US electronic credit activity eased sharply in August. On FINRA’s TRACE tape, combined US investment-grade (IG) and high-yield (HY) average daily volume (ADV) came in at US$44.6 billion, down 10.3% month on month (MoM) from July’s US$49.7 billion but up 34.7% on last August’s US$33.1 billion. For the three electronic credit trading platforms (MarketAxess, Tradeweb, Trumid), aggregate ADV totalled US$19.9 billion, 9.9% lower MoM and 2.6% higher year-on-year (YoY).
MarketAxess retook the electronic credit trading top spot last month. Its combined HY and IG ADV printed US$7.17 billion, down 8% MoM and -10.3% YoY. This implies a 16.1% share of TRACE HY+IG in August (July: 15.6%).
Morgan Stanley analyst Michael Cyprys wrote on 5 September that “market share posted sequential gains in HY and IG credit,” citing US IG at 18.8% and US HY at 12.7% for August, up 110 bps MoM and 119 bps MoM respectively.
Cyprys also pointed out: “Total credit volumes quarter-to-date of $13.7billion ADV are tracking 12% below MS estimate and 10% below consensus for 3Q25”.
MarketAxess asserted: “We delivered strong progress with our new initiatives across the client-initiated, portfolio trading and dealer-initiated channels.”
Tradeweb slipped back to number two for electronic credit trading ADV, with activity slowing faster than its rivals. HY+IG ADV was US$6.67 billion, down 21.3% MoM but up 3.6% YoY. This suggests a 15.0% TRACE share, versus July’s 16.3%.
Morgan Stanley noted: “US IG credit market share of 17.9% was up 100 bps YoY and down 174 bps MoM, “while US HY credit market share of 7.5% was up 56 bps YoY but down 33 bps MoM.”
Cyprys flagged that for Tradeweb, “QTD volumes [are] tracking 9% below MS estimates, 4% below consensus for 3Q.”
Tradeweb highlighted the performance of its Automated Intelligent Execution (AiEX) tool, stating that it was seeing strong YoY growth. It said: “Cash credit program trading (PT) ADV increased by 14.9% YoY, with non-comp PT ADV up 33.7% YoY.”
Trumid reported that its ADV evolution fared better, down 3.3% MoM at US$6.10 billion and up 22% YoY. The electronic platform does not break out its ADV, skewing any comparison to Tradeweb and MarketAxess.
The firm noted: “Trumid RFQ delivered another milestone month in volume, with the highest frequency of US$1 billion+ volume days to date.”
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