Tradeweb has reported that the end of September marked the third busiest quarter for its European-listed ETF marketplace since its launch in October 2012, as Q3 2017 activity touched €38.3 billion. Total traded volume on the platform amounted to €13.2bn in September, up 12% from August.
Adriano Pace, managing director for equity derivatives at Tradeweb.
Adriano Pace, managing director for equity derivatives at Tradeweb, said the monthly and quarterly figures reflect the efficiencies of ‘Request For Quote’ (RFQ) trading on a regulated platform as the ETF industry is bracing itself for the new regulatory landscape under MiFID II.
“Benefits are not limited to achieving best price,” said Pace, “but also extend to speed and likelihood of execution, ultimately enabling market participants to comply with strengthened best execution obligations.”
September’s activity in equity-based ETFs amounted to 61% of the overall notional volume, mirroring the previous 12-month rolling average. This asset class saw strong buying activity with ‘buys’ outstripping ‘sells’ by seven percentage points.
Fixed income ETFs saw net buying for the fifth consecutive month with ‘buys’ exceeding ‘sells’ by a margin of three percentage points. There was an equal split between ‘buys’ and ‘sells’ for commodity ETFs; their total traded volume decreased by one percentage point to 6% of the overall platform flow, compared to the previous 12 months.
Nearly €2 billion in notional was executed in ETFs tracking European equities, the most actively-traded category in September.
Source: Tradeweb.
Top ten ETFs by traded volume
Three products offering exposure to US equities were among September’s top ten list by traded volume, with the Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS ETF ranked first. In eighth place for the month, the db x-trackers MSCI World Index UCITS ETF was the most heavily-traded fund in the third quarter.
Source: Tradeweb.