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BNP veteran Le Floch jumps to RBC Capital Markets

Solenn Le Floch, managing director of global markets solutions, RBC Capital Markets
Solenn Le Floch, managing director of global markets solutions, RBC Capital Markets

Solenn Le Floch has joined RBC Capital Markets (RBCCM) as managing director of global markets solutions.

In the London-based post, Le Floch is responsible for sponsor and alternative clients within the business. She will also expand RBCCM’s solutions franchise, particularly its balance sheet and equity driven strategies.

She reports to Jason Goss, head of European solutions and structures products, and will work alongside RBCCM’s financing and trading businesses in the role.

Le Floch has more than 20 years of industry experience and joins RBC from BNP Paribas, where she has been a senior managing director since 2017 focusing on private equity solutions.

Earlier in her career, Le Floch was a managing director at both Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs.

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LSEG: ETPs, execution and the rise of retail

Worrell & Wood

Adam Wood, CEO of Turquoise, and Richard Worrell, co-head of equities trading, speak to Global Trading about market trends, the best of 2024 and what to expect from the London Stock Exchange Group in the year to come.


What have been the key highlights for the London Stock Exchange in 2024?

Richard WorrellRichard Worrell: Overall, it’s been a successful year for equities trading. While there continue to be challenges in the global marketplace, generally equity markets have traded higher, and volumes have improved.

At the London Stock Exchange, it was great to see the launch of physically backed and unleveraged Crypto ETNs, with Bitcoin and Ethereum as the underlying asset. Currently, they are open to professional investors only, but we will keep an eye on any change in this assets environment over time. We’ve also seen our average daily traded volume in ETPs rise overall by 28% year on year.

We’re focused on reducing barriers for retail trading and, effective 1 January 2025, we are waiving market data end-user fees for retail investors, allowing them to access real-time market data from both the London Stock Exchange and Turquoise. Having access to the latest, most accurate data available will drive more informed trading by investors in UK securities. We will be the first primary exchange to implement such a groundbreaking initiative.

Similarly, we have also waived fees for trading and clearing for retail brokers and intermediaries. These initiatives aim to significantly reduce the barriers to, and encourage more, retail trading on the London Stock Exchange.

On a more personal level, it’s been great to join the London Stock Exchange this year. I’ve adjusted to a new role on a different side of the industry and having worked on the buy and sell side, I’m now seeing so many new elements – and that’s been fascinating. I’m thankful to everybody that has helped guide me through such an interesting year.

Adam WoodAdam Wood: Turquoise has had a good year. Looking at two of our order books, in particular our Turquoise Plato lit auctions order book, trading volume has more than doubled and share of trading and average daily value traded over 2024 has almost tripled. That’s really positive, as that’s very much a growing segment of the market.

Another area that’s been really interesting this year is the trade-at-last session of our Turquoise Plato dark order books. We’ve seen continued growth this year, with six of our top ten record trading months occurring in 2024. The rise and growth of post-close sessions has been an interesting insight for us this year.

We’ve also been working closely on large block trades and our partnership with the Appital through the Appital Turquoise Book Builder, which posted its €70 million record trade this year. We’re seeing a lot more activity in that part of the market.


What trends do you think have been the most influential this year?

Richard Worrell: ETPs are not a trend anymore, they are a significant part of the industry, and an important area of growth for us. We’ve had three of our top five all-time trading days in ETPs this year, which shows how much the industry is growing. We’re constantly working to make sure that we’ve got the innovative order types and solutions to support the ETP market. We’ve seen increased usage of hidden order types and the growth of our RFQ 2.0 function has been phenomenal, the value traded has trebled year-on-year.

Closer working relationships/ partnerships with the buy side is helping us shape our strategy more than ever. Typically, we talk to primarily our members and historically we considered them our main client base, but the buy side is an incredibly important part of that. We always talk about our strategy being driven by a feedback wheel, and that wheel has a number of components. You have product innovation, client engagement and thought leadership, and as that cycle continues it’s further strengthened by our clients. My message to the market is to please keep coming to us with your feedback!

Adam Wood: The buy side is paying more attention as to how and where they execute. I think it’s a testament to that we welcomed a full house at our inaugural buy-side Forum last year.

As venues, we’ve usually engaged with our direct members, but the buy-side is one of the most important parts of the ecosystem. They’re often the end investors. Getting their feedback on how they are participating, how they want to participate, and what they want to understand, is vital.

