Block trading venue Liquidnet’s U.S. average daily equity volume was up 80 percent in January on a month-over-month basis. The firm traded 593 million shares in January. Year-over-year volume was off seven percent with 637 million shares trading last January.
In December, the dark pool traded 329 million shares.
"The year has started off on a positive note with institutional investors having more conviction and putting money to work," said Brian Williamson, senior U.S. equities analyst at Liquidnet. "Those two factors led to greater competition to find liquidity in size and trade large blocks of stock."
Other factors also played into the increase in equities trading in January, such as a decline in market volatility and positive U.S. economic data and earnings reports, he added.
In January, average trade size was 43,584 shares compared to 39,417 shares in December, up 11 percent. Last January average trade size was 50,856 shares.
On average, when traders executed in Liquidnet in January, the trade represented 37 percent of the day’s U.S. market block volume in that stock. Also, when traders executed in the venue it was either the first or second largest print of the day in that stock 60 percent of the time.
For small cap U.S. stocks, Liquidnet users executed the first or second largest prints of the day 80 percent of the time, according to the firm.
