Exchange-traded products (ETPs) continue to attract interest from retail investors. Between January and September of this year, the volume of ETPs traded at Boerse Stuttgart was over EUR 9 billion. The Stuttgart Exchange now offers investors in this asset class an instant trading option, allowing them to react more directly to market events and receive faster confirmation of execution. The service is currently available through online brokers Flatex and ViTrade. It will be extended gradually to include other online banks.
So how does instant trading work? Retail investors use the online order form to start a price request from Boerse Stuttgart. Immediately they receive an indicative price. On this basis the investor can directly submit his order within a fixed time frame. If an order is fully executable, it will be executed at least at the indicative price or even better. If the market moves within the order process into an advantage for the investor, this will be considered in the price determination. If an order cannot be executed, it will be automatically deleted. In both cases, the investor receives immediate notification.
Michael Görgens, Managing Director Fixed Income and ETF- Trading at Boerse Stuttgart says: ‘In the case of ETPs, instant trading puts retail investors on a par with institutional investors who have had access to comparable trading protocols for some time. The instant trading procedure gives investors more control over when and at what price their orders are executed. It brings them closer to market developments and very quickly gives them certainty about whether the order has been executed.’ Instant trading is particularly valuable for the growing number of investors who use exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as a way of responding quickly to current market developments.
Information evening and award ceremony
Boerse Stuttgart’s ETP information evening proved very popular with retail investors. Around 200 guests used the opportunity to find out more about ETPs in a series of expert presentations. The afternoon was devoted to the 2016 ETP Awards ceremony, organised for the eighth time by Boerse Stuttgart and EXtra Magazin.
As in the last three years, the Best ETF Provider award went to iShares. As well as obtaining the highest overall score based on the award criteria, iShares won in each of the individual categories entitled ‘Product range’, ‘Capacity for innovation’ and ‘Service’. The winner in the ‘Cost structure’ category was ComStage. The ETF of the Year award also went to iShares for its MSCI World Minimum Volatility UCITS ETF. ETC Provider of the Year for 2016 was ETF Securities.
Altogether, 20 ETP issuers were rated by an independent and once again broadly based jury of 45 experts drawn from the banking, asset management, market making and media sectors. The final results were decided by an equal combination of the votes cast by the jury and the 2,500 votes submitted online. The online ballot was also used to choose the winners in the public awards section. As in previous years comdirect was voted best ETF direct bank. The award for ETF Investment Solution of the Year went to ComStage Vermögensstrategie UCITS ETF. fintego was voted best online asset manager.