Why Some Dark Pools Are Increasing Their Volumes

Some dark pools are growing faster than others. Overall, dark pool volume appears to be increasing as a percentage of consolidated market share, but a handful of pools are making more headway. The growing pools run from Goldman Sachs's Sigma X and Morgan Stanley's MS Pool to Getco Execution Services.

According to Rosenblatt Securities, which tabulates dark pool volume monthly, dark pools were 8.75 percent of consolidated volume in January, in line with market share in November and December, but several percentage points higher than their share earlier in 2008. However, data from the earlier part of last year is incomplete since some pools declined to publish their numbers.

Why Some Dark Pools Are Increasing Their Volumes