Liquidity Reimagined: Revolution , Integration and Market Resilience
Retail Rise: How Individual Investors Are Reshaping Europe's Structure
Retail investor participation in European equities has surged in recent years, evolving beyond the pandemic-fuelled boom into a more structured and strategic presence in the market.
TradeTech's Retail Liquidity panel brought together leaders from Nutmeg, Euronext, Equiduct, and Susquehanna to unpack the state of retail flow, the infrastructural enablers behind it, and what remains to be addressed.
Jason Conan-Davies of Nutmeg observed a significant shift in client behavior: "Clients are now engaging with the market more and are seeking diversified portfolios." This trend is backed by hard data—Emilie Rieupeyroux from Euronext noted a doubling of retail data subscribers year-over-year, indicating a growing appetite for information and self-directed trading.
Jason Conan- Davies, Head of Trading, Nutmeg
TradeTech Polling: What’s the biggest barrier to truly understanding liquidity in European equities?
Internalised/bilateral trades not fully reported
Fragmented post-trade data
Regulatory complexity (e.g. MiFID)
Lack of standardised trade flags
We already have sufficient visibility
However, this rising engagement also reveals underlying frictions. Wail Azizi of Equiduct pointed to a changing demographic: "The same clients who were overexposed during COVID are now trading smarter with larger average trade sizes."
Yet systemic issues remain. Emma Lokko from Susquehanna flagged a persistent challenge in market access: "Retail are not receiving appropriate outcomes," particularly in regions like Germany, where single market maker models create an uneven playing field.
The conversation returned frequently to the importance of structural parity and education. With mounting demand and sophistication from retail participants, there is a clear call for better transparency, harmonized incentives—such as favourable tax treatments—and a renewed focus on financial literacy. These are critical to ensuring that the retail evolution continues on a sustainable, equitable path.
The Disruptor Effect: Innovation Platforms Challenge Liquidity Norms
A new breed of trading platforms is quietly but profoundly altering how liquidity is accessed and valued across European markets.
Our disruptor panel brought together innovators like OneChronos, IntelligentCross, OptimX, and PureStream, all of whom are challenging established norms with algorithmic precision and technological agility.
Scott Bradley of OneChronos described their market philosophy as "optimizing notional price improvement...measured versus order intent," reflecting a broader push to prioritize execution quality over speed alone.
Roman Ginis from IntelligentCross expanded on this idea: "Execution performance and liquidity can be achieved simultaneously," pointing to a more nuanced interplay between matching logic and trade outcomes.
The infrastructure enabling these shifts is not only more intelligent but more adaptive. David Barnett of OptimX emphasized, "We enable bilateral interaction across the full liquidity spectrum with full counterparty transparency,"
This appears to signal a paradigm where openness and performance coexist. Meanwhile, PureStream’s Armando Diaz underscored scale as a differentiator: "We multiply reference trades up to 500%, drastically increasing the liquidity bandwidth."
Institutional results appear to validate the disruption. Moderator Peder Kristian Viervoll from Norges Bank revealed that their own trading algorithms had seen a sharp improvement
"Our algorithm’s performance improved significantly—saving us between $50million and $100 million annually, with 75% of fills from these venues," he said.
Together, these voices represent a growing consensus that smart design and precise data handling are redefining the very fabric of equity execution.
Navigating the New Realities of European Equity Liquidity
As European equity trading evolves, market leaders unpacked the hidden forces behind liquidity fragmentation—and what shifting volumes reveal about the health and future of price discovery. Regulatory pressures and bilateral models are quietly reshaping how and where equities are executed.
Charting the Course for European Markets with Bjørn Sibbern, CEO of Six
Structural shifts are reshaping Europe's trading landscape. In a wide-ranging fire-side chat, SIX Group's new CEO, Bjørn Sibbern, reflected on the path forward, revealing why competition, retail access and cross-border vision could define the next chapter.
