12 Days of Trading 2021 Day 9: Buon Natale
Whilst the Italians enjoy a good hearty feast on Christmas Day, traditionally they give and receive gifts on January 6th – the 12th Day of Christmas. There was a big Italian gift in the spring of this year too when ownership of Borsa Italiana was transferred (for a small...
12 Days of Trading 2021 Day 8: Father Christmas… How does he do it?
At this time of year the discussion often turns to how Father Christmas is able to get around so many households in just one night. For sure, the sleigh is fitted with the latest technology such as smart routers and machine learning algorithms to plot the optimal course between...
12 Days of Trading 2021 Day 7: Grandpa’s view of Christmas since Brexit
To some people Christmas feels the same year after year, maybe because the favourite armchair in the corner of the room is comfortable, Grandpa’s view never changes too much and he probably likes it that way – he’s seen enough change over the years. For kids, however, each year brings...
12 Days of Trading 2021 Day 6: Systematic Internalisers… The market’s little helpers
We should be careful with three letter acronyms (TLAs) especially at this time of year when ELFs should not be confused with ELPs. Along with the bank SIs, ELPs deliver a service not dissimilar to Santa’s little helpers - mysterious, fast moving, hard to spot with the naked eye. ...
12 Days of Trading 2021 Day 5: Dark Pools…. What’s in your Christmas stocking?
The Christmas stocking is still a major part of any family Christmas. It’s the perfect place to find last minute surprises like satsumas, bottles of gin, or a multi-rotor copter drone. You never know what you might find, sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you don’t, and then of...
12 Days of Trading 2021 Day 4: Alternative Closing Mechanisms – what’s your festive tipple of choice?
In the good old days, your Christmas tipple might have been a gin & tonic, of which there were few mainstream choices for the spirit or the mixer. Then, almost overnight, there was a somewhat confusing abundance of choice for both, garnished with the decision of what variety of...
12 Days of Trading 2021 Day 3: Corporate Actions… delivering the biggest parcels
At big xyt, we like to think big. At Christmas there’s nothing like a big pile of presents under the tree on Christmas morning and the big parcels are often the least expected and the most surprising. It’s got us thinking about the biggest corporate events of the year. ...
12 Days of Trading 2021 Day 2: Dark Blocks… the nicest presents are best kept secret
Yesterday we commented on closing auction volumes, which are, of course, composed of multiple trades in a stock at the same time and price - perhaps familiar to those of you who like to combine several presents together in one piece of wrapping paper. When it comes to a...
12 Days of Trading 2021 Day 1: Closing Auctions… the desserts of the trading day
Inevitably at this time of year our thoughts turn to the important matter of choosing the right dessert to round off a hearty Christmas lunch. To get us in the mood, for our first 12 Days of Trading 2021 post, we decided to look at the Closing Auctions, the...
Royal Dutch Shell – is the party over?
Is the fun about to come to an end for those trying to optimise (and capitalise on) their interaction with one of the most heavily traded equities in Europe? It has to be one of our favourite stocks for the complexity it presents for equity exposure to a single organisation....
big xyt launches European ETF Launches weekly update
On the back of the announcement of our partnership with ETFbook yesterday, we're pleased to provide investors with our first weekly summary report of transparency in European ETPs, by consolidating all issued products and their liquidity across the fragmented landscape. These updates are for product issuers to monitor the evolving European ETP...
European Equities Market Microstructure Survey Q3 2021
The summer saw increased nervousness in the European markets in reaction to a fragile recovery from the pandemic and concerns about the spectre of inflation. However, trading in equities remained quite buoyant, especially in September, and Q3 volumes returned to their seasonal, pre-pandemic average, in contrast to last summer’s...
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