Weekly Highlights

• Despite last week's decline in the S&P 500 and a rise in the VIX to levels unseen since 2023, market-wide execution frictions remained largely unchanged. There were no notable increases in spread or post-trade quote instability at the security type level, but daily volumes and trade sizes for large and mid-cap names stayed within the lower end of their recent ranges, seemingly unaffected by the uptick in volatility.

• Unsurprisingly, ETFs saw increased volumes, market share, and a higher percentage of trading at the touch as the VIX climbed. There was, however, a relative decrease in midpoint and intra-spread trading, and a decline in demi and block size trades, which likely contributed to higher trading costs when executing more urgent strategies.

• Nevertheless, subscribers to IntelligentCross witnessed our best performance of the year in several areas related to ETFs: average daily matched shares at the midpoint, shares matched at demi-block sizes and larger, and orders of roundlots and larger displayed on our free market data feed, IQX, priced better than the NBBO on arrival. Last week, we also saw active order flow in approximately 3,375 ETFs per day—a record for our platform. These statistics demonstrate that IntelligentCross is an effective tool for executing thematic strategies in volatile markets.

• If you haven't yet leveraged our platform to boost your trading outcomes, we encourage you to connect with us. Our displayed ASPEN quotes are available through our market data feed, IQX, which can be accessed directly or via providers such as Exegy, MayStreet, Redline, and ACTIV.