Investors Exchange, or IEX, is an American stock exchange founded in 2012. IEX is a fair, simple, and transparent market center dedicated to investor protection, providing a more balanced marketplace via simplified market structure design and cutting-edge technology.
IEX’s core innovation is its network architecture, which mandates that all orders travel a combined 38 miles of fiber optic cable before reaching IEX’s system. This distance neutralizes unfair advantages employed by some predatory trading strategies.
IEX’s technology stands in contrast to conventional business practice, whereby incumbent exchanges sell or lease the space closest to their core matching technology to satiate the high-speed trading community’s need for speed. IEX also emphasizes simplicity to better serve traditional investors, by only supporting a focused set of 5 order types which serve investors’ core trading needs.