Direct Market Access?

[hookedinvesting (@hooked_investing(IG))]

Interesting article today about Freetrade using Equiduct Apex for EU trades.

Wail Azizi, Managing Director & Global Head of Growth at Equiduct said: “We’re thrilled to welcome Freetrade to Equiduct and provide access to Europe’s most popular stocks and ETFs to o ver 1 million additional retail investors via Apex - our commission-free Best Execution service.

Apex explained further below:

“A pan-European trading service on the lit Börse Berlin. It’s a trading venue with a big difference. It offers brokers access to the equivalent of a smart order router providing a pan-European Best Execution service, without the technology and execution fees, and with zero commission fees.”

https://www.equiduct.com/services/apex

(Previously Duncan also confirmed that Freetrade uses CBOE Europe NL to clear trades.)

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Could someone from the team explain to me how you define direct market access?

And if you still need to connect to multiple third parties, to both execute and clear trades, what the benefit of it is?

Appreciate your time responding, I’m sure my confusion is probably because of a lack of understanding.

[Rollingskies]

This is a very important question.

The current FT engine was developed from the ground up with the big thrust being it would ultimately be cheaper and more effective.

Is this a corporate change of direction or a stop gap measure to not fall behind while engineering continues?

As an investor:
Is this going to be cost effective long term ?

As a user:
Is this reliable? Nobody can forget last January with the GME craze.

Anyway, either way it is good to see progress. Roll on Europe!