Xetra

Xetra is the name of an international securities trading venue that is operated by the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse).

The venue is extremely important for the German domestic trading industry, as the overwhelming majority of turnover on German exchanges goes through Xetra.

This makes it one of the most important venues in the local market, and by extension Europe.

Xetra operates as the reference market for exchange trading in German shares and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

The price fixing on Xetra, while complex, is conducted through regulated and transparent rules.

Beyond the German market, Xetra represents an important international trading venue, with ovrt 50% of trading participants located outside of Germany.

Xetra’s Role in the Market

Xetra is constantly innovating and improving its technology, which has seen an evolution over the past two decades.

This in turn has resulted in improvements in transaction costs, efficiency, and transparency.

The group’s trading technology is also developed with the intention of being able to better position Xetra among trading participants, while also licensing it to other exchange operators.

Xetra’s trading technology was originally designed and implemented on the basis of Eurex trading technology.

This more than ever has become a requisite for modern day venues given the litany of disruptions that can occur.

Modern day exchanges constantly deal with challenges, such as fat finger errors, flash crashes, mistrades, outages, etc. Xetra has also looked to promote new protectionary mechanisms on its trading venue as a result.

Several implementations include volatility interruption, market order interruption, and liquidity interruption measures.

Moreover, trading on Xetra is dictated by clear rules, which apply equally for all trading participants.

Independent market surveillance also consists of the Trading Surveillance Office (HÜSt), the Exchange Supervisory Authority, which is attached to the Hessian Ministry of Economic Affairs, Transportation, and Regional Development, and the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin).