Source: MarketAxess
MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (MKTX), a leading electronic fixed-income trading platform and provider of market data and post-trade services, today introduced Private Axes, a protocol that lets bond market participants anonymously negotiate block trades to minimize information leakage.
Private Axes is available for investment grade and high yield corporate bond, emerging market debt, agency and Eurobond trading.
Global Open Trading average daily volume across all protocols is now over $600m, up over 100% from a year ago, demonstrating strong support from institutional investors and dealers for all-to-all credit trading on MarketAxess.
Private Axes is the latest addition to a range of technology solutions available in Open Trading, MarketAxess' all-to-all institutional credit trading network. “Our clients requested a protocol that complements existing disclosed or 'lit' protocols on MarketAxess, yet has the advantage of anonymity and block size," said Richard Schiffman, Open Trading Product Manager, MarketAxess. "For dealers and investors with a specific trade in mind, Private Axes allows for greater discretion and control when looking to trade bonds in larger size."
The introduction of Private Axes comes as global trading volume on MarketAxess has continued to set records. In the first quarter of 2016, MarketAxess reported record total trading volume of $310 billion, up 27% from a year earlier. In the quarter, records were set in each of the four core trading categories of U.S. high-grade, high-yield, Eurobonds and emerging market bonds.