A2X is rocking
Trading platform A2X Markets has shown significant growth over the last three years, with the number of instruments listed on its platform, the volume traded, and the value traded growing exponentially.
A2X was founded by Sean Melnick, Ashley Mendelowitz and Kevin Brady with the goal of creating a new South African exchange to compete with the existing Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE).
It aimed to create an exchange that was more efficient than the JSE with lower fees for investors to trade.
A2X was awarded a licence to operate an exchange by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) on 6 April 2017.
On 6 October 2017, A2X debuted with three listings – African Rainbow Capital, Peregrine Holdings and Coronation Fund Managers – with a combined market cap of R14 billion.
It now has 166 instruments listed on the platform with a market capitalisation of over R9 trillion.
A2X has also managed to attract some of South Africa’s largest companies to its platform, including many JSE Top 40 constituents such as Standard Bank, Sanlam, Discovery, and Prosus.
It has achieved this growth by offering substantially lower listing fees for companies while attracting investors with much lower brokerage fees to trade on its platform.
The company estimated that, in May 2023 alone, its lower brokerage fees saved investors over R500,000 in fees.
On the platform, there is also additional liquidity and narrower spreads available for shares listed.
The available liquidity quoted at the National Bid and Offer (NBBO) for the 27 Top 40 index stocks listed on A2X was 4.7x greater on A2X than that found on the JSE.
A2X also offers faster trade execution, so if you were looking to transact at the best possible price, this was available on A2X 77% of the time.
May 2023 was a record month on A2X in terms of volume and value traded, with over R10 billion being transacted.
June 2023 will supersede May with over R10 billion in trade value already having taken place on A2X.
| Trade Count | Trade Volume | Trade Value | |
| 27 July 2020 to 26 July 2021 | 59,669 | 25,395,125 | R 4,602,957,150 |
| 27 July 2021 to 26 July 2022 | 186,270 | 122,859,660 | R 20,664,257,649 |
| 27 July 2022 to 26 July 2023 | 845,350 | 678,384,634 | R 59,160,082,944 |
Plans for future growth
A2X has two main areas where it sees its growth in the future – new trade types and the listing of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs).
The company launched two new trade types late last year and will launch another trade type – the A2X AoD (Auction on demand) – in the near future.
The number of ETFs listed on A2X’s platform and the number of companies listed has increased rapidly.
A2X recently announced that 29 Satrix ETFs would be listed on its platform from the beginning of July.
This includes blue-chip index trackers such as Satrix’s JSE Top 40, an S&P 500 tracker, a Nasdaq 100 tracker, and a local government bond fund.
The addition of Satrix’s ETFs takes the number of such instruments on the A2X to 63, with Sygnia’s index trackers and some ETFs from Absa listed on the platform.
