The TRADE 55 | Page 40

[ I N D E P T H | M I F I D I I ] large-in-scale (LIS) activity dropped slightly across Europe according to data from Thomson Reuters. The Thomson Reuters March Share Reporter analysed activity between 12-16 March displayed a clear indication that volumes in dark pools are declining: Trading in dark pools halved to 3.06% market share of on-book trading from 6.15%, while LIS trading fell slightly to 1.25% market share of on-book trading from 1.43%. The delayed implementation of the DVCs did not come as a shock to the buy-side, who understood that the sheer scale of the legislation and volumes of new data would likely cause problems. “There were always going to be issues with the initial im- plementation of MiFID II,” Liontrust’s McLoughlin added. “It was never going to be an easy; it’s an immediate change across the industry. There are always glitches with something like this before everything is ironed out” MATTHEW MCLOUGHLIN, HEAD OF TRADING, LIONTRUST ASSET MANAGEMENT “That was always going to happen because there is so much involved and so much data needed to be compliant. It was never going to be an easy; it’s an immediate change across the industry. There are always glitches with something like this before everything is ironed out.” Looking forward Just how long it takes for all the nuances and glitches of MiFID II to be ironed out is a matter of conjecture depend- ing on where people sit in the market. While much of the discussion leading up to the introduction of the new rules was focused solely on the 3 January implementation date, there is still much more work to be done going into the rest of the year and beyond. Quantitative data won’t become available on how the trading landscape has changed for some time to come – with some estimating that it could take as long as 18 months to 40 // TheTrade // Spring 2018