European Equities LiquidityMatrix March 2018

MiFID II is finally getting interesting for Europe’s equity markets. The rulebook’s controversial caps on dark pools took effect on March 12th, and the impact was predictably immediate. Dark volumes contracted with most of the slack picked up by periodic auction books, specifically Cboe Europe’s platform. This growth has prompted a wave of new operators to launch their own periodic auction, each with their own nuance. The decline in dark trading meant it was a record month for Large-in-Scale trading in terms of relative volumes, accounting for 36% of all dark volumes. All these changes are captured in TABB Group’s European Equities LiquidityMatrix™ which each month provides the industry with breakdowns of market share for each major equity execution channel, including lit venues, dark MTFs, block venues, periodic auction books and systematic internalisers.