075: Dan Aisen – The mechanics of a dark pool, and a quest to make markets “fair” (with the co-founder of IEX)

For this episode, I had the great pleasure of speaking with Dan Aisen—one of the co-founders of IEX, and one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in Finance (2015).

Dan got his start at RBC where he developed their flagship execution algorithm, THOR. This was also where he met and worked under Brad Katsuyama—one of the other co-founders and CEO of IEX, who was heavily profiled in Flash Boys.

As many of you may already know, IEX is an Alternative Trading System (ATS), or more commonly referred to as a dark pool. However, they’re currently in the midst of filing for exchange status.

During our talk, I asked Dan more about the projects he worked on at RBC, how IEX went from nothing more than an idea to an operating trading venue, and why they’re on a quest to make markets “fair”.

We also discuss the “speed bumps” which have been implemented at IEX, the mechanics of dark pools, and general chat about the broader market structure.