One other trend that we touched on earlier is the continuing importance of retail in what we do from a trading perspective. It started a couple of years ago, and is gaining momentum, and I think we’ll see more retail activity in 2025.

Retail has become very important to our ecosystem. Everybody wants to understand more about it. When you talk to market participants, a lot of the conversations are about how to encourage more retail participation in European equities, and not just into the classic Magnificent Seven-type securities. We recently launched our ‘Rise of Retail’ video series discussing the work that is being done across the UK capital markets to support retail enfranchisement, touching on the latest innovations and regulatory reforms.

In Europe, on-venue retail participation is typically greater than in the UK. Turquoise launched Retail Max in 2023 for European trading activity, and we are now bringing this service onto our UK venue to give UK and Swiss investors access to the same service from early 2025, further enhancing its pan-European offering.


What are you expecting to see in 2025? What are your plans for the year?

Richard Worrell: Retail. Almost every meeting that I go to has a question on retail, whether it’s buy-side or sell-side, it comes up in every part of the industry. Having waived the fees for trading, clearing and market data, retail is going to be a big focus for us. As this builds, we also have to think about order book innovation for the London Stock Exchange to support the growth of retail activity.

We’d like to host more in-house events and further develop more active connections with the buy side. Deeper client engagement is a significant part of what we’re doing.

Adam Wood: From a Turquoise perspective, we expect to see continued product and tariff enhancements. We’ve been working hard on enhancements to our block trading offering that we look forward to bringing to the market. We will also be announcing a new tariff for our lit order books, which will make us one of the most competitive lit order books in Europe. We’ll certainly have some exciting things to talk about at the end of next year.


www.lseg.com

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TMX courts US market with ATS launch

Heidi Fischer, president, TSX Alpha US
Heidi Fischer, president, TSX Alpha US

TMX has launched AlphaX US, an alternative trading system (ATS) for US equities. The group enters a crowded battleground, as a growing number of ATSs compete for market share.

TMX’s plan to launch an ATS in the US has been in motion for a number of years, Heidi Fischer, president of TSX Alpha US told Global Trading. “Thinking about how to expand into global markets, it’s hard to look further than your nearest neighbour, which also happens to be the largest wallet in the world from an equity trading standpoint,” she said.

The US ATS market is a crowded place. In the final quarter of 2024 more than half of cash equity volume was traded on alternative systems, up 6.9% year-on-year. In the same time, the number of ATSs registered with the SEC rose from 73 to 76. Demand for off-exchange trading is growing, and firms are launching services to meet it.

“We’re complementary rather than competitive with what exists in the execution quality focused ATS space today,” Fischer said, citing a number of features to the ATS that differentiate it from others in the market. “We’re a frequent auction model. It feels much like a continuous trading market while still offering some protection around the auction. We also introduced counterparty selection and segmentation into an auction mode, which is not as common.”

Execution quality is a focal point for TMX, and what it believes is its differentiator with this product launch. “We match all trades at the midpoint of the buyer and the seller, capped by the NBBO, and we match as many shares as we possibly can, giving as much price improvement as possible in every match event. We prioritise by price and then time. If we have different counterparts on either side of a trade that are willing to trade at different prices, we’re happy to print multiple executions in one match event at different prices,” Fischer shared.

All regulation NMS common stock, ETFs and American depositary receipts can be traded on the platform, with order entry starting 60 minutes prior to the open.

On trading data, TMX plans to give users feedback on how their behavioural changes on the venue could improve outcomes. “We’re building out the ability to go to partners and say, ‘if you had traded with slightly different parameters, here’s what that would have looked like’,” Fischer explained.

Once enough trading data has been gathered, the company also aims to tiered customisation for users. “In today’s world tiering is a bit of a one-size-fits-all dynamic,” Fischer noted. “We’re going to allow participants to customise the time periods that they care about for mark outs, to focus on the performance metrics that matter to them.”

©Markets Media Europe 2024

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Uyeda favours enforcement experience in acting staff

Sam Waldon, acting director of the division of enforcement, SEC
Sam Waldon, acting director of the division of enforcement, SEC

SEC acting chairman Mark Uyeda has named acting staff to fill vacant senior roles at the commission – favouring enforcement division veterans.

