How Do ‘Dark Pools’ Differ from RFQ Platforms in Terms of Anonymity?

Dark pools are private exchanges that allow institutional investors to trade large blocks of securities anonymously without pre-trade price transparency. RFQ platforms also offer anonymity but facilitate a direct price discovery process by soliciting quotes from multiple dealers.

The key difference is that dark pools typically use midpoint pricing, whereas RFQ platforms use a competitive quote process to determine the final price.