Global Trading Activity in August Solidly Outpaced the Prior-year Period

Despite the seasonal summer slowdown, global trading activity in August continued to outpace the prior-year period. Average daily volume (ADV) for Tradeweb Markets of $496 billion (bn) – across rates, credit, money markets and equities – in August 2018 increased 38.0 percent (%) year over year (YoY).

Derivatives volumes continued to grow at an accelerated rate. Tradeweb’s ADV in rates derivatives rose 199.0% YoY. Growth has been driven by both greater market share of SEF interest rates swap volumes as well as continued volume growth on the MTF. Tradeweb Markets’ share of SEF volumes rose to 21.9% in last month compared to 19.6% a year ago while total SEF IRS volumes were up 47% YoY. In Credit Derivatives, despite overall SEF activity declining 10% year over year, Tradeweb saw volumes rise 7% leading to its share of SEF volumes rise to 14.3% from 12.1% a year ago. Additionally, single name CDS trading reached another monthly record and MTF trading saw further uptake.

Fixed income trading continues to see strong year-over-year growth with U.S. Treasuries up 27%, European Government Bonds up 40%, U.S. High-Grade up 43%, U.S. High-Yield up 65%, and European Corporate Bonds up 22%. Total U.S. High-Grade trading volume exceeded 10% of TRACE for the first time in August with fully electronic trading accounting for 3.6% of TRACE. As a percent of TRACE, high-grade electronic trading volumes have risen 1.2 percentage points since August 2017. AiEX trading volumes provided a boost to trading volumes on the platform with record volumes being met with a 77% hit rate. Municipal bonds were up 7% month over month which helped lift Tradeweb Direct to a five-year record.

In equity markets, Tradeweb recorded strong year-over-year growth, in particular, in Europe. European ETF volumes rose 52% YoY. Equity Derivatives were up 169% YoY, driven primarily by European options. U.S. ETFs were up 20% compared to August 2017 and saw an incremental rise in volumes compared to July, despite an overall decline in market trading volumes.

ADV for Tradeweb is up 40.4% year to date compared to the prior-year period.

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