The acting director of the division of enforcement, Samuel Waldon, has been chief counsel for the division since 2022. He was assistant chief counsel for almost 15 years prior to this.

Waldon replaces Sanjay Wadhwa, who has been acting director since the departure of Gurbir Grewal last October.

Jeffrey Finnell is acting general counsel and Ryan Wolfe has been named acting chief accountant. They replace Megan Barbero and Paul Munter respectively, who left the commission in the week before Trump’s inauguration.

READ MORE: Wachter and Munter walk away from SEC

Finnell has been with the SEC since 2001, and was deputy general counsel between 2017 and 2021. He has spent the majority of his time with the commission in the division of enforcement, Wolfe has been chief accountant for the division since rejoining the SEC in 2022.

Elsewhere, Kathleen Hutchinson has been appointed acting director of the officer of international affairs, following the departure of YJ Fischer. She has been with the division since 2003, and was acting director in 2020.

READ MORE: SEC loses general counsel and international affairs director

Uyeda’s counsel Robert Fisher is now acting director of the division of economic and risk analysis, after Jessica Wachter’s departure earlier this month. Fisher has a long academic career, and has held several roles at the SEC since 2002. These include positions in the office of compliance, inspections and examinations, the office of international affairs, and the division of economic and risk analysis. He has been a counsel to Uyeda since 2022.

The SEC has not yet announced its acting chief accountant; Paul Munter, who held the role since January 2023, left the commission in mid January.

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Kepler Cheuvreux and Centile Partners join forces in listed derivatives

John Ruskin
John Ruskin

Equity broker Kepler Cheuvreux and Centile Partners, a listed derivatives agency broker, have announced a strategic partnership to enter the listed derivatives market.

The collaboration aims to combine Kepler Cheuvreux’s execution capabilities with Centile Partners’ expertise in listed derivatives to provide services to institutional clients.

The partnership will offer execution services on an agency basis for listed derivatives and related financial instruments, targeting institutional clients such as hedge funds. Kepler Cheuvreux’s Execution services platform (KCx) supports equities, fixed income, derivatives, ETFs, and convertible bonds across Europe, America, and Asia.

In addition to this partnership, Kepler Cheuvreux has expanded its European offerings by connecting to Euronext Dark and extended its equity capital markets partnership with Crédit Agricole CIB into the MENA region, including opening an office in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).

Read more: https://www.globaltrading.net/kepler-cheuvreux-expands-with-dark-pool-connectivity-and-mena-licence/

Centile Partners, headquartered in London and led by John Ruskin, specialises in listed derivatives. Ruskin has over 25 years of experience in the financial industry, including co-founding Cube financial group in 1997, which was acquired by Société Générale’s Fimat (Newedge) in 2006. He led Newedge’s futures, options, equities, and fixed-income divisions until 2013. In 2014, Ruskin co-founded Coex Partners Group, which was sold to TP ICAP in 2018. He served as chief executive officer of TP ICAP’s Agency Execution division until 2022.

Recent developments in London’s listed derivatives brokerage sector include Interactive Brokers joining Cboe Europe Derivatives (CEDX) in May 2024 as a direct trading and clearing participant for equity derivatives. Additionally, Clear Street, a New York-based prime brokerage firm, has launched operations in the United Kingdom following approval from the Financial Conduct Authority.

 

 

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Blackrock, Vanguard took $500bn in passive fund 2024 inflows as actives fight back

While the investor rush into passive strategies benefited fund behemoths, some active funds are innovating to win inflows against the tide.

US/EU flows and share of Equity passive investments

While passive strategies continue their dominance in traditional market segments, the industry’s evolution suggests a more nuanced future, based on Global Trading analysis of 1,100 funds tracked by Morningstar. Active managers are carving out new investment spaces in complex strategies where expertise and risk management capabilities attract flows.

In the passive investing space, Vanguard and Blackrock use scale to dominate, seeing inflows of more than US$73 billion in Europe and US$433 billion in the US, while their actively managed counterparts suffered outflows of US$297 billion, according to Morningstar data.

The shift has been particularly pronounced in the US, where passive exchange-traded funds (ETF) have become “the default investment choice,” according to Morningstar analyst Jose Garcia Zarate. The 4 largest exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tracking large-cap US stocks include funds managed by Blackrock and Vanguard with a total US$4.34 trillion in assets passively tracking the market.  In the US, Vanguard passive equity vehicles saw inflows of US$305.3 billion during 2024.

