2025 was a defining year for global financial markets. It was also a landmark year for Equiduct, with multiple records broken and significant strategic milestones achieved. More broadly, 2025 will likely be remembered as a year where sustained geopolitical tension translated directly into higher volatility, and in turn, materially higher retail investor participation across global equity markets.
Across the year, markets were shaped by an unusually dense combination of geopolitical stress factors: trade fragmentation, shifting defence alliances, energy security concerns, and political instability across several major economies. While US policy direction remained an important component of market narrative — including the return of Donald Trump to the presidency and the re-emergence of tariff-driven trade tensions — the dominant theme was broader systemic uncertainty rather than any single political figure or event.
Trade disputes involving the US, China, Mexico and Canada early in the year created immediate cross-asset volatility, driving significant retail engagement. Against this backdrop, Equiduct set a new monthly turnover record in March, with turnover exceeding €11 billion for the first time. Shortly afterwards, the April tariff escalation cycle triggered sharp global equity drawdowns. On Friday April 4th, Equiduct recorded its first ever €1 billion turnover day, followed by a new record of over €1.1 billion on Monday April 7th. These events highlighted a structural shift: retail investors are increasingly active during volatility spikes, and they are executing in real time rather than waiting for markets to stabilise.
Throughout the year, policy reversals, tariff pauses, and renegotiations – or as the market calls it “TACO trade” (Trump Always Chickens Out) – created repeated volatility cycles. Each cycle reinforced the same structural dynamic — retail investors increasing participation during periods of uncertainty — and Equiduct consistently captured this flow due to its pan-European retail reach.
May marked another strategic milestone with the launch of Equiduct’s 13th market, Switzerland. Despite entering later than other markets, Switzerland became our 10th most traded market by year-end, supported by new client activity including Vontobel joining in July. This demonstrated that when retail demand emerges, Equiduct is structurally positioned to capture it quickly across new geographies.
Seasonally quieter summer months were also disrupted by ongoing geopolitical and macro uncertainty. July became Equiduct’s fifth highest turnover month of the year, with total turnover 32% higher than July 2024. Notably, localised political and macro developments increasingly translated into retail trading spikes at the country level — Madrid being a prime example of this dynamic.
Political instability also drove volatility later in the year. In October, political uncertainty in France triggered heavy trading activity, while Spanish large caps such as BBVA and Santander saw combined turnover approaching €1 billion. Simultaneously, a record-length US government shutdown (43 days) removed key macro data signals from markets, further amplifying uncertainty. October ultimately became Equiduct’s second record month of 2025, exceeding March’s turnover record by €50 million.
Technology sector dynamics added an additional volatility layer. Nvidia briefly became the first $5 trillion company, before concerns around AI-driven valuation expansion triggered rotation out of large-cap tech. This rotation contributed to stronger European equity performance relative to the US in late 2025, supported by increased defence spending and capital reallocation into European industrial and energy sectors.
November marked another historic milestone, with Equiduct surpassing €100 billion in annual turnover for the first time. Q4 finished as the strongest quarter of the year, with €28.4 billion turnover — up 51% versus Q4 2024.
Sector rotation was a defining characteristic of 2025. Spanish banks drove Q1 activity before moderating in Q2. Defence stocks experienced elevated retail participation during periods of heightened geopolitical tension. Energy companies saw strong Q2 activity as energy security returned to the forefront of policy discussions across Europe.
At a market level, retail engagement was particularly strong in Spain, where IBEX 35 performance drove record activity, while Denmark saw elevated turnover despite market declines, largely driven by concentration risk linked to Novo Nordisk performance.
Equiduct’s Structural Positioning in the New Retail Cycle
The key structural takeaway from 2025 is that retail participation is no longer purely momentum-driven — it is now volatility-responsive. Retail investors are entering markets during uncertainty events, not after them. Equiduct’s Best Execution-driven model, multi-venue liquidity aggregation, and pan-European retail distribution position it uniquely to capture this behaviour as it happens, rather than retrospectively.
This positioning becomes even more relevant in the context of Equiduct’s next strategic growth phase. Following the announcement of our US expansion planned for June 1st 2026, Equiduct will extend this retail capture capability into US equities, allowing European retail investors to access US stocks through a fully on-exchange trading model.
The new segment is designed to deliver the first on-exchange, EU-cleared US equities trading solution that:
- Settles directly in DTCC, removing operational complexity for brokers
- Offers extended trading hours, enabling trading from European market open through to US market close
- Provides an extremely cost-competitive post-trade setup, optimised for retail-driven flow economics
Strategically, this allows Equiduct to capture an additional layer of EU retail participation — specifically European retail demand for US equities — while maintaining the same core strengths that have driven growth in European markets: execution quality, transparency, and cost efficiency.
For brokers connected to Equiduct, this creates a structurally differentiated proposition: access to US equity liquidity via an exchange-cleared environment, with post-trade economics designed to compete directly with off-exchange and bilateral routing models.
Looking Ahead: 2026
2026 has started with the same underlying structural drivers: persistent geopolitical uncertainty, elevated macro sensitivity, and continued retail engagement during volatility windows. While US policy direction — including occasional market-moving geopolitical interventions and trade rhetoric — remains a factor, the broader environment is one of structural global realignment rather than single-actor market direction.
Volatility remains elevated, and trading volumes have continued to trend at record levels, with Equiduct recently breaking its monthly turnover record for the third time within a 12-month period.
Key forward-looking questions remain:
- Will investors continue rotating toward European equities as geopolitical risk is reassessed?
- Will AI valuations stabilise or trigger broader technology repricing?
- Will defence and energy remain structurally supported sectors?
What is increasingly clear is that retail investors are now structurally embedded in market microstructure during volatility events. Equiduct’s model — and soon its extension into US equities trading — positions it to continue capturing retail participation precisely at the moments when markets are most active.
by Carl Rogan
