We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again – we’re good at people moves. So, with two big names like Citi and Citadel in the title, it was going to be hard for this one not to get your attention.

Coming in at number seven in The TRADE’s most read stories for 2024 was news that Vincent Hall had joined Citi as an equity trader following two years at Citadel where he served in the same role.

He returned to Citi after four years in September, having previously worked at the firm as associate vice president in emerging markets equity trading. Elsewhere in his career, Hall has also worked at BlackRock as an associate.

Read more: Fireside Friday with… Citi’s Chris Gooch

Earlier this year, Citi appointed Jamie Miller as new head of electronic equity sales trading for the EMEA region, as revealed by The TRADE. Miller has been with the firm eight and a half years as an employee of the bank, specialising in equity sales trading.

Now you may have noticed that this year is The TRADE’s twentieth birthday – if not then there is a strong chance you have been living under a rock because we’ve made a really big fuss over it.

As part of our year-long celebrations, The TRADE’s editorial team took it upon themselves to deep dive into our beloved industry, producing top 20 lists that explore all corners of the markets.

Among these in depth pieces and coming in at number seven this year in our most read stories is a roundup of the top 20 merger and acquisition stories from across market structure and the trading world. We pride ourselves in being a reference point for our industry with 20 years of content behind us, and these lists summarise everything you need to know in one place.

In this exquisitely detailed piece, TRADE senior reporter Claudia Preece delves into the minutiae of these landmark deals and unpacks their significant and lasting impact on the market.

There are simply too many deals to include in this roundup but if you haven’t read it yet then use the link included above. We’d recommend you make yourself a cup of something first as she’s a biggie.

5. Millennium taps UBS for new senior trader appointment

Coming in at number five and adding to the spattering of people moves included in these most read roundups was news that Millennium had appointed You Khai Tan as senior trader, based in Singapore.

As revealed by The TRADE in March, Tan joined Millennium from UBS, where he had spent the last 13 years, based in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Most recently, Tan held a global portfolio trading position, which included trading global equities with strategy implementation via algorithms, crossing networks and global portfolio trading desks.

Prior to that, Tan held a global markets, APAC cash equities position based in Singapore.

Elsewhere in his career, Tan served at Maybank Investment Banking Group in an equity sales trading role.

He announced his appointment in a social media post, adding: “I’m grateful for this opportunity to broaden my horizons and am thankful to the wonderful individuals and mentors in my professional life.”

While writing up the biggest moves from across the industry brings with it a certain degree of joy, nothing matches recognition received for a longer form piece of work that explores a corner of the markets in more depth.

A great deal of effort goes into The TRADE’s longer form content and coming in at number four in our most read stories this year was a feature exploring the world of open outcry and the potential for a renaissance of it.

Despite the indisputable decline in physical trading practices, it is enduring within an increasingly technological capital markets world which has already put innumerable out-dated practices out of fashion. Market opinion – and moves – suggest that mourning the death of open outcry may be premature.

Like the return of old Nokia’s and ‘dumbphones’ in the era of the smartphone, a hungering for print in the age of digital, and the comeback of the polaroid camera and vinyl, perhaps there’s just reason why these concepts were once deemed great.

Following the announcement from MIAX in October 2023 about plans to launch a new US options electronic exchange and physical trading floor, The TRADE wanted to delve into why open outcry has persisted and the potential for a quiet resurgence of the dying practice. If you haven’t already then absolutely give it a read.

That concludes the second roundup of The TRADE’s most read stories. Tune back in on Friday 27 December to find out what our top three most read pieces of the year have been… exciting! In the meantime, happy holidays.

The post The TRADE’s most read stories of 2024, part two: People moves, TRADE 20 roundups, and open outcry appeared first on The TRADE.

In 2025, we will see momentum in European dark trading continue to build. Over the past 12 months, we have seen an explosion in dark trading and trajectory crossing venues, driven in part by the loosening and scrapping of double volume caps in the EU and UK. Increasing competition for market share in Europe’s shrinking lit markets has also played a role – this year, lit markets hit their lowest level as a proportion of overall European trading activity.