Innovation and idiosyncrasies drive rarer positive flows for active equity managers

Largest flows amongst active equity managers

However, the picture is not unremittingly gloomy for active funds, particularly for those who can repackage their stock-picking skill in lower-cost packages that attract fee-conscious investors.

Product innovation remains concentrated in the ETF segment, with active ETFs representing 2.5 per cent of EU ETF assets and 8.5 per cent of US assets according to Morningstar. However, these vehicles differ markedly from traditional active funds, maintaining lower tracking errors and expense ratios to compete in an increasingly cost-conscious market. Complex alternative strategies have emerged as one of the few segments of active management gathering funds, particularly in derivative-based products. JPMorgan’s Equity Premium Income ETF, the category leader with US$ 36.9 billion in assets, exemplifies this trend. Together with its sister fund, the Nasdaq Equity Premium Income ETF (US$ 20.7 billion), JPMorgan dominates the derivative income space, which has attracted US$29.36 billion in fresh capital this year while the category delivered returns of 17.68 per cent.

In the Defined Outcome segment, Innovator ETFs and First Trust advisors have established themselves as the premier providers, at year-end they managed approximately US$ 9.37 billion in assets.

In Europe Pictet hemorrhages while Capital Group gains ground

The European equity management landscape presents a more nuanced picture. While passive strategies dominated with inflows of US$263.2 billion, active managers demonstrated resilience in specific segments despite seeing US$62.6 billion in outflows. Total net flows into European funds reached US$169.3 billion year-to-date, marking a substantial recovery from 2022’s outflows of US$19 billion.

Those that used mega-cap dominated benchmarks or followed strongly performing emerging markets, did best. Active managers attracting European investors included Capital Group which gained more than US$ 3 billion of inflows in its Perspective funds whose largest holdings include Meta Platforms and Microsoft. Meanwhile, Austria’s Union Investment and Germany’s Deka gained both about US$2 billion of flows into their family of funds. Goldmans Sachs Asset Management had a great year with more than $US 2 billion of inflows in their European vehicles focused on India, Japan and China. This contrasts with Swiss group Pictet, whose equity funds bled more than US$ 9.3 billion during 2024, according to Morningstar. Including fixed income, Pictet’s fund flows were overall positive in 2024, a spokesperson for the company said. 

ESG loses lustre

Perhaps the most notable shift in European equity markets has been unprecedented outflows from environmental, sustainability and governance (ESG)-focused active funds. European ESG-driven funds led by BlackRock’s Climate Transition Screened World Equity Fund (AUM US$16.9bn), have experienced the region’s largest outflows at US$15.5 billion in 2024, according to Morningstar. Notable losers in this category are Nordea (US$2 billion), Pictet (US$1.2 billion) and Schröders (US$1.02 billion).

Alternative energy funds have faced similar headwinds, with active strategies in this space seeing US$8.3 billion in outflows from a US$29.3 billion asset base. “In Europe, there is an ongoing deceleration for sustainable investment products,” noted Morningstar’s analyst Jose Garcia Zarate, highlighting a trend that has become increasingly apparent over the past two years.

 

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China boosts domestic investment, Citadel Securities vies for regulatory approval

Wu Qing, chairman, CSRC
Wu Qing, chairman, CSRC

As the impact of last September’s stimulus package wears off, China is pushing state-owned insurers to buy stocks while offering foreign algos a foothold in the country’s equity markets.

After surging by 30% in days after the Chinese government announced stimulus measures in September 2024, the country’s stock markets are moribund, as investors await US president Donald Trump’s decision on new tariffs. China is now pre-emptively forcing domestic institutions to buy shares while offering foreign liquidity providers led by Citadel Securities a chance of trading approval.

The “Implementation Plan for Promoting the Entry of Medium- and Long-term Funds into the Market” follows conclusions reached at last September’s Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee: that Chinese capital markets needed comprehensive reforms. 

There are three main aspects to the initiative. The first is to increase the scale and proportion and medium- and long-term funds invested in A-shares. The market value of A-shares held by public funds will increase by at least 10% annually over the next three years, according to the authorities.

