The launch of alternative trading grounds Chi-X Australia has continued its positive turnout of trades on its third day, says its chief operating officer, Peter Fowler.

In an e-mailed response to ibtimes.com.au queries, Fowler said trading volumes for Chi-X in the last two days had exceeded expectations.

On Tuesday trade volume was placed at 830, valued at A$3.8 million. On Wednesday, total trades reached 1,095 trades amounting to A$5.1 million, according to the Chi-X Australia COO.

"Trading on both days has been higher than we anticipated," he said.

These trades were done by the eight listed securities, which Chi-X Australia hopes to grow by just over 250 securities in the coming weeks.

"Some brokers will now stay out of the market until they are satisfied that the trades executed on Monday have settled without issue. These trades will settle on Friday 4 November," Fowler said.

He said Chi-X Australia, a subsidiary of Chi-X Global, will also be processing applications from new trading participants over the coming weeks.

Chi-X Australia, a subsidiary of financial group Nomura, had so far established its credibility and efficiency in trading shares and has been a putting up a good fight to counter the dominance of the ASX Ltd.

In September, ASX Chairman David Gonski said ASX was "ready for the new environment and has been working on its preparedness for several years". Nevertheless, ASX suffered a trading glitch on Friday that halted the market during crucial hours.

Most of the ASX's revenue comes from derivative trading, an area which Fowler has indicated his group may target.

Market observers, on the other hand, said Chi-X Australia still has a lot to work to do to catch up with the ASX, although operating in the cash market trading space which represents less than seven per cent of the ASX's revenue is a good start, a report by the Business Spectator pointed out

One of the major advantages offered by Chi-X Australia is its so-called maker-taker pricing model to attract volume. The structure is designed so that brokers offering to buy or sell securities pay 0.06 basis point of the trade's value, while those that complete the transaction pay 0.12 basis point. Bloomberg said in a related report that this is cheaper than ASX, which charges 0.15 basis point, or 15 cents for every $10,000, for each side of the trade.

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