COST Market Structure
Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST) operates in the Consumer Defensive sector, specifically the Discount Stores industry, with a market capitalization near $445.29B, listed on NASDAQ, employing roughly 333,000 people, carrying a beta of 0.91 to the broader market. Costco Wholesale Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the operation of membership warehouses in the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Japan, Korea, Australia, Spain, France, Iceland, China, and Taiwan. Led by Ron Vachris, public since 1986-07-09.
Market structure data reveals where a stock trades across exchanges, dark pools, and alternative trading systems. Understanding off-exchange activity helps identify institutional trading patterns and liquidity dynamics.
- Latest Week Ending
- 2026-05-11
- Weekly OTC Shares
- 2.1M
- Weekly OTC Trades
- 169.8K
- 12-Week Total Shares
- 26.2M
- Avg Trade Size (12-Week)
- 15 shares
How Single-Name Off-Exchange Volume Affects Options
For single-name equities, persistent off-exchange volume concentrations can flag institutional positioning - large blocks arranged through ATS venues to avoid lit-market impact, or correlation-arbitrage flow from sector rotation. The flow doesn't directly move the lit-market price (it prints at the ATS) but it changes the inventory position of the institutional counterparty, which then drives subsequent lit-market flow. Compare the off-exchange volume series above with COST's gamma exposure and options volume history to see whether unusual dark-pool activity coincides with rebalancing in the options book.
Showing 12 weeks of off-exchange trading data for Costco Wholesale Corporation.
Learn how market structure is reported and how to read the data →
Frequently asked COST market structure questions
- What is the current COST off-exchange volume?
- For the week ending May 11, 2026, Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST) recorded 2.1M shares across 169.8K trades (average trade size 12 shares). The 12-week cumulative total is 26.2M shares.
- What does COST off-exchange volume mean for traders?
- Off-exchange volume on a single-name equity reflects institutional block trades arranged through alternative trading systems (ATS) for liquidity rather than information reasons. Persistent ATS volume on a name can signal large institutional repositioning; the lit-market price impact lags the off-exchange print by hours to days as the institutional counterparty hedges or unwinds.
- How is COST market-structure data sourced?
- Weekly off-exchange volume figures come from FINRA's OTC Transparency reporting, which captures trades executed through FINRA-member off-exchange venues including ATSs and member firm internalization desks. FINRA publishes the data with a two-week lag (current-week-minus-two-weeks) for ATS-specific volume and weekly aggregate volume; the totals here aggregate all member firm reporting. Trades cleared via the listed-exchange auction are NOT included; the figure reflects only the off-exchange portion of total volume.