Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.
What: Shares of electronic trading platform service MarketAxess
So what: Brokerage firm Stifel Nicolaus is the culprit, downgrading MarketAxess to "hold" from "buy" early this morning. The brokerage cited weak August statistics, as well as valuation concerns, as the impetus for the downgrade. Just yesterday, MarketAxess reported $44.4 billion in monthly trading volume, which is down from the $47.1 billion in reported in August 2011.
Now what: First off, it's rarely worth changing your investment thesis because of a one-day bump or drop caused by an analyst call, so let's more or less ignore it completely. What is worth paying attention to is the lull in trading volumes across the board. Daily average revenue trades are a key metric for measuring brokerage firms' ability to attract new trading volume, and in July TD AMERITRADE
Craving more input? Start by adding MarketAxess to your free and personalized Watchlist so you can keep up on the latest news with the company.