To support this, from 2025 30% of annual new premiums for state-owned insurance companies will be allocated to A-share investments, explained China Securities Regulatory Commission chairman Wu Qing. “The second batch of long-term stock investment pilots for insurance funds will be implemented in the first half of 2025, with a scale of no less than 100 billion yuan, and will be gradually expanded in the future,” he added.

The performance assessment cycle for funds is also being extended for public and state-owned funds. In this way, the authorities aim to increase the stability of medium- and long-term investments. “From the practical experience at home and abroad, this is also conducive to improving the investment returns of various types of medium- and long-term funds,” Qing explained.

Institutional investors will be pushed to engage more directly with listed companies in order to boost capital market investment, and investment banks and institutions will be supported in mergers and acquisitions to build stronger entities.

China has previously shared its intentions to open up to further foreign investment in order to boost capital markets. Currently, goals include the relaxation of access conditions for qualified foreign investors (QFIs), improvements to the listing mechanism between domestic and overseas listings, and an expansion of cross-border connectivity.

READ MORE: China sets its sights on opening up for foreign trade 

At the end of 2024, 866 QFIs had been approved – the majority of which are based in Hong Kong. Citadel Securities received approval in early 2023, allowing the firm to invest in the country’s stock markets and derivative markets. Recently, Citadel Securities China applied to establish a securities status in Mainland China.

“The door to the opening up of the capital market will only open wider and wider,” Qing affirmed.

Qing stressed that the implementation plan is a systematic, long-term project of institutional reform, requiring collaboration across financial regulators and government bodies. As such, coordination efforts between institutions such as the Ministry of Finance, the People’s Bank of China and the Financial Regulatory Bureau have been strengthened.

Legal regulatory actions will also be enhanced to improve investor protection and supervision efficacy, he added. 

The plan states that it will continuously optimise the capital market’s investment ecology, taking stricter control over market entrances and exits. Listed companies will be encouraged to pay dividends and enact repurchases, in line with last year’s stimulus promoting share buybacks.

READ MORE: PBC launches share buyback programme

On the success of this project, Party Committee of the People’s Bank of China member Zou Lan noted: “More than 300 listed companies have publicly disclosed their intention to apply for stock repurchase and increase holdings loans, with an upper limit of more than 60 billion yuan. Among them, companies with a market value of more than 10 billion yuan account for more than 40%.” 

CFTC shake-up sees veterans and newcomers take senior roles

Caroline Pham, acting chairman, CFTC
Caroline Pham, acting chairman, CFTC

Caroline Pham has made a number of acting directorial appointments within the commission following her designation as acting CFTC chairman

Pham will be in the role until a permanent chairman is nominated by Donald Trump and confirmed by the Senate. Division heads will then be reappointed.

READ MORE: Pham replaces Behnam as CFTC chair

Under the new administration, the CFTC is expected to reduce regulation by enforcement – also a goal of Trump’s SEC.

READ MORE: Trump’s acting SEC chair has history of opposing fellow commissioners

On the appointments, Pham said: “I want to recognise and thank former Chairman Behnam and his staff. I am grateful for their combined many decades of faithful service to the CFTC, and I appreciate our talented CFTC staff who will be assuming these roles on an interim basis.”

Meghan Tente has been named acting general counsel, replacing Rob Schwartz. Tente was previously Pham’s chief of staff, before which she led the division of market oversight.

The market oversight division is now led by Amanda Olear, recently head of the market participants division. Tom Smith has replaced her in this role, formerly serving as a deputy director in the division. He has been with the CFTC for more than two decades.

Brian Young is the commission’s new head of the division of enforcement. Young joined the commission last year as director of the whistleblower office, before which he spent almost 20 years at the US Department of Justice. There, he worked in the antitrust and fraud divisions. He replaces Ian McGinley, who announced his departure from the commission earlier this month.

READ MORE: Ian McGinley follows Behnam, jumps CFTC ship

Clearing and risk is now overseen by Richard Haynes, who has been deputy director of the risk surveillance branch since 2021. Mauricio Melara has been named head of the office of international affairs.

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S&P 500 short interest hits record $820bn as investors hedge top-heavy mega-caps

SI
SI

Short interest in S&P stocks is at a record, as bearish sentiment builds on mega-cap tech companies.

