Eight months after its inception, TradeSpark continues to climb the ranks of online exchanges, announcing late last week that it has purchased TCT Natural Gas Inc., a Houston natural gas brokerage house, and opened a TradeSpark office in Houston. The company said the new division will give the New York-based energy marketplace a stronghold in the Houston area and immediate gas options trading capabilities.

TradeSpark, which released its record first quarter 2001 results two weeks ago (see Daily GPI, April 16), said it has hired additional brokers to support the new office, and has added the ERCOT and West Coast electricity regions to its product portfolio, which will commence trading on the online exchange immediately.

“Our move into Houston will ensure that we are closely connected to key market players and have access to the best market intelligence available. It will also help us to provide our 800-plus users with better service and new trading opportunities in these exciting markets,” said Harry Fry, TradeSpark spokesperson. “Right now we are seeing strong market demand for natural gas options and other financial energy products. Opening a Houston office will really help us get a firm hold of this important market.”

The company also announced a new daily trading high for natural gas. On April 18, TradeSpark said it transacted 222.8 million MMBtu of gas products. Since the platform’s October 2000 release, the company said it has traded more than $30 billion worth (notional value) of energy products, trading more than 2.18 billion MMBtu of natural gas instruments worth $11.6 billion during the first quarter 2001.

“We expect that our market share in the gas sector will continue to increase. We have already seen our natural gas business take off — we’ve experienced a 90% increase in the amount of natural gas traded in the first quarter of this year alone,” Fry added.

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