The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) processed a record 29 million transactions on January 29, surpassing by 11.6 % the previous record of 26 million transactions set on June 6, 2003.
DTCC, through its National Securities Clearing Corporation (NSCC) subsidiary, provides clearance and settlement services to virtually all trades done on the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq, the American Stock Exchange and for all regional exchanges and electronic communications networks (ECNs) in the United States.
“With the equity market rally in the past ten months, investors have not only increased their participation in equities, ETFs [exchange traded funds] and mutual funds directly but also through contributions to 401(k)s, and this appears to have had a profound effect on the level of trading volumes,” says Hank Belusa, vice president, DTCC Product Marketing and Development.
Belusa noted that average daily transaction volume for 2003 was 18.9 million transactions, but that in the first month of this year, the average jumped to more than 24 million daily transactions. DTCC, in fact, surpassed the June 6, 2003 record on two other days in January, although only by small percentages.
“Once you reach a new industry-wide trading plateau, it’s unlikely that the market will move back to the old level, and the above average transaction volumes soon become the norm,” says Belusa.
NSCC says that on the peak day of 29 January, netting reduced trades requiring settlement by 97%.