Short interest has remained elevated following the 2024 US presidential election. The dollar value of equity shorts in the S&P500 hit an all-time high at US$820 billion at the end of 2024 compared to US$584 billion at the end of 2023. This is growing faster than long equity margin data as shown by FINRA margin statistics, going from US$ 700 billion at the end of 2023 to US$890 billion at the end of November 2024 or the index which returned 23% last year.

SPX, equal weighted and component weighted SI Days to Cover
SPX, equal weighted and component weighted SI Days to Cover

 

While the dollar numbers are dramatic, short interest as a percentage of daily trading volume – or the days-to-cover ratio also shows significant growth. Expressed as a simple average, the S&P 500 index cover ratio reached a record high of 4.15 days in September 2024.

Since then, this equal-weighted cover ratio has fallen, while the market cap-weighed average has increased. This reflects a convergence of cover ratios between lower and higher market cap stocks. Thus, stocks with a market cap below US$50 billion had on average short cover ratios of 3.1 days at the end of 2023, while for market caps greater than US$50 billion, the average was 2.5 days. At the end of 2024, the respective cover ratios were 3.3 days and 2.8 days.

This trend can be seen in individual names which are being much more actively shorted. For example, Apple’s short interest was 3.63 days at the end of 2024 versus 2.1 at the end of 2023, while for Microsoft the cover ratio was 2.8 at the end of 2024 versus 1.9 at the end of 2023. Short interest in AI chipmaker Nvidia also reached a record high at the end of 2024.

 

Historical trends since 2020 indicate short interest is high now having trended higher since the beginning of 2023, with the weighted average hovering around 2.75 days to cover. The frequency distribution of the S&P aggregated days-to-cover ratio since 2020 reveals a rightward skew, with a significant cluster of observations requiring between 1.8- and 2.5 days to cover and a long right tail extending beyond 2.79 days. At the beginning of 2025, 57 components of the S&P 500 had a days-to-cover ratio greater than 5 days versus 50 at the beginning of the previous year.

Notably, at the end of December 2024, the data points out continued advances in short positioning since 2023, despite the index’s continued advance and resilient bearish activity, particularly in smaller constituents. Nate Anderson at Hindenburg Research might have disbanded for personal reasons but the short side of the US equity market is powering on.

Read more: https://www.globaltrading.net/traders-prepare-for-price-drops-as-short-selling-spikes/

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ICE pushes ahead in US cash equities, but ATSs reign

Market share by exchange group Q4 2024, SIFMA
Market share by exchange group Q4 2024, SIFMA

ICE gained a stronger lead over Nasdaq in 2024, the difference in cash equity volumes between the two widening from 20.2% to 24.6%. However, market share was dominated by alternative trading systems (ATS).

US cash equity trading volumes were up year-on-year at both ICE and Nasdaq, with the exchanges seeing a significant bump in the final month of 2024.

According to SIFMA data, ICE took 18.2% of US equity exchange market share in Q4, and Nasdaq 14.4%. Despite trading volume growth, both saw a slight dip compared to Q3, where the exchanges held 19.6% and 16.1% respectively. Cboe, with a smaller piece of the pie, lost just 0.1% of the share over the quarter.

Market share by exchange group Q4 2024, SIFMA
Market share by exchange group Q4 2024, SIFMA

Off-exchange trading surpassed the 50% mark in the final quarter of 2024, closing the year with 50.3% of market share. The use of ATSs has increased at an accelerating pace over the year, up 6.9% year-on-year – almost half of which occurred between Q3 and Q4.

According to FINRA data, both ATSs run by large banks and those operated by specialised firms are seeing success. In Q4, the largest systems by shares traded were UBS ATS, Intelligent Cross and Goldman Sachs’s Sigma X2.

As for the major exchanges, between December 2023 and November 2024, trading volumes at the two largest exchanges were relatively static. Nasdaq went from 39.2 billion to 41.1 billion, a 5% increase, and at ICE figures were up by an even more marginal 3% to 53.3 billion.

However, in December there was a marked increase in contracts traded with 56.8 billion US equity cash products handled at ICE to Nasdaq’s 44.9 billion.

These increases are reflected in the yearly figures, where ICE saw double-figure growth. Volumes rose 10% to 613.7 billion, compared to a 5% increase to 479.4 billion at Nasdaq.

By contrast, volumes at Cboe fell 2% over the month to 31.5 billion. YoY, on-exchange matched volumes for US equities dropped by 1% to 352 billion.

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