Emerging Markets Liquidnet focus: Greece
As the buy-side gathers in Athens for International Traders Forum 2026, discussions around liquidity, market structure, emerging markets and execution quality will be front and centre.
On Wednesday, our Global Head of Equities, Chris Jackson, and Head of EQS EMEA, Gareth Exton, will present on how to solve the liquidity challenges presented by fragmented markets at the round robin sessions. On Tuesday and Thursday, our Head of CEEMEA Michael Fidance will be a speaker and a moderator exploring the themes shaping emerging markets and the future of buy-side trading.
Greece is the first ITF host country classified as an emerging market. So, before we gather in Athens, Michael Fidance delivers a snapshot of the Greek equity market.
Long-term reform can drive long-term value creation.
The Greek market itself is not only an interesting backdrop to everything that will be under discussion at ITF next week, but it’s also a paragon of the ultimate emerging market equity success story. Built on the one cornerstone that matters the most: the political economy of development. From a 90% drop brought on by Greece nearly falling out of the Eurozone to a 5-year consolidation of all the excesses of the Greek political economy to the 450% gain Greek equities since the end of the Covid-19 crisis, one thing has proven to be true about Greece rising from the ashes of near bankruptcy: an unwavering 10+ year commitment to orthodox economic policy and the rule of law. Greece's resurgence was not built on chance. It was built on staying true to the orthodox tenets of the political economy of development within the constraints of the rule of law embedded in EU institutions. For investors across Global Emerging Markets, Greece stands as a powerful example of how long-term reform can drive long-term value creation.
Will Greece really be leaving Emerging Markets too soon?
But at the same time, the Greek equity market is a victim of its own success. Having now been slated for re-classification to developed status (DM) by the main global index benchmark, Greek stocks will be but a tracking error in any model portfolio of DM stocks. The ‘upgrade’ to DM may stunt the growth of Greek capital market advancement, curb the surge of capital flows that have defined its re-emergence as the darling of EM value, and keep the market cap-to-GDP ratio at nothing better than a sub-par level compared to its peers in DM. Those points may be debatable, but whilst you are in Athens, ask your professional counterparts at other ITF delegations what is being said at their firms. It is unassailable that the re-classification of Greece is anything short of a travesty while South Korea, 4.5x larger in market cap per capita, 6x larger as an economy, and an equity market 21x larger in market value than Greece, stays classified as EM.
Navigating Greek equity trading is tough, even by EM standards. Low liquidity, short trading hours, high volatility, and big market impact on single stock orders make implementation shortfall in Athens no easy feat to conquer. As DM traders try to make this work, the frustration of the cost of trading and the loss of alpha at the point of execution is only going to reinforce the oxymoronic structure of market classification variables.
Here is where we come in. We are a Top 10 international broker in the Greek equity market despite only doing dark crosses. Our Greek market activity is at the top of all our active CEEMEA dark pools. And the Liquidnet Value of the Block metric has a savings of more than 49bps for the first half of 2026. We are committed to the Greek market and to talking about all these issues at ITF in Athens next week. See you there.
Sources: MSCI, FTSE Russell, Reuters, Athens Exchange and Liquidnet internal trading data (FY2025-H1 2026)
Michael Fidance, Head of CEEMEA at Liquidnet