US electronic credit trading slowed down in October. FINRA’s TRACE tape recorded combined US investment-grade (IG) and high-yield (HY) average daily volume (ADV) at US$54.65 billion in October 2025. Volumes were down 5.4% month on month (MoM) from September’s US$57.79 billion, but still 6.5% higher than in October 2024 (US$51.32 billion).
Across investment grade (IG) and high yield (HY) the electronic platforms of MarketAxess, Tradeweb and Trumid saw aggregate ADV slip to US$24.31 billion, 6.1% lower MoM (September: US$25.89 billion) but 8.8% higher year on year.
MarketAxess rewidened its volume lead for fully electronic trading, with combined HY and IG ADV of US$8.67 billion, 1.7% below September’s US$8.82 billion and 3.4% above October 2024. That implies it traded15.9% of TRACE HY and IG for the month, 0.6% on a relative basis in a slower market. In its October release, the firm cited broad gains: its portfolio trading (PT) ADV is up a quarter to US$1.5 billion. According to MarketAxess, its US credit PT ADV specifically is up a third YoY. MarketAxess’ also reported that its dealer-initiated ADV is up 20% YoY. The total credit fee per million was stable at about US$140, and the firm reiterated that the year-on-year pressure on capture mainly reflected the protocol mix.
While it dominates in rates and swaps, Tradeweb was the second largest US credit fully electronic platform with ADV at US$7.94 billion, down 7.3% MoM from September’s US$8.57 billion but 6.6% higher than the same month a year earlier. On that basis, Tradeweb captured 14.5% of TRACE HY and IG collectively. The firm broke that out, saying it captured 17.4% of fully electronic US high grade and 7.9% of fully electronic US high yield TRACE, supported by ongoing uptake of portfolio trading, AllTrade and request for quotes (RFQ) features. It also reported a rebound in portfolio-trading (PT) activity versus a year ago, while noting, as usual, that PT prints at a lower fee per million than broader cash credit.
Trumid, which in September had its ADV closing in on the two market leaders to within US$319 million of MarketAxess and US$68 million of Tradeweb, lost a bit of the gained ground. Trumid claims their combined October HYand IG ADV was US$7.70 billion, down 9.4% MoM from the September record of US$8.50 billion but still 18.5% higher than October 2024. That is about 14.1% of TRACE HY+IG. In its statement Trumid said October ADV was US$7.7 billion, up 19% year on year and ahead of market-wide TRACE growth, and that it set another record in US investment-grade market share, helped by RFQ and portfolio-trading protocols that were 50% higher YoY. In its press release it highlighted that the role of Trumid Swarms in secondary trading. It did not respond to a request to confirm all volume was fully electronic at the time of going to press.
The company also reported that, “In October, Trumid executed an average of 52% of all secondary trading in the first two days after issuance — a new record that highlights the firm’s expanding role in grey and new issue market liquidity and post-trade efficiency for clients.”
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