The impact of trading long-dated bonds
Faced with the prospect of climbing rates, some investors will be looking to switch out of lower coupon bonds to capture higher returns. However, investors need to ...
China Focus: The secondary effect of defaults
The bid-ask spread for bonds in China’ property market has expanded by 300% this year, although even more so for Evergrande which increased by 700% between April and ...
Prioritising investment on the high yield trading desk
When we look at the priorities of trading desks in developing more automated tools, we can consider the longer term market trends as a good indicator of consistent ...
Seeing the pressure market makers are under in European credit
Secondary market data paints a picture of the challenges faced by sell-side market makers in the European corporate bond market during Q4. Information from MarketAxess ...
APAC trading recovery is far from even
The recovery from last year’s market sell-off and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic appears to have been marked in many regions, with volumes for both buying and selling ...
Evidence of trading efficiency from electronification
This week we look at the growth of electronic trading in the US fixed income markets, and the potential it holds to reduce time for trading. Ove the past year, ...
TRACE recalibