Tradeweb Exchange-Traded Funds Update - September 2018

The following data is derived from trading activity on the Tradeweb Markets institutional European- and U.S.-listed ETF platforms.

EUROPEAN-LISTED ETFs

Total traded volume
Notional volume executed on the Tradeweb European ETF marketplace was just shy of EUR 18.8 billion in September, up 6% month over month and 42% year over year. The share of transactions processed via Tradeweb’s Automated Intelligent Execution (AiEX) tool surpassed 39%, a monthly record. Adriano Pace, head of equities (Europe) at Tradeweb, said: “The adoption of automated trading continues to gain ground among our clients, particularly those trading ETFs. In today’s fast-changing environment, AiEX enables buy-side firms to optimise their trading operations by streamlining workflows and cutting down costs.”

Volume breakdown
Commodity-based ETFs saw net selling for the third consecutive month. Conversely, ‘buys’ in fixed income and equity ETFs outstripped ‘sells’ by four and 18 percentage points, respectively. Overall activity in equity-based products increased to 62% of the platform flow, almost mirroring the previous 12-month rolling average.

Top ten by traded notional volume
Half of September’s most heavily-traded ETFs offer exposure to fixed income assets, with the iShares J.P. Morgan EM Local Government Bond UCITS ranked first. The fund, which tracks the J.P. Morgan GBI - EM Global Diversified 10% Cap 1% Floor index, has featured in the top ten list five times this year.


U.S.-LISTED ETFs

Total traded volume
Notional value traded on the Tradeweb institutional U.S. ETF platform in September 2018 totaled USD 5.2 billion. Year to date in 2018, total volume of USD 64.1 billion exceeds full-year 2017 volume by 16%.

Volume breakdown
As a percentage of total notional value, equities accounted for 65% and fixed income for 32.5% with the remainder comprised of commodity and specialty ETFs.

Adam Gould, head of U.S. equities at Tradeweb, said: “The S&P 500 was close to flat during the month of September without a single trading day in which the index rose or fell more than one percent. While low volatility often results in reduced ETF volumes, we continued to see clients utilize ETFs in many different capacities, including sector rotations, hedging and cash management. In recent years, the fourth quarter has been busy for ETFs which bears watching in the coming weeks.”

Top ten by traded share volume
During the month, a total of 439 different tickers traded on the U.S. ETF platform. The single most traded ETF by share volume traded during the month was the iShares U.S. Treasury Bond ETF. Attention concentrated on the emerging markets as the iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF and iShares J.P. Morgan USD Emerging Markets Bond ETF represented the second and third most traded tickers, respectively.

The PIMCO Enhanced Short Maturity Active ETF remained among the top 10 tickers for the second straight month.