5] as well as market participants.[6][7]

References edit

  1. ^ "Glossary | ATMonitor". Archived from the original on 2010-10-30. Retrieved 2011-01-27.
  2. ^ "What is Lit pool". capital.com. Retrieved 2022-03-17.
  3. ^ Bennington, Ash (2011-01-12). "Dark Pools & Lit Pools: A Financial Morality Tale?". www.cnbc.com. Retrieved 2022-03-17.
  4. ^ Alessandra Crisafi, M.; Macrina, Andrea (2015-02-01). "Dark-Pool Perspective of Optimal Market Making". Astrophysics Data System. arXiv:1502.02863.
  5. ^ Baldacci, Bastien; Manziuk, Iuliia; Mastrolia, Thibaut; Rosenbaum, Mathieu (2019-12-02). "Market making and incentives design in the presence of a dark pool: a deep reinforcement learning approach". arXiv:1912.01129 [q-fin.MF].
  6. ^ Palmer, Max (2010-03-20). "Dark and Lit Markets: A User's Guide". Trading. 2010 (1): 94–100.
  7. ^ Goodman, Daniel. "NYSE Floor Trader Explains How Stocks Are Traded In Dark Pools". Business Insider. Retrieved 2022-03-17.