What does this mean for the buy-side? On the one hand, traders can expect more execution choice and capabilities. On the other, new venues mean greater fragmentation of dark and lit liquidity, and the potential for even greater complexity. Exchanges across the continent and even in the US are looking to get a slice of the action in Europe’s dark markets. Traders will have to keep a close eye on new venues entering the market to take advantage of greater execution choice but also to navigate an increasingly fragmented market.  

Belinda Mar, EMEA equities market structure, Bank of America Securities   

We’ve seen exchanges continue to innovate and launch new execution channels all through 2024, which isn’t a new thing, but of interest for 2025 are new European crossing platforms trying to replicate their successes in AMRS, alongside primary exchanges dipping their toes into dark pools.   

The differentiator in Europe at the moment is the trajectory cross, following its success in AMRS. CBOE, Nasdaq and Aquis are launching between Q4 2024 and Q1 2025. Whilst each of these offerings are slightly different, they have been popular in the US and Canada due to the rise in passive trading. Trajectories are algorithms which are benchmarked to an average price over time.   

In addition, a handful of primary exchanges have decided to compete in the dark pool space which will complement their more traditional offerings in lit markets. Euronext introduced their dark book in Q2 2024, enabling clients to trade at mid-point in the dark. Deutsche Borse and BME have just gone live with similar offerings in December 2024.

Finally, US based ATS One Chronos is looking to expand into Europe in 2025, where it will compete for a share of the periodic book. Whilst the level and pace of innovation is positive, we note that the European trading landscape is one where volumes remain low, fragmentation is high.

Iouri Saroukhanov, head of European derivatives, Cboe Europe

We anticipate one of the key trends in 2025 to be the continued increase in retail investor participation in European capital markets, particularly through exchange-traded products. While there is already some investing activity among European retail investors, it varies greatly between countries, with different products preferred in different regions. Overall, Europe has lagged behind other regions in retail market involvement due to regulatory, taxation, and cultural barriers. However, we expect this to change as policymakers increasingly recognise the benefits of a more engaged retail investor base and market participants become more attuned to the specific needs of this community in Europe.  

Efforts to bridge this gap will focus on enhancing education, accessibility, and a supportive regulatory environment. Educational initiatives will equip retail investors with the necessary knowledge and resources to better understand and utilise financial instruments like equity options. This will help them embrace the benefits of these products, rather than only focusing on complexities of derivatives, to help them achieve financial goals across their target time horizons. Accessibility will be improved through exchanges, mobile-first trading platforms, and apps, making investing in exchange-traded products more appealing to the retail segment.  

We expect more of the neo-brokers that have fostered retail participation in the US to make their way to Europe in 2025. Lastly, regulatory frameworks, such as the European Commission’s Retail Investment Strategy, will help support retail participation by addressing risk perceptions around options and promoting their benefits as transparent, centrally cleared financial products that offer risk management and income generation opportunities.

Seema Arora, managing director, head of EMEA execution services, Stifel

With nearly half the world participating in State elections this year, policy changes and geopolitical movements will be key factors for markets in 2025. While the US market momentum (i.e. magnificent 7) continue to impress, we believe compelling small and mid-cap investment themes will emerge. This is particularly true in Europe where earnings visibility is improving, and the specter of deregulation could meaningfully stimulate investment trends. The combination of consultation papers and a softening of Mifid II policies (re-bundling) are marginally helpful, but primary market health indicators will be the barometer for a more competitive European landscape.

From a trading perspective, sourcing liquidity outside of the lit market remains paramount for dealing desks. The sell-side will seek to optimise unique liquidity opportunities for clients; those able to leverage alternative pools (e.g. retail flow) should be well placed. Closing volumes will undoubtedly still dominate attention spans as will the evaluation of price formation versus cost of alternatives. It wouldn’t be surprising to see some consolidation in the market given the degree of fragmentation amongst venues and brokers. AI adoption will increase across the investment cycle and technical advancements to pre-match on T+0 prepare for the inevitable T+1 deadline. Watch this space!

The post The TRADE predictions series 2025: What’s on the horizon for trading venues appeared first on The TRADE.

