Tradeweb’s European-listed ETF platform surpassed €15.3bn in January, setting a new monthly record, up €127m from the previous strongest month in November 2016.

Adriano Pace, Managing Director, Equity Derivatives at Tradeweb.

Adriano Pace, Managing Director, Equity Derivatives at Tradeweb, commented: “It’s a great way to start the new year, especially following an extremely strong fourth quarter in 2016 and the accelerating growth of our sister platform in the US. With MiFID II implementation less than a year away, we expect the electronic portion of the OTC dealer-to-client market for ETFs to increase even more, as market participants take advantage of the inherent benefits electronic trading platforms like ours have to offer.”

All ETF asset classes saw net ‘buying’ in January, with investors particularly bullish on equities. As a proportion of the total traded volume, ‘buys’ in equity-based ETFs outperformed ‘sells’ by 12 percentage points, however, overall activity in the asset class dropped to 60%, two percentage points below the previous 12-month rolling average.

European Equities proved to be the most popular category for the second consecutive month, with nearly €3.2bn in notional value traded.

Activity in fixed income ETFs beat the previous 12-month rolling average by three percentage points, adding strength to the notion that the asset class will be the next key driver in the growth of the ETF industry. ‘Buys’ in the asset class outstripped ‘sells’ by five percentage points as a proportion of the entire platform flow.

Government bonds and corporate bonds were the most heavily-traded fixed income categories during the month.

Source: Tradeweb.

Fixed income products dominated January’s most traded ETF list, with the iShares US Aggregate Bond UCITS ETF taking the top spot. The fund tracks the Barclays US Aggregate Bond Index, which offers exposure to USD-denominated investment grade fixed rate bonds.

The top ten most traded ETFs are listed below:

Source: Tradeweb.