NEO Exchange First Listing Celebration

This morning we were delighted to celebrate the first listing on the Aequitas NEO Exchange: Invesco Canada’s PowerShares DWA Global Momentum Index ETF, trading under the symbol DWG.

Twenty-six years ago, the Canadian capital markets created an innovative and disruptive investment product: the Exchange Traded Fund. This product revolutionized investing for the average Canadian investor and provided new avenues to facilitate the capital formation process. The size and scale of this product far exceeded the dreams of the early ETF pioneers, both here in Canada and around the world.

Canada was a leader then. We have the opportunity to be a leader again today:

• Today we marked the next evolution for the Canadian capital markets. With our introduction of innovative solutions, disruptive ideas and our unwavering focus on the needs of investors and capital-raisers, we have enabled a different type of stock exchange, a stock exchange that stands for fairness, liquidity, transparency and efficiency.
• Today, for the first time ever, we celebrated an ETF listed on a Canadian stock exchange other than the TSX.
• Today, after more than two decades, we have returned true competition to the listing of senior public securities in Canada.

What does true competition in the listing space mean? It’s quite simple. It means choice.

Invesco Canada chose to drive efficiency for its Powershares ETF by being the first mover on our NEO Exchange. They had the vision to choose our new venue and our venue has delivered, with flawless trading in the essential first days of its public launch. Over 350,000 shares of DWG traded yesterday. Over 500,000 traded today! And the quality of trade liquidity was notable, enabled by BMO Capital Markets, the NEO Exchange Designated Market Maker for DWG, leveraging our unique liquidity supporting program.

Market participants embrace choice, but we are learning they can be resistant to change. Achieving this first listing took time and effort, but we found the perfect partner in Invesco Canada. They are consistently pioneers in competition and doing things differently, focused on the investor winning. And so are we. 

Within the current IPO climate, ETFs are a key focus for listings here in Canada and I can promise you we will give our competitors a run for their money.  

What is also notable is that yesterday, less than a year since we began trading all Canadian-listed securities on the NEO exchange, we reached 28% market share of the overall value traded in Canadian-listed ETFs. This made us, for the first time, the largest Canadian marketplace trading ETFs!

Our market share across all Canadian-listed securities is now ranging between 6 - 8% and we have multiple metrics starting to demonstrate that our models work. One example is that 50% of all the trades on the NEO Exchange take place between natural investors, thus minimizing unnecessary intermediation.

Innovation and competition is not a theory, it works and the ultimate winners are the ones we should all be caring about: investors, capital raisers and value-adding intermediaries.