The new offering combines LSEG’s pricing services with Yield Book analytics to create pricing information for around 2.9 million bonds with a 20 year look back period.

Regulatory reporting and risk management, security valuation and portfolio analysis, research, index strategy and historical simulations – among other analytics offerings – will be available via Snowflake as a delivery channel.

“The combination of Yield Book’s trusted, in-depth analytics and LSEG’s expertise in evaluated pricing delivers a robust and comprehensive suite of tools to empower clients,” said Emily Prince, group head of analytics at LSEG.

“These tools allow customers to back test portfolios, optimise strategies, and manage risk effectively. By offering this through Snowflake, we ensure seamless access to advanced analytics, enabling more efficient, scalable, and integrated solutions for our clients.”

The move builds on an existing partnership between LSEG and Snowflake. In September, LSEG launched a new cloud-based, ready-to-use enterprise data solution.

Named DataScope Warehouse, the new solution offers cloud-based access to LSEG’s fixed income and equity data records. The DataScope Warehouse will initially be delivered via Snowflake cloud infrastructure, with more cloud providers scheduled to be rolled out next year.

The post LSEG launches historical analytics for bonds via Snowflake appeared first on The TRADE.

Market consolidation versus liquidity fragmentation will be a point of discussion into next year. The Swiss Exchange Group acquisition of Aquis will be an obvious one to watch, while in contrast, there are a slew of new liquidity opportunities expected to go live in 2025. However, the jury’s out on whether further fragmentation is needed given the continued squeeze in order book liquidity and/or whether the market has the capacity to connect as internalisation continues to take priority for many.   

Next year could see the re-emerging debate around shorter trading hours ratchet up, which contrasts to the 24-hour trading agenda in the US. Separately, conversations are likely to continue in support of single regulatory framework for Europe. 

The selection procedure for the European equities tape starts next June, with a decision made by the end of 2025. Hopefully the UK will also announce their views on an equities tape next year. September will see Europe ban payment for order flow and introduce a new 7% single volume cap for dark trading. Otherwise, focus must be on making equities markets more transparent and less bilateral to attract international investment and prevent further primary issuance leaving these shores.

Joe Collery, head of trading, Comgest 

I feel the biggest trend in 2025 will be redefinition of the roles of ELPs [electronic liquidity providers]. Market participants continue to lament the inadequacy of liquidity in continuous market trading which will lead to shift in how ELPs provide their liquidity to fill this perceived gap.

Jo Burnham, risk and margining SME, OpenGamma

Predictions are a tricky business. Three years ago, would many people have predicted that Donald Trump would be returning to the Presidency in early 2025, with long-term wars raging in both Europe and the Middle East? Investors have learnt that they need to expect the unexpected, which is why liquidity risk management practices are now so important.

I see this being a big theme for market participants next year – ensuring that they are operationally resilient. Being able to navigate margin requirements and optimise the ways that they are met is so important in a volatile geopolitical environment, which inevitably permeates through to financial markets.

Bjorn Sibbern, global head of exchanges, SIX Swiss Exchange 

In 2025, the challenge for European primary markets will be creating an investment environment that fosters innovation while attracting global IPOs, not just competing for regional dominance. On the secondary markets front, liquidity fragmentation remains a pressing issue. 

By the end of next year, exchanges will need to have made significant strides in venue innovation, not only to retain institutional flow but also to foster greater retail participation. Short and sharp bouts of market volatility, as we saw this year with the global equity sell-off in August, could also shape the trading landscape. This is why exchanges must evolve with smarter tools and deeper liquidity to remain the trusted platforms for price discovery. 

Matt Clarke, head of distribution and liquidity management for EMEA, XTX Markets 

In 2025, we expect five or more ELPs [electronic liquidity providers] to offer actionable liquidity directly into the major EMS platforms and the Reactive Markets network across EU and US equities. It is entirely possible we’ll see one or more banks extend similar offerings to select clients. Our preferred approach involves a broker in the middle, allowing buy-side firms to outsource ELP onboarding and benefit from aggregated prices in competition. This model enables liquidity providers to offer tailored liquidity and collaborate with end-clients. 

