Low Volatility Drives Feb U.S. Gov Bonds Growth to $83.9B ADV or +3.7% YOY

Traders Magazine Online News, March 7, 2019

John D'Antona Jr.

Tradeweb has published its February 2019 Monthly Activity Report, which captures trading activity in fixed income, derivatives and ETF markets.

This month’s report calls out new records in average daily trading volume (ADV) in U.S. Treasuries, U.S. Investment-Grade Credit, and European ETFs, despite a notable decline in market volatility.

Key trends for the month include: 

• Volumes Surge 6.5% Year-Over-Year: Average daily volume (ADV) for Tradeweb Markets was $601.6 billion across rates, credit, money markets and equities during the month of February, an increase of 6.5% year-over-year. 

• Record Volume in U.S. Treasuries Despite Low Volatility: U.S. Government Bonds saw an ADV of $83.9 billion in February, an increase 3.7% year-over-year, which set a new monthly record for total Treasury trading volume. Over the course of February, the monthly range of closes for the 10-year U.S. Treasury bond was around 9.2 basis points, the tightest range on record since 2006. ADV in European Government Bonds was up 13.7% year-over-year. Similar to the U.S., German 10-year Bunds were range-bound in February, moving within a range of just 9 basis points over the course of the month.

• Record Volume in U.S. Investment-Grade Credit and European ETFs: Record volumes were also logged in U.S. High-Grade Credit, which saw ADV of $2.9 billion, and European ETFs, which saw ADV of $1.7 billion. ADV for U.S. High-Grade Credit was up 75.4% year-over-year, and represented 11.5% of total, industry-wide TRACE volume. ADV for European ETFs was up 15.4% year-over-year.

• Chinese Bond Volume Inches Closer to Billion Dollar Mark: ADV of $957 million in Chinese bonds represented an increase of 183.5% year-over-year.

• Repo Volume Surges on Bilateral Trading Growth: ADV of $167.8 billion in repurchase agreements (Repo) trading volume was driven by growth in bilateral electronic trading on the Tradeweb platform.

The full Tradeweb Monthly Activity Report for February 2019 is available here: https://www.tradeweb.com/market_activity_reports/

For more information on related topics, visit the following channels:

• Fixed Income
• ETFs