Island ECN was one of the first

electronic communication network An electronic communication network (ECN) is a type of computerized forum or network that facilitates the trading of financial products outside traditional stock exchanges. An ECN is generally an electronic system that widely disseminates orders e ...

s established for the trading

equities In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dictionary: "stock - ''especially AmE'' one of the shares into which ownership of a company ...

in the United States. Founded in 1996 by Datek Securities veterans Jeff Citron and Joshua Levine, Island executed its first trades in 1997.

History

Prior to Island, Citron and Levine worked together at Datek Securities (now

TD Ameritrade TD Ameritrade is a stockbroker that offers an electronic trading platform for the trade of financial assets including common stocks, preferred stocks, futures contracts, exchange-traded funds, forex, options, mutual funds, fixed income investmen ...

). Citron's background was in trading and Levine had experience with software development. While at Datek, they worked together to develop a software program called Watcher. Watcher was one of the first programs to provide real-time quote and electronic order capabilities for trading

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...

stocks through the small order execution system (SOES). Later, Citron and Levine used their experience with Watcher to help develop Island ECN.

Instinet Instinet is an institutional, agency-model broker that also serves as the independent equity trading arm of its parent, Nomura Group. It executes trades for asset management firms, hedge funds, insurance companies, mutual funds and pension fund ...

acquired Island Exchange in 2002 and renamed the

trading platform In finance, an electronic trading platform also known as an online trading platform, is a computer software program that can be used to place orders for financial products over a network with a financial intermediary. Various financial products c ...

Inet Inet was an electronic trading platform based on a system developed by Instinet in the 1970s that merged with Island ECN in 2002 and was subsequently acquired by NASDAQ in 2005. Inet, like other electronic communication networks, was an order-pai ...

References

Electronic trading platforms 2002 mergers and acquisitions {{stockexchange-stub