The exact form of this workflow is still developing with the buy-side playing a key role in shaping it. Successful solutions will have low onboarding friction, work for both automated and click trading, and aggregate all liquidity sources in one place. This aggregation of liquidity will drive fierce price competition, leading to better trading outcomes.  The potential rewards of this workflow are increased size and mid presence, resulting in measurably better execution quality. As always, results are what will drive long-term adoption.

Keep an eye out for further predictions unpacking all corners of the market published by The TRADE in the coming weeks!

The post The TRADE predictions series 2025: The liquidity landscape appeared first on The TRADE.

Specifically, the offering is for brokers subscribed to the Aquis Matching Pool (AMP) order book which can instruct Aquis (through OptimX) to “deliver liquidity opportunities seamlessly within the institutional trader’s workflow”. 

Aquis Exchange picked up a minority stake in OptimX back in August 2023 as it looked to expand its block crossing remit.

The deal was completed as part of a consortium which also included Deutsche Boerse Group’s DB1 Ventures.

At the time, the deal was highlighted as particularly complimentary of Aquis’ AMP. 

Alasdair Haynes, Aquis’ chief executive officer, said: “The investment in OptimX is a significant opportunity for Aquis, adding additional connectivity to our successful dark pool (the Aquis Matching Pool) and providing clients with the ability to cross large blocks. 

“This alongside Aquis’s growing functionality will further enhance the range of execution options available to our members.” 

Read more: Aquis launches dark pool into Europe 

Earlier this year, Aquis Markets launched conditional order functionality across the UK and EU platforms, wherein members using the functionality send an ‘indication of interest’ (IOI), and are then met with a ‘firm-up invite’ in the event of a potential match – all performed on AMP. 

The offering was said to allow users to avoid the risk of over-trading while posting the same liquidity on multiple venues simultaneously.

The post Aquis and OptimX unveil new dark trading solution appeared first on The TRADE.

Bonnie Y Chan

Starting in mid-2025, HKEX will gradually introduce new features to its Orion Cash Platform (OCP), a key integrated platform for Hong Kong’s cash market. These features aim to improve the efficiency, reliability, and automation of post-trade services.  

“At HKEX, we are committed to the long-term vibrancy of Hong Kong’s capital markets through ongoing investment in our technology and market infrastructure,” said Bonnie Y Chan, CEO of HKEX.  We are pleased to be launching the modernisation programme for our cash market platform, developing the capabilities for real-time and more efficient post-trade services. The ongoing development of OCP will ensure that our markets remain well-positioned for future opportunities as they continue to expand in breadth and diversity, strengthening Hong Kong’s status as an IFC.” 

As part of the enhancement programme, HKEX’s systems will be ready to support a T+1 settlement cycle by the end of 2025. However, the exchange said that any changes to Hong Kong’s settlement cycle will depend on extensive market consultations. 

Key upgrades are set to include automated post-trade report downloads, real-time data transmission and processing, and real-time settlement instruction matching,  

Richard Leung, group chief information officer at HKEX, said: “Platform development is a core part of HKEX’s strategy to futureproof its business and its markets. We are delighted to adopt modular architecture to introduce new post-trade features, in order to provide maximum flexibility for market adoption. 

“We look forward to engaging and collaborating with our market participants on this infrastructure advancement journey, as together we work to enhance the competitiveness of Hong Kong’s capital markets.” 

The new features will be rolled out progressively, with specific release dates announced in the future. In the meantime, HKEX said it will continue providing core post-trade processing through its Central Clearing and Settlement System (CCASS), while engaging with market participants on how the new OCP features will impact CCASS in the future. 

Earlier this year, HKEX announced the development of the Orion Derivatives Platform (ODP) for Hong Kong’s derivatives market.

The post HKEX to enhance post-trade systems to ready for T+1 appeared first on The TRADE.

Lit primary continuous venues recorded the lowest market share value to date, at around 29% in September, according to Liquidnet.

