Tradeweb has reported net selling of ETFs across all asset classes on its European ETF marketplace during December.

Investors using Tradeweb’s European ETF Marketplace appeared bearish in December, with ‘sells’ outstripping ‘buys’ across all asset classes.

Trade volumes for the individual asset classes mirrored the previous 12-month rolling average, albeit with reverse buy/sell ratios (see chart below).

Equity ETFs accounted for 62% of total trade volume during the month, followed by fixed income ETFs with 33% and commodity ETFs with 5%.

Total trading activity on the Tradeweb European ETF marketplace reached €10.9 billion despite lower than average market volatility and the ‘holiday season’ effect.

Adriano Pace, managing director for equity derivatives at Tradeweb, said: “December marked the end of another record-breaking year for our platform, with more than €165bn executed in European-listed ETFs throughout 2017, an increase of 23% from 2016. The number of clients trading ETFs on the platform was also up by 13%, while the number of dealers providing ETF liquidity climbed to 29.”

Top ten ETFs by traded volume

The PIMCO Euro Short Maturity Source UCITS ETF (PJS1 GR) was the most heavily traded ETF on the Tradeweb platform for the second consecutive month. The fund invests primarily in an actively managed, diversified portfolio of euro-denominated fixed income securities, and has AUM over €2.3bn with a TER of 0.35%.The fund was also the top ETF by notional volume during the last quarter of 2017.