The Long-Term Stock Exchange is looking to build liquidity and expand trading activity as it enters its next phase of growth under Interim CEO Maliz Beams. LTSE’s Board named Beams Interim CEO on August 18, while she continues to serve as CEO of LTSE Group and Chair of the LTSE Group Board. In an interview with Traders Magazine, Beams discussed her priorities for the Exchange, where LTSE sees opportunities to capture more trading activity, and the technology and market-structure investments needed to support its expansion.
What are your immediate priorities in the role?
My immediate priorities are to deepen member participation and strengthen market differentiation to drive greater liquidity and, ultimately, volume.
You said the Exchange is “building momentum, increasing liquidity, and strengthening engagement with its members.” What specifically is driving that momentum, and how are you measuring progress?
Momentum is being driven by programs that reward members with LTSE revenue sharing and fee incentives for meeting quoting criteria. The Liquidity Incentive Program (LIP) and Co-Lead Program are designed around those criteria. Member participation has been increasing liquidity since the inception of the programs.
More broadly, displayed orders have increased 152% over the past six months, non-displayed orders are up 205% year over year, and sub-dollar share volume has increased 300% since we launched our incentive program in April.
What does LTSE need to do to increase liquidity and attract more trading activity, particularly as it competes with larger, established exchanges?
The immediate focus is to leverage LTSE’s differentiated revenue-sharing and incentive programs to deepen member engagement, encourage more competitive quoting, and convert that liquidity into trading activity. We are also strengthening alignment among members that provide liquidity, companies committed to strong governance and long-term value creation, and investors who share that long-term focus.
A major upgrade to LTSE’s trading platform in the fall will expand our market functionality, creating new ways to concentrate liquidity and bring participants together.
We compete by giving members a compelling reason to include LTSE in their routing logic through strong execution outcomes, transparent economics, differentiated liquidity programs, and a simpler path to participation. Our job is to identify where we can deliver those advantages, prove the results with data, and make it easy for firms to connect and participate.
What opportunities do you see for LTSE to expand its trading business and what changes would you like to see in the market to support greater participation and liquidity on the Exchange?
The greatest near-term opportunity is to deepen activity among existing participants while bringing more firms onto the platform. We see significant runway across displayed, midpoint, non-displayed, and sub-dollar trading.
As markets evolve, we support targeted modernization that reduces unnecessary complexity while protecting displayed liquidity, public price discovery, and competition among exchanges.
You mentioned building the Exchange’s ability to scale. What operational, technology or market-structure investments are needed to support that growth?
When we replatformed the Exchange, we demonstrated that the core platform can support significantly greater quoting and trading activity.
The investment over the course of 2026 is in capability, not capacity. Upgrading the team to accelerate our ability to introduce new programs and technical capabilities as our strategy evolves.
What should members and market participants expect from LTSE over the next 12 months?
Over the next 12 months, our members should expect closer engagement and further refinement of liquidity programs. We will use member feedback and clear trading and operational results to guide our priorities and measure progress.
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