In addition, total lit volumes for Q3 reached record lows, amounting to 45.5% of overall volumes in September, compared to 57% in 2020. Direct year-on-year comparisons for Q3 represented 47.5% in 2024 versus around 50% in 2023.

Liquidnet attributed the continued decline to record high investments in passive ETFs and trading in the closing auction.

The closing auction was noted for its major role in lit markets, with over 38% of total lit volumes occurring through the mechanism.

Market share at the close has continued to grow, according to Liquidnet’s report, averaging 25% of total liquidity in Q3. This was down slightly from Q2 where volumes reached around 26%, but still up year-on-year for the same window.

The average over the year-to-date period has also increased from 22.5% last year to 25% this year.

“It is a common maxim that liquidity begets liquidity, and it seems likely that other investors are also choosing to move more flow to the end of the day,” said Liquidnet in its report.

“Popular algorithms that base their volume curves on historical data compound this volume shift by allocating an increasing portion of their volume to the close. This helps reduce their slippage against the VWAP benchmark.”

Dark volumes also showed increased activity this year – following a plateau for a few years – reaching almost 11% of total trading volumes in Q3. Within this bracket, volumes peaked at 11% in July.

Q3 2024 trading volumes of just under 11% were up from just under 10% in Q2 2024 and around 9% in Q3 last year.

“Dark market activity, after years of maintaining its 8 to 10% market share, has started to increase,” added Liquidnet. “This is in line with the renewed interest in block liquidity, where above-LIS fills have witnessed annual growth.”

In recent weeks, the push towards dark trading has seen increased interest from market participants.

Read more: Deutsche Börse’s Maximilian Trossbach on their new dark pool

SIX’s BME launched a new dark pool this week in a bid to provide an additional source of liquidity for Spanish securities. Elsewhere, Deutsche Börse’s new dark trading offering also launched on Monday.

The post Continued decline in lit volumes sees closing auctions and dark pools become more prevalent appeared first on The TRADE.

GFO-X is the UK’s first regulated and centrally cleared trading venue dedicated to digital asset derivatives.

The trading venue stated that it has been working closely with these partners to deliver the requirements necessary to grow the institutional digital asset index futures and options market. 

Read more: LCH SA to launch UK’s first centrally cleared trading venue for digital asset derivatives with GFO-X

“We are delighted to announce our strategic partners as we drive towards launch in Q1 next year. Their support is a clear and strong endorsement of our vision of the market structure required to deliver digital asset derivatives to large institutional clients,” said Arnab Sen, chief executive and co-founder at GFO-X.

“It demonstrates the need for a highly regulated venue to bring additional depth, breadth, and diversification to the current limited choices in centrally cleared digital asset index derivatives. We believe the digital asset derivatives market will grow exponentially over the coming years.”

GFO-X offers a trading platform built for institutions, providing investors with a secure and efficient trading environment to manage digital asset exposure.  

“As a market maker, our strategic connection with GFO-X underscores our commitment to the institutional digital asset futures and options market – a rapidly evolving space we believe holds significant potential for continued growth and opportunity,” said Osi Lilian, IMC Strategic Investments co-lead.

The venue added that it looks forward to announcing additional partnerships with leading financial institutions in the immediate future.

Read more: M&G Investments leads $30 million Series B funding round for GFO-X

“We are excited to partner with GFO-X, the UKs first regulated and centrally cleared trading venue dedicated to digital asset derivatives,” said Barry Polak, lead product commerce at ABN ARO Clearing.

“This strategic collaboration underscores our shared commitment to advancing the institutional digital asset futures and options market.”

The post GFO-X names ABN AMRO Clearing, IMC, Standard Chartered Bank and Virtu Financial as strategic partners ahead of launch appeared first on The TRADE.

Named Aquis VWAP Match, the new service will initially launch in Q1. It will use conditional indication of interests (IOIs) and use a VWAP period of five minutes.

Members will be able to submit IOIs at a volume weighted price using all the major reference markets for that calculation.

“Once both parties agree to firm up, that will trigger the VWAP period,” Aquis Exchange’s head of sales, Sakeena Lalljee, tells The TRADE. “At the end of that period, that’s when the volume weighted average price will be known based on lit trades that have taken place in that window.”

