How did Trump’s tariffs impact global market structure?

With recent market volatility, we examined the impact of Trump's tariffs on market structure and how people traded.

Starting in the US, we see volumes comparable with the largest trading dates of 2024 (December triple witching).

Importantly, however, this volume is on the lit continuous, rather than through the auction, with over 50% of all trading occurring during the lit continuous trading period late last week (53% up from 44%).

This pattern is seen in other fragmented markets. For example, here’s the trade volume breakdown of UK equities, showing a clear increase in lit continuous share (26% up from 20%).

Regarding resting times, we see a dramatic fall in the time that orders are resting on the book before being filled. The same dramatic reduction is seen across Europe (~35 seconds to ~6) and the US (~25 seconds to ~7), reflecting the global impact of the tariffs.

In summary, the impact of Trump’s tariffs has moved trading onto lit order books, with shorter resting times, as participants look to execute volume quickly.

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