How portfolio trading can prompt a rethink for credit TCA
Portfolio trading (PT) has grown significantly in corporate bond markets, and it creates some meaningful complications for transaction cost analysis and market data.
Portfolio trades...
The need to negotiate a consensus price
Request-for-quote (RFQ) remains the primary go-to protocol across electronic trading venues in corporate bond markets for buy-side traders.
Despite speculation that the electronification of...
IG credit sees portfolio trading plateau while HY hits records
Portfolio trading (PT) continued its rapid expansion in 2025, with Morgan Stanley reporting total capped volumes in US markets reaching approximately US$1.3 trillion, a...
European bond trading impacted by 84% of flows to active open-ended funds
European fixed income fund flows remain structurally different from the US, materially affecting trading flows during the day. In 2025, 84% of Europe’s US$422.7bn net inflows went to active open-ended funds. US flows...
Visualising the cost of credit trading cut in half since 2023
Credit markets have seen bid-ask spreads, a proxy for trading costs for the buy-side, tighten further in the first two weeks of 2026, relative...
Are bigger trades always better?
Average trade sizes appear to have been increasing in corporate bond markets in recent years. Superficially this might suggest a greater dealer capacity to...
Tradeweb and MarketAxess beat TRACE growth in November
US electronic credit activity firmed in November. On FINRA’s TRACE tape, combined US investment-grade and high-yield average daily volume (ADV) rose to US$57.8 billion,...
How a credit sell-off might unfold…
Someone, somewhere, is cooking the books
In 2007, I explained the risks of cumulative capital market investments to a friend as a series of interconnected...
Secular vs cyclical: How e-trading, issuance and credit spreads align with liquidity
Primary markets are a crucial source of liquidity in secondary markets, as new issues trigger a round of buying and selling activity for newly...
Aligning the pre-trade credit liquidity picture and the execution goal
Pre-trade data and market colour are imperative for buy-side traders looking to achieve best execution in corporate bond markets. Understanding how that applies to...
