The TRADE 55 | Page 59

[ M A R K E T R E V I E W | T R A D I N G V E N U E S ] O ne of the fundamental objectives of MiFID II is to increase transparency and move trading activity onto lit venues, but weeks into the new regime record block trading and periodic auction volumes have dominated regulatory headlines. Large-in-scale (LIS) ven- ues were widely tipped to the primary beneficiaries of new requirements which saw the closure of broker crossing networks (BCNs) and the rise of systematic internalisers (SIs). In the previous edition of The TRADE magazine, pub- lished just weeks before MiFID II came into effect on 3 January, industry participants and experts dissected the block trading landscape and made predictions on the mi- gration of order flow from BCNs. One trend became clear – periodic auctions, LIS venues and finally SIs were the venues to bet on in a post-MiFID II world, not necessarily on-exchange or lit venues. In a Liquidnet member presentation in February the firm said that, at a high level at least, there hasn’t been a sig- nificant difference in dark and lit activity, and lit volumes experienced no major change since 3 January. Instead, Liq- uidnet found that periodic auction volumes had exploded, LIS activity had continued to increase and SIs even snuck in to steal a slice of the pie. Issue 55 TheTradeNews.com 59