MarketAxess hits new records in October Municipal Bond trading

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Driven by heightened market volatility and yields not seen in over a decade, MarketAxess saw record monthly trading volume and client engagement last month. In October 2023, clients traded over $7.4bn on the MarketAxess platform, surpassing the previous monthly volume record of $5.8bn set just last year.

Highlighting this unprecedented activity was more than $4bn in tax-exempt trading volume, a 59% increase YOY. This growth demonstrates the increasing demand for more efficient and cost-effective ways to access the market. In Open Trading®, our All-to-All trading network, we saw increased bond distribution with more than 50,000 offerings posted daily in October.

Several factors contributed to October's banner month:

  • Record monthly volume in Auto-X™: Eclipsed $1bn as more firms utilize automated trading solutions to efficiently source liquidity and lower transaction costs.
  • Dealer selling volume through Open Trading hit a record $522 million, a 177% increase YOY.
  • MarketAxess' share of the total municipal bond market hit 5.10%, highlighting our expanding role in municipal trading.
     

MarketAxess has also seen a significant increase in trade activity recently with the introduction of new features to the platform, including an expanded reach by making offerings available on the Perform IDN. We’ve added a new feature that allows clients to receive alerts to distinguish between offerings and RFQs. Additionally, we've expanded ways our clients can post offerings—manually, via EMAX, or in real-time via the Offerings/AXE API.

At a macro level, increased market volatility, higher rates, and strong retail investor engagement continue to drive overall elevated municipal market activity. As market volumes swell, MarketAxess' electronic trading tools and diverse liquidity options provide clients with solutions to trading challenges. The record results speak for themselves—in an active and evolving market, more clients are turning to MarketAxess to increase operational efficiencies, access a broad liquidity pool and lower trading costs.