With the growing popularity of Alternative Trading Systems (ATSs) competing against traditional exchanges such as the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) and TSX Venture, it is important to understand what this may mean to you as an investor.

The evolution of a multi-market environment means that your orders for Canadian equities can be directed to multiple market places for execution. In fact, over 40% of Canadian equity trades are now executed on ATSs such as Alpha, Pure Trading and Chi-X Canada.

One thing that hasn’t changed is our regulatory obligation to ensure that your orders receive the best possible executions, including price. TD Waterhouse leverages the advanced order routing technology of TD Securities Inc. to direct your orders to the markets which offer the best terms available under prevailing market conditions - seeking to fill your order in its entirety, and at the highest bid price for sells and the lowest offer price for buys. Limit orders which are not marketable will be posted to the exchange or ATS which offers the greatest likelihood of execution.

Traditional providers of market data in Canada have yet to provide a quote feed which would allow you to view a single consolidated quote reflecting all markets. Consequently, while it may appear to you that some orders have not reached the market, they have in fact been directed to an ATS for execution - consistent with our regulatory obligation to seek the best terms for your order. TD Waterhouse is actively working with market data providers to deliver you a consolidated quote feed, which will bring full transparency to you later this summer.