Weekly Highlights

• Last week, we saw bid/offer spreads narrow towards their YTD average, suggesting that trading costs have begun to soften from their highest levels of the year following Silicon Valley Bank related events. However, post-trade quote instability remained high, as did the percentage of liquidity at the touch versus midpoint and intraspread.

• Some of this persistence in trading friction can be attributed to the Fed announcement last week. Rate announcements are typically followed by spikes in spreads, and quote instability. This was especially true for trading in top ETFs last week.

• Consistent with what we have seen in the past, ETF market-share rises with volatility and activity in March has been no different. ETF market-share peaked to a YTD high on the 10th and has remained elevated since, having its 5th highest day of the year when the Fed announced a 25bps hike on 3/22.

• However, last week was the best week of the year for spread savings in ETF orders displayed on our free market data feed IQX. Displayed ETF orders priced better than the NBBO on arrival in ASPEN Fee/Fee saved over 29% of the spread on average. In fact, ASPEN Fee/Fee had over 3mm displayed round lot or larger orders that were priced better than the NBBO on arrival in over 800 ETFs during the last two hours of trading on March 22nd.

• If you're not already using our platform to optimize your trading performance, we encourage you to get in touch. Our displayed quotes are available through our market data feed, IQX, which can be accessed directly or through Exegy, MayStreet, Redline, and ACTIV.