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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
Trading activity on the Tradeweb European ETF marketplace reached EUR 55.3 billion in December, while the proportion of transactions processed via Tradeweb’s Automated Intelligent Execution (AiEX) tool was 84.4%, the highest figure this year.
Adam Gould, head of equities at Tradeweb, said: “December wound up being a very busy trading month. In Europe, Tradeweb institutional ETF volumes were up 28.6% year-over-year, while Q4 2023 proved to be the third best performing quarter on record, totalling EUR 161.2 billion in notional volume.”
Volume breakdown
In December, commodities was once again the only ETF asset class where ‘sells’ exceeded ‘buys’, this time by 30 percentage points. In contrast, equities and fixed income products saw net buying.
Trading activity in equity-based ETFs remained at 58% of the total traded volume. North American Equities was the most heavily-traded ETF category, with EUR 11.8 billion in total notional volume.
Top ten by traded notional volume
More than half of the top ten spots were occupied by fixed income products, with the iShares $ Corporate Bond UCITS ETF moving two places up from November to be ranked first in December.
U.S.-Listed ETFs
Total traded volume
Total consolidated U.S. ETF notional value traded in December reached USD 58.6 billion. The fourth quarter of the year was the third best-performing one of all time on the U.S. ETF marketplace, reaching USD 185.8 billion.
Adam Gould, head of equities at Tradeweb, said: “Tradeweb institutional ETF volumes in the U.S. were up 12.8% compared to last year. Clients continued to reposition their portfolios to prepare for a less restrictive Fed policy, and tax management optimization was front and centre.”
Volume breakdown
As a percentage of total notional value, equities accounted for 49% and fixed income for 45%, with the remainder comprising commodity and specialty ETFs.
Top ten by traded notional volume
Eight of the top ten ETFs by traded notional volume were fixed income-based. The Vanguard Intermediate-Term Corporate Bond Index Fund ETF (VCIT) ranked first in December, with November’s top ETF, iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG), moving to fifth place.
Editor’s Note: The summary bullets for this article were chosen by Seeking Alpha editors.
