Tradeweb's Average Daily Volume For ETF's Grew In August: What That Means For Investors

Tradeweb Markets Inc. TW is an international financial services company that builds and operates electronic over-the-counter (OTC) marketplaces for trading fixed income products, ETFs, and derivatives.

The company’s technology supports multiple asset classes, trading protocols, and geographies. It provides access to markets, data, analytics, and electronic trading.

What happened: Tradeweb said Wednesday that its trading volume in August increased 6.4% to $23.4 trillion, though average daily volume fell 6.4% to $1.02 trillion.

U.S. government bond average daily volume (ADV) ticked up 0.7% to $124.2 billion year over year in August, and European government bond ADV climbed 22.7% to $27.5 billion, helped by a rising interest rate environment.

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“Client engagement in U.S. government bonds across institutional and wholesale markets remained high, while higher interest rates drove strong growth in the retail market,” Tradeweb noted. “European government bond trading remained elevated amidst heightened rates market volatility.”

U.S. ETF ADV for August rose 20.2% year over year to $5.3 billion, and European ETF ADV gained 36.4% to $2.2 billion.

Why it matters: Tradeweb's growth — specifically in the ADV for ETFs — means more institutions are avoiding trading individual stocks in favor of ETFs that are typically less volatile. The move to ETFs may be driven by a complex macroeconomic environment caused by changing central bank policy, sustained elevated volatility, and economic concerns.