Veteran domain broker and consultant Giuseppe Graziano of GGRG.com has earned a reputation for having extraordinary insight into short .com domains - a group that has proven to offer the most liquid assets on the aftermarket. If you follow our weekly domain sales report you know the kinds of name I'm talking about as the highest prices are often commanded by two and three letter .coms or those with two to three numbers.

Four letter .coms and numeric domains of four and sometimes even five numbers have also been consistent sellers. The aforementioned categories, along with two-character domains (one letter and one number) comprise a group that GGRG keeps a close eye on and classifies as liquid domains (those that are relatively easy to sell at prevailing market prices).

Where those fluctuating prices have been most recently settling - as well as many other details about the entire group -  are thoroughly covered in an excellent free quarterly report that GGRG, in association with Estibot, has just launched. You can down the first edition here (.PDF file) for a breakdown of the second quarter of 2016.

Giuseppe Graziano

Here are just a few of the facts Graziano uncovered from 2Q-2016:

• 2 letter .coms are the most developed assets (41.27%), 5 number .coms are the least developed (14.24%).

• The U.S. dominates the registration of 2 and 3 letter .com domains (with over 50% of registrants). China is the king of numeric domains with more than 50% of 2, 3, 4 and 5 number .coms owned by Chinese registrants (they own 65.41% of 4 number .coms). 

• The most traded classes in Q2-2016 were 4 letter .com and 5 number .com. Both classes had a 1% turnover. 

• The most concentrated (owners/number of domains) domain class is LLLL .com, the least concentrated is NN .com

• Q2-2016 was a negative quarter. 4 number .com performed best (though still down -7.46%), 5 number .com had the worst performance (-23.26%). 

While a drop in Chinese demand resulted in lower prices for short .com domains in 2Q-2016 GGRG still forecasts that 3 letter .coms, due to their high development index, are likely to retain their value and low market volatility over time.

There is far more in the 12-page report than what he have touched on here, so you will want to check out the full document for all of the details.