BATS Gets It Right This Time

Never underestimate the power of tenacity and bizarre timing when pricing a new stock.

Author:

Updated:

Jan 14, 2019

Original:

Apr 15, 2016

The second time proved the charm for BATS Global Markets today. It managed to go public without screwing up anyone else’s listing, and has even been rewarded for it.

BATS’s stock gained 18 percent to $22.51 at 10:26 a.m. in New York. The shares are listed on BATS’s own BZX Exchange, the first to do so since the company was founded 11 years ago as an alternative trading site to the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Stock Market.

So after failing to go public in one of the hottest IPO markets ever, BATS has successfully in a veritable IPO wasteland. Hooray for alternative trading and irony!

BATS Shares Climb in I.P.O., Avoiding Debacle of 2012 Listing [DealBook]
BATS Tries Again With I.P.O. on Its Own Exchange [NYT]

News

If you're looking for contrition from BATS Global Markets following its revelation that it's been screwing up hundreds of thousands of trades and violating rules for about four years, you'll be disappointed. The latest exchange forced to publicly admit incompetence says it's going to try to fix things, but that customers (and, presumably, the SEC) occasional snafu.

By Mike Cauldwell (https://www.casascius.com/photos.aspx) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

News

WinkleBATS!

News

Fingers crossed an amateur hour screw up on the big day doesn't derail things...again.

News

As we have seen, the largest and second-largest U.S. stock exchanges have been having some trouble with little things like IPOs and processing and reporting trades. Now, it's the third's turn:

News

At a time when U.S. exchanges seem to have lost the capacity to competently manage an initial public offering, one might expect Hong Kong's securities honchos to sense an opening. They have apparently gotten a different message.