Exchange Highlights: MEMX Among Top US Exchanges for Liquidity and Price Discovery

Increasing Liquidity and Midpoint Opportunities

Highlights & Recent Developments

  • MEMX ranked second in number of symbols quoted over 75% of the time at the NBBO in August
  • MEMX ranked third in NBBO setting in August
  • MEMX lowered its take fee to 26 mils per share on Midpoint IOC/FOK orders
  • MEMX provides significant liquidity at midpoint in hundreds of securities

Market Share

In August, MEMX exchange market share excluding TRF and auction volume was 5.8%, which provides the most accurate picture of the primary segment against which MEMX directly competes. In July and August, TRF market share increased to 44.0% and 45.1%, respectively, due to a higher mix of retail and sub-dollar trading activity.

Liquidity and price discovery has continued to improve. MEMX ranked second in the number of symbols quoted over 75% of the time at NBBO. MEMX provides significant continuous quoting at the NBBO in thousands of securities (Chart 1). In August, over 2,700 symbols were quoted over 75% of the time at NBBO and over 4,600 symbols were quoted over 50% of the time at NBBO.

Additionally in August, MEMX set the best price 12.5% of the time and ranked third in NBBO setting, which is a measure of price discovery (Chart 2). Only one exchange can set the new best NBBO in the market, then other exchanges join and begin to trade at this level.

Volume & Diversity of Liquidity

MEMX provides significant midpoint liquidity in hundreds of securities measured by the average time orders are posted at midpoint throughout the trading day. In the first two days of September, 4,761 symbols had midpoint activity, of which 727 symbols had orders placed at midpoint at least 75% of the time and 1,290 symbols had orders placed at midpoint at least 50% of the time. Below shows the top 30 most active symbols by midpoint volume and the average time at midpoint was 41% (Chart 3).