After three months of trading with mutual funds, Deutsche Brse has struck a positive interim balance. “Since the launch of trading with mutual funds on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, the segment has performed very well,” says Rainer Riess, Managing Director, Stock Market Business Development. “At its peak, order book turnover reached a market share of 35 percent, with the average totaling 25 percent most recently.” On 19 May, Deutsche Brse launched trading with around 2,600 actively managed mutual funds in the Frankfurt Stock Exchange’s Open Market.
The new segment is particularly attractive to private investors, who are able to trade a broad spectrum of funds without a front-end load. “We are making investors an extremely attractive offer in that we define minimum quotation volumes and maximum spreads, and guarantee the highest possible price quality,” says Riess. Between 9 am and 8 pm, intermediaries at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange provide quotes starting at a minimum of €20,000 or €100,000 with maximum spreads of 0.5 to 2.0 percent, according to the type of fund. This ensures high liquidity and the lowest possible transaction costs for private investors trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
Deutsche Brse is planning to implement further measures to improve quality in fund trading. In the second half of the year, the standards of performance measurement and continual monitoring of quality standards common in equities trading will be expanded to mutual funds. The Frankfurt Stock Exchange will in this way provide the greatest degree of transparency for trading in these funds. The Frankfurt Stock Exchange already offers private investors free real-time quotes for all mutual funds.