A fixed income Alternative Trading System (or ATS) is an electronic marketplace that aggregates securities, bringing the offerings of multiple bond dealers together in a single marketplace.
Fidelity uses several of the largest ATSs. Through them, you have access to over 300 participants that contribute and/or distribute fixed income securities.
By partnering with these ATSs, Fidelity is able to offer you a broad variety of fixed income inventory. Contributors to the inventory include securities firms such as UBS, Credit Suisse Group, and Bank of America, N.A. Fidelity is also a contributor of inventory to these offering platforms.
By pooling inventory in this way, fixed income ATSs assist in creating a more electronically enabled, centralized marketplace for fixed income securities.