Filter exchange venues before routing orders

Venue routing starts with a reachable list

The archive describes traders confronting many venues worldwide, including cases where similar products are listed on more than one exchange. A venue may exist as a remote matching facility rather than a national marketplace with a physical floor.

Venue routing is sending an order to a chosen exchange or matching facility rather than leaving venue selection implicit. An equivalent product is a listed instrument that is economically similar to another listing at a different venue.

Confirm the listing the venue will actually handle

Comparing equivalent products across venues is useful only if the broker can send the order to the selected venue. Traders should confirm the specifications of a trading vehicle at the venue that actually handles it.

Published venue directories can change after posting, and listed firms are responsible for their own entries.

Trade documentation stays useful after the fill

Extensive trade documentation helps reconstruct events and resolve disputes more quickly. Trade documentation is the venue record of events used to reconstruct a fill or settle a dispute.

The order life cycle is the period from order placement through routing, matching, confirmation, and any later dispute. Editorial: a venue that cannot produce usable trade documentation should drop out of the reachable set before cost and speed are compared.

Leftover differences become routing inputs

Venues compete on listed products, traded volume, speed, pricing, and investor protections. Wider venue choice has been associated with falling transaction costs.

Implementation cost is the transaction and friction costs incurred when an order is actually executed. Editorial: after the filter, use those remaining differences to decide how and where to send the order, while still accounting for implementation cost.