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The upsurge in market volatility dominated headlines in October amid a number of major political and economic developments, and in anticipation of key central bank decisions.

It’s been another year of prestigious award wins for Tradeweb and our suite of innovative trading tools. After winning ‘Best Buy-Side TCA Tool’ at the Buy-Side Technology Awards earlier this month, we were honoured to pick up the ‘OTC Trading Platform Innovation of the Year’ trophy for our Automated Intelligent Execution (AiEX) functionality at the Risk Awards yesterday. Winners were decided by the magazine’s editorial team following a rigorous three-month judging process.

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

In a month filled with central bank decisions and notable political events, yields on 10-year benchmark bonds fell in January across sovereign bond markets. The biggest move came from Australia’s 10-year note, whose mid-yield plunged 48.5 basis points to finish January at 0.91%. Despite the economic disruption caused by the country’s bushfires, the Reserve Bank of Australia left the cash target rate at 0.75%, following three prior cuts in 2019.

With less than two years to go before the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) loses its regulatory support, UK debt and derivatives markets are accelerating their transition to the Sterling Overnight Index Average (SONIA) as the benchmark risk-free rate (RFR). SONIA, which was first introduced in 1997, is already widely used in the derivatives market and has been gaining traction in the GBP cash markets.

Financial markets were in a tailspin in February, particularly towards the end of the month, amid fears of economic stress stemming from the coronavirus outbreak. Ten-year government bond yields declined in several parts of the world, with those on the U.S. Treasury hitting a record low of 1.13% on February 28, down 39 basis points from the previous month end.

We wanted to update you on how Tradeweb is dealing with the evolving Coronavirus situation. Our focus continues to be keeping our people safe and ensuring that our clients all over the world have access to our systems and global markets without disruption. Tradeweb is built on a foundation of relationships, technology and the power of our global network. Offering and operating our markets during periods of market volatility is core to everything we do.

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

Fixed income products are among the most actively traded in the world, and global notional outstanding of rates and credit stands at approximately $611 trillion1 according to the latest available data. Still, despite their size, these markets can be illiquid – less than 5% of U.S. corporate bonds, as an example, change hands on a daily basis. In addition, there’s further variance across issuers, maturity dates, coupons, structures and contract terms.

In the second of a two-part series on ‘Trading ETFs in Asia’, we examine how best to overcome the challenges when trading ETFs for investors in Asia.