New Nasdaq OMX derivatives venue NLX will leverage initial performance in highly liquid instruments seen in its first month of operations to build volumes and attract new participants, according to its chief.
Speaking to theTRADEnews.com, Charlotte Crosswell, CEO of London-based Nasdaq OMX NLX said the firm had already attracted more participants based on its initial volumes.
Total lots traded between 31 May and 28 June totalled 599,577, with average daily volume of 28,551 and average open interest of 17,958 across the euro- and sterling-based short-term and long-term interest rate contracts it offers.
NLX will seek to reduce the gulf between itself and established listed Europe-based derivatives venues Eurex and NYSE Liffe. The latter, for example, traded more than 65.1 million lots of short-, medium- and long-term interest rate products in June.
“We’ve seen positive performance in the first month, but building a market takes time,” Crosswell said. “Early volumes have been encouraging particularly in sterling and euribor short term interest rate products, which has helped bring in new participants since launch and will support attracting more participants in coming months.”
Crosswell said NLX, which launched on 28 May, had shown resilience to a news-heavy month, during which the US Federal Reserve announced it would curtail its US$85 billion per month quantitative easing programme, which sent markets into a spin.
She said the coming months would be key in building liquidity on the platform, which would in turn attract a wider catchment of participants.
“June was a volatile month, and during such activity incumbent venues usually benefit, but despite this we’ve continued to attract steady liquidity,” she said.
She added that two new brokers had joined since NLX launched, building on the list of brokers and clearers that have supported the venue since its launch. BNP Paribas, Citi, GH Financials, UBS, Marex Financial and Tower Trading Group are among the founding members that have offered brokerage and trading on the venue.