MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTX), the operator of a leading electronic trading platform for fixed income securities, today announced the upcoming launch of Opening and Closing Auctions—the first standardized market-wide auction protocol designed to improve price discovery and provide access to unique liquidity for trading U.S. credit.
In developing the new Opening & Closing Auctions, MarketAxess consulted a diverse group of buy-side and sell-side participants to advise and help design the auction trading protocol. Advisory group members include AllianceBernstein, BlackRock, DWS, and State Street Investment Management.
“Today’s fixed income markets are evolving quickly and there is a clear need for a market-wide auction protocol where price can be formed and liquidity can be unlocked,” said Kat Sweeney, Global Head of Data & ETF Solutions at MarketAxess. “Auctions in derivatives and equity markets have proven to reduce volatility, increase transparency and concentrate liquidity.”
“MarketAxess has always believed in building not just for today’s markets, but for the markets of the future. With the growth of fixed income ETFs, credit derivatives, and portfolio trading, the fixed income market’s needs are rapidly changing. We felt it was important to build a protocol to support price formation and liquidity at the most critical times of the day,” said Chris Concannon, Chief Executive Officer of MarketAxess. “I would like to thank our partners at AllianceBernstein, BlackRock, DWS and State Street for the instrumental role they have played in the development, testing, and support of the Opening and Closing Auctions protocol.”
The new auction protocol will be available to clients and dealers in the coming weeks and will be offered at the beginning and end of the trading day for U.S. high-grade and high-yield bonds on MarketAxess’s X-Pro Trading platform.
