QuickTake Q&A: IEX Puts Speed Bump in Path of Fastest Trading

Modern stock trading happens in the blink of an eye. IEX is trying to make a virtue of slowing things down -- at least by a fraction of a second. The venue championed by author Michael Lewis in his 2014 book “Flash Boys” just got permission to become a fully empowered competitor to the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq and other exchanges that put a premium on speed.

IEX, which began trading in 2013, is currently a private stock marketplace -- a dark pool -- that handles electronic buy and sell orders from brokers who subscribe to it. It’s owned by a group of buy-side funds including Bain Capital Ventures, Greenlight Capital and Pershing Square. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in June 2016 blessed its application to become a public stock exchange, a full-fledged competitor to the NYSE, Nasdaq and Bats.