Dark Pools Pitched as Havens Are Anything But, T. Rowe Says

Although designed as havens for big institutions, the stock-trading platforms known as dark pools are no better than public exchanges at protecting the firms they purportedly serve, according to an executive at one of the biggest U.S. investment firms.

“Dark pools aren’t safe,” said Mehmet Kinak, a vice president at T. Rowe Price Group Inc., which oversaw $738 billion including equity investments as of midyear. He spoke today at a Security Traders Association conference in Washington. For someone to say they are “comfortable posting something in a dark pool and interacting with market makers there, but you’re uncomfortable interacting at an exchange level, really doesn’t make any sense to us.”