Jeff Foster, CEO and founder of CIX, in Toronto's Financial District on Dec. 19. Mr. Foster believes CIX can be a challenger to the TSX.Cole Burston/The Globe and Mail
Jeff Foster is on a mission to modernize Canadian capital markets.
The two-decade veteran of Toronto Stock Exchange parent TMX Group Ltd. is preparing to launch a new alternative trading system (ATS) in early 2026. CIX Trading Inc. will let investors buy and sell Canadian stocks outside of regular trading hours and will also allow for fractional trading, which makes it possible to acquire fractions of a single share.
For example, if an investor wanted to acquire $500 worth of Royal Bank of Canada’s TSX-listed stock at a price of, say, $220 per share, the CIX platform will facilitate the sale of exactly 2.272 RBC shares.
Mr. Foster envisions CIX as an upstart challenger to the hegemonic TSX, filling a role that was most recently played by the former NEO Exchange, before it was sold to Cboe Global Markets Inc. in 2021, after which it steadily lost market share.
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ATS platforms compete to be the venue of choice for the buying and selling of securities, though unlike stock exchanges, they do not directly list those securities. While CIX is starting as an ATS, Mr. Foster said the goal is to eventually become a full-fledged exchange.
“We have some pretty aggressive plans and it doesn’t involve nibbling around the edges,” he said in an interview. “It is by providing something meaningfully different from a trading market structure perspective.”
The vast majority of Canadian equities are listed on the TSX or TSX Venture Exchange, but there are a total of 18 different marketplaces owned by five separate companies where those securities can be traded.
Small price differentials between marketplaces generally dictate where brokers will go to execute a trade in hopes of getting their clients the best possible price.
“There has always been a meaningful disruptive force,” Mr. Foster said. “It was NEO, and now we want to fill that role.”
CIX will offer three trading venues, pushing the total number of equity marketplaces in Canada to 21. They will be entering the behind-the-scenes world of trading execution during a period of upheaval.
Cboe Canada has been up for sale since late October and at least two major trading venues – the Canadian Securities Exchange and Tradlogiq Markets Inc. – are eager buyers. If either of them acquires Cboe Canada, it would drastically alter the competitive landscape in the sector.
According to data from the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO), the TSX and TSX-V are still the largest players in the space. In November, 2025, the TSX handled 31.6 per cent of Canadian equity trading volume, which was about 9-billion shares, and the TSX-V had a 14.2 per cent market share.
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Cboe Canada’s venues had a combined 13 per cent market share and Tradelogiq’s market share was slightly below 10 per cent. The other 31.2 per cent is divided between the remaining players in the market, such as the Canadian Securities Exchange, Nasdaq Canada and Instinet Canada Cross Ltd.
Mr. Foster said CIX is targeting 20 per cent market share within three years of launching, which would put his company ahead of the TSX-V and second only to the TSX itself. He believes offering faster response times, extended trading hours and fractional trading will have brokers gravitating to the platform.
Almost 25 per cent of retail trading in U.S.-listed stocks already happens outside of normal trading hours, Mr. Foster said. Canadian investors have been able to buy and sell American stocks at virtually any time of day for years, thanks in part to Canadian-backed U.S. fintech startup Blue Ocean Technologies LLC, he said, but they still lack the same access to Canadian-listed stocks.
“Imagine if you could only order from Amazon Canada between 9:30 a.m. and 4 p.m., but you could order from Amazon U.S. all day,” Mr. Foster said. “If you’re a teacher in Vancouver and you can’t access your phone all day, you get home from work and the market is closed, so if you want to participate in Canadian equity markets you aren’t really given that opportunity.”
CIX plans to allow trading from 7 a.m. ET through 8 p.m. ET. The company is in talks with CIRO to ensure appropriate market surveillance will be in place at launch covering its extended trading hours.
That is likely to be a key source of concern among the industry’s established players. Several of them have told The Globe they will respond to the Ontario Securities Commission’s notice of initial operations and request for comment on CIX, which is accepting feedback until Jan. 5. Mr. Foster expects approvals from both the OSC and CIRO to arrive before the end of March.
The market surveillance concern arises from the fact that companies generally time their market-moving disclosures, such as quarterly financial results, for release either before or after the regular trading session. That becomes trickier if the session starts earlier and ends later.
Fractional trading also presents a possible issue, as orders for fractions of a share will require their own market maker – which the OSC notice refers to as a fractional liquidity provider – meaning they will trade separately from full-share orders.
The arrival of those features in Canada is inevitable, Mr. Foster said, given how long they have already been available for American stocks.
“The U.S. is sprinting past us and they have been for a while,” he said. “We should be able to do these things. We should be more nimble and compete with the U.S.”
CIX has so far managed to raise $4-million in its first funding round. Several Canadian broker-dealers, Toronto-based hedge fund Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. and one of Canada’s big five banks (Mr. Foster declined to say which one) count among the company’s early investors.
A second funding round is underway, though Mr. Foster would only describe it as being “much higher” than what CIX has raised to date. It is expected to close in January.
Despite the relatively turbulent competitive landscape, CIX is entering the market at an ideal time. Since trading venues make money based on overall volume, periods of heightened volatility usually translate to higher volumes and thus higher revenues.
“There is just a lot more speculation happening in the market now,” Tradelogiq CEO Laurence Rose said in an interview. “It is lifting all of our boats, for sure.”
TMX, which declined to comment, has made no secret of its desire to generate most of its revenues from outside of Canada, having publicly set that long-term goal in late 2023. Mr. Foster argues that global growth strategy has led TMX to neglect its home market.
“There is not a large, level focus on providing the best possible marketplace experience here in Canada, and that has been noticed by a lot of our participants,” he said.
“There is no moat around their business. I think we are really going to shake things up over the next year or so.”