Just north of the Missouri River, near downdown Kansas City, stands a low-rise office block that provides the headquarters of BATS Trading, a start-up technology company that is taking on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq at share trading.

Launched just this year, the company, whose name promises a "better alternative trading system", already handles more than 100m shares a day. By the end of 2008, according to Ken Conklin, head of sales, it aims to be handling 1bn shares daily, equal to half the volume traded on Nasdaq. The costs of trading on its platform are a fraction of those of its larger rivals.