Fannie Mae And Freddie Mac Saw Massive Increases In Trading Volume In January

Trading data from OTC Markets Group shows that shares of government-sponsored entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac saw a dramatic increase in dollar trading volume last month.

Common shares of Fannie Mae FNMA and Freddie Mac FMCC experienced 795 percent and 529 percent month-over-month increases in dollar volume respectively. The increase was also seen in preferred shares as well, as some share classes saw month-over-month dollar volume increases of over 1,000 percent.

Fannie Mae

Freddie Mac

The mortgage liquidity providers, which have been under conservatorship since 2008, appear to finally be heading towards a viable long-term solution. With Mark Calabria awaiting Senate confirmation to become director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (the agency that oversees the two companies), acting director Joseph Otting has reportedly told employees and members of Congress that a plan to privatize the companies is in the works.

The comments have some hopeful that Congress is finally heading towards a resolution. In the wake of the end of the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing program, finding a long-term fix for Fannie and Freddie remains the biggest unanswered question from the financial crisis. Since 2012, profits from Fannie and Freddie—roughly $292 billion—have gone into the Treasury, but January’s volume increase may indicate that the market expects that arrangement to soon end.

Other Notable OTC Markets Group Trends From January

As seen in prior months data, Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche, German chemical company BASF, and French food conglomerate Danone were among the most actively traded securities on the OTCQX Best Market, the top tier of OTC Markets. Roche remains the most active security, as over $1 billion worth of shares traded hands last month. The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust and French firms BNP Paribas and AXA also maintained their ranks among the market’s most-active names.

On the OTCQB Venture Market, the markets’ middle tier, cannabis companies KushCo, CV Sciences, and MariMed were each among the most actively traded securities after Fannie and Freddie. This marks the fifth month in a row that those three names were among the OTCQB Market’s top 10 most active securities.

Overall, these were the top 10 most active securities traded on the OTCQX Best Market in January, according to issuer data.

And here are January’s top 10 most active securities traded on the OTCQB Venture Market.

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