The new service will have the market identifier code (MIC) AVXE in the UK and AVEU in Europe and volumes will be printed under the off-book on-exchange bucket.

Read more – Aquis Markets unveils conditional order functionality on UK and EU platforms

“It’s a very important thing for us to have distinct codes because feedback from the market is that people want to be able to distinguish between where these trades are happening in that off-book on-exchange space,” adds Lalljee.

In terms of regulatory approvals, the service has received a non-objection from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Aquis Exchange is in the process of working with regulators in Europe.

It is set to initially cover a stock universe of about 400-500 liquid names, in order to provide a more mindful and less “broad-brush” approach to roll-out, Lalljee says.

“We’ve looked at the stocks where there is the greatest demand from our clients to use this functionality,” she explains. “That’s what made most sense for us and what we think makes sense for the design of this product.”

The service will rival that of competitor Cboe which launched its Cboe BIDS VWAP X offering in the UK in October, as revealed by The TRADE. Cboe’s European iteration is still awaiting regulatory approval by EU regulators, The TRADE understands.

When asked why Aquis had opted to launch this service now, Lalljee confirmed that several factors had fed into the exchange’s decision, namely the continued growth of passive investment, increasing client focus on latency and the layered development of other linked products that the exchange had launched in the last year.

Read more – Aquis Exchange relaxes eight-year ban on proprietary trading firms

“It’s [VWAP Match] a mechanism that allows people to smooth out volatility in prices or to trade at a forward-looking price,” she says. “It makes sense right now on the back of other things that we’ve been doing in the past few years. We’ve already had our benchmark cross trade capture report service live for a few years now. That allows members to bring pre-agreed trades that they’ve matched themselves onto a lit exchange.

“We launched conditional orders at the start of this year and Aquis VWAP Match allows us to bring elements of both those things together. It’s quite a natural evolution of what we do. In terms of USPs, we made the rule change on our lit book towards the end of last year and there’s an element of that that we’re bringing into VWAP Match as well.”

Aquis relaxed its eight-year ban on proprietary trading firms at the end of last year. As part of the rule change, liquidity providers were given a choice as to whether they would like to have their orders open for anyone to trade with – including prop firms – or whether to keep them limited to client facilitating flow only.

The VWAP Match venue set to go live in Q1 will flip this rule, Lalljee says.

“It will give broker members and client facing members the option of whether they only want to trade with other types of flow like this or whether they are open for anyone to trade with their orders,” she explains.

The post Aquis VWAP Match service set to go live in Q1 appeared first on The TRADE.

Wail Azizi

“Joining Equiduct emphasises Danske Bank’s vision of creating an investment platform for all clients,” said Marjo Grandell, head of Eequities at Danske Bank. 

“With the addition of Equiduct, we can provide even more liquidity for our retail clients in our already large investment universe of tradeable instruments via our digital channels such as Internet bank and mobile app.”

Danske Bank’s retail clients now have access to Equiduct’s real-time market date, as well as additional liquidity for stocks and ETFs from 12 European markets.

More than seven million retail end-investors are already using the execution and market-data services offered by Equiduct. In 2024, the exchange has welcomed three major Nordic brokers so far, with a total of five including Danske Bank. 

Apex is a pan-European best execution service on the lit Börse Berlin, offering brokers access to all the major European lit trading venues through a single connection, including: Amsterdam, Brussels, Frankfurt, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Milan, and Paris.

The offering’s main features are limit order protection, Apex Retry (best execution for resting orders) and opening and closing cross.

In recent times, the Nordic market has had limited retail-focused trading solutions as well as high market data costs.

Speaking to this, Wail Azizi, Chief Strategy Officer at Equiduct said: “We’re happy to extend a warm welcome to Danske Bank to our exchange. Partnering with Danske Bank, a leading Nordic bank in the forefront of retail innovation aligns perfectly with our mission to foster positive change in pan-European retail trading and market data.” 

The post Nordic trade broker joins Equiduct appeared first on The TRADE.