Serving Japan’s equity retail revolution
Roman Ginis, CEO, Imperative Execution.
Global Trading spoke to Roman Ginis, CEO of Imperative Execution, Founder of IntelligentCross, on how innovation in US equity markets is being applied to Japan.
Over the last couple of years, equity trading in Japan has undergone a transformation, with a growing base of active retail traders repositioning their assets into stocks. How does this correlate to the US Equities Market?
Retail investors have become a major force in US equity markets – accounting for about 20-30% of trading volume in 2025¹, up from just 10% five years ago. Retail brokers and their clients want liquidity, performance, and economics – areas where IntelligentCross can add significant value, leveraging our extensive institutional network and liquidity.
It is important to US retail investors to ensure that their orders are getting the best possible execution – being optimally matched for maximum price improvement.
This is one of the objectives for JAX, the newest Proprietary Trading System (PTS) operator in Japan, which is designed to better serve the needs of retail investors.
What role can innovation play at a time like this in the Japanese equity markets?
Innovation in the equities markets in the US has given investors tremendous choice in how they can optimise their execution. From reducing market impact and controlling information leakage, to lowering adverse selection, to getting more price improvement – venues and matching mechanisms in the US have validated that investors want and benefit from these optimisations. Japanese markets can build on the ideas that make sense and potentially innovate and improve on what already works elsewhere.
How is Imperative Execution participating in the Japanese markets? And how does that benefit the retail investor?
At the end of 2024, we partnered with a Rakuten-led consortium to launch JAX PTS, a retail-focused venue powered by our matching engine technology. Today, JAX handles over 7% of total Japanese market volume² – a remarkable success that underscores the strength of this model.
Retail participation is only growing, and so is the demand for innovative trading solutions. The result: better access, better execution, and better liquidity for everyone – retail clients, brokers, and liquidity providers alike.
You launched IntelligentCross in the US in mid 2018, and it has rocketed to being the #1 ATS³ (Alternative Trading System – the US equivalent of a PTS) in just 7 years. What did you learn that will help Imperative Execution provide greater efficiency and better performance to Japanese investors?
We launched IntelligentCross as a performance product to empower institutional investors to get higher quality execution than they could get from traditional venues.
Our growth in the US has validated that investors want this category of a product. Our subscribers are all major banks, brokers, asset managers and liquidity providers and they are looking for performance. It is not just about best possible execution, it is about winning more business and getting more performance out of each trade.
Many firms in Japan trade globally and already trade with IntelligentCross in the US. With their feedback, there are definite opportunities to adapt some of our technology to the Japanese market.
What are some things that Japanese investors should do to improve their equity investment experience and performance?
Japanese investors can ask their brokers to provide them with global post-trade data that helps them to assess how well their Japanese equity orders are performing against a variety of metrics, including data relative to performance trends in other markets, like the US and EU, where there are a number of established performance-focused venues and matching mechanisms. They can also ask whether their brokers are routing their orders to some of the newer venues available to them, in addition to the exchange. The natural forces of competition will help drive more choices, greater efficiencies, and lower trading costs.
This article forms part of the joint Global Trading & The DESK Special Report on Japan. To download the full Japan Report click on the image below:
AloJapan.com