PISCES stands for Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System. It is the UK's new FCA-regulated market for trading private-company shares: shares in companies that haven't floated change hands during scheduled trading windows, a few days at a time, rather than continuously. And it is secondary-only. Existing shareholders sell to eligible buyers, and the company itself raises nothing.
For an angel, that last sentence is the one to hold on to. Most of what PISCES is, and most of what the early commentary got excited or sniffy about, follows from it. The first windows ran in March 2026, so there is now a real market to describe rather than a consultation paper. Here is how it works.
The shares change hands. The company raises nothing. Hold on to that and most of PISCES falls into place.
What PISCES actually is
PISCES is a framework, not a single venue. The FCA approves and supervises platform operators who run private-share markets under a sandbox created by regulations made under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023. The FCA published its final rules in June 2025 and the sandbox opened that month, with an initial life of about five years while the regime is tested.
The design is deliberate in three ways. Trading is intermittent: a company that joins a PISCES platform schedules trading events, or windows, rather than having its shares quoted all day, every day. Trading is secondary: only existing shares move, so this is a way for early shareholders, employees and founders to sell down, not a way for the company to raise capital. And disclosure is private: the company gives information to the investors taking part in its event, not to the public at large, and it keeps a striking amount of control, including over who is allowed to buy and the price range within which orders can be placed.
The company stays private throughout. Nothing about a PISCES event makes it a public company.
The first trades: a board-game maker and an Oxford vehicle
Two venues got there first, within a week of each other.
On 18 March 2026, JP Jenkins opened the first PISCES trading window anywhere, in QPLAY, the company behind the digital board game Outsmarted. The window ran to 24 March, with buy and sell orders placed through intermediaries including Peel Hunt and Winterflood Securities, and the auction uncrossed on the final afternoon. A small company, a five-day window, a single clearing price: the mechanics worked as advertised. (A clearing price was reported in places, but only thinly sourced, so we won't repeat it here.)
On 25 March 2026, the London Stock Exchange's new Private Securities Market ran its first auction. The instrument traded wasn't an operating company at all but Tradable Private Equity, a vehicle holding shares in Oxford Science Enterprises, the investment company with a stake in scientific spinouts from the University of Oxford and a portfolio of roughly 120 businesses. Oxford Science Enterprises itself didn't join the market; the vehicle gave eligible investors a permissioned route to exposure, with Crowdcube among the access points.
So the opening line-up was one small games company and one wrapper around a spinout investor. Modest names, but real trades under the new rules.
How a trading window works, and who can take part
A PISCES event runs to a rhythm the company sets. It picks an approved operator, schedules the window, and publishes its disclosure pack to the investors who will participate. During the window, typically measured in days, eligible buyers and sellers place orders through intermediaries. The operator then runs an auction that settles at a single price. The company can set price floors and ceilings in advance and can restrict who may buy, down to named categories. Between events, nothing trades.
The buy side is gated. Under the FCA's framework, buyers must fall within specified categories: broadly, institutional and professional investors, employees of the company whose shares are trading, and individuals who qualify as certified or self-certified sophisticated investors or high-net-worth individuals under the financial promotion rules (for HNW status, income of £100,000 or more, or net assets of £250,000 or more excluding your main home and pension). The ordinary retail public is excluded. If you angel invest, you probably already meet one of those tests; our explainer on the 2026 criteria walks through them, and the FCA's PISCES pages carry the current detail. Re-check before assuming anything: the categories sit in sandbox rules that can move.
What PISCES is not
Three negatives do a lot of work here. PISCES is not an IPO: no new shares are issued, no capital is raised, and the company stays private (for how floats and trade sales differ, see our explainer on how startup exits work). It is not continuous trading: a holder who misses a window waits for the next one, and there may not be a next one. And it is not a public market for information: disclosure goes to participants, at a depth well short of listed-company standards.
That last point is where the early press landed its punches. City AM called QPLAY's debut a lacklustre launch and wondered whether, without a big-ticket entrant, PISCES would end 'not with a bang but a whimper'. Global Trading ran a piece headlined 'Opacity dogs nascent PISCES markets', questioning how little pricing and company information escapes the windows, especially after the FCA trimmed post-trade disclosure requirements from its core rules. Both are reads worth knowing, and both were written after a fortnight of evidence. Two windows is a thin sample for a verdict either way.
What it means for an angel's book
For most angels, PISCES changes nothing this year and is worth watching anyway. The useful questions to carry are these. Could any company in your portfolio plausibly run a window? Realistically that means later-stage businesses with shareholders who want out and buyers who want in; your seed-stage holdings are not the target market yet. Would a window price tell you much? A single auction in a thin market produces a number, and numbers from thin markets deserve scepticism before they restate your whole book. And if a route to selling did open up, what would a sale actually trigger? A disposal is a disposal: the usual capital gains consequences apply, EIS shares sold within three years lose their relief, and the existing rules on secondary sales don't bend just because the venue is new.
A note on what this isn't: nothing here is a suggestion that you buy or sell shares on a PISCES platform, or anywhere else. The regime is a sandbox, the rules are new and will change, and whether any of it touches your situation depends on facts no article can know. Check the current position at the FCA and take FCA-regulated advice before acting.
Frequently asked questions
Is PISCES a stock exchange?
Not in the everyday sense. PISCES (the Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System) is an FCA-regulated framework under which approved platforms run markets in private-company shares. Trading happens in scheduled windows rather than continuously, disclosure goes to participating investors rather than the public, and the companies whose shares trade stay private. It sits somewhere between a public exchange and a privately negotiated share sale.
Can a company raise money on PISCES?
No. PISCES is secondary-only: existing shareholders sell shares they already hold to eligible buyers. No new shares are issued and the company raises no capital from a trading event. What it offers a company is a controlled way to give early shareholders and employees some liquidity while staying private.
Who can buy shares on PISCES?
Buyers must fall within categories set by the FCA's framework: broadly, institutional and professional investors, employees of the company whose shares are trading, and individuals who qualify as certified or self-certified sophisticated investors or as high-net-worth individuals under the financial promotion rules (income of £100,000 or more, or net assets of £250,000 or more excluding main home and pension). The ordinary retail public cannot take part. The categories sit in sandbox rules, so check the current position at the FCA.
When did PISCES start trading?
The FCA's sandbox opened in June 2025, and the first actual trades came in March 2026. JP Jenkins opened the first trading window on 18 March 2026 in QPLAY, a board-game company, with the auction completing on 24 March. The London Stock Exchange's Private Securities Market ran its first auction on 25 March 2026, in a vehicle holding shares in Oxford Science Enterprises.
Should I sell my shares on PISCES?
That's not a question this article can answer, and it isn't trying to. Whether selling any holding makes sense depends on your circumstances, whether the company joins a PISCES platform at all, and the tax consequences of a disposal (EIS shares sold within three years lose their relief, for instance). This is general information, not financial advice. Confirm the current rules at the FCA and GOV.UK and take FCA-regulated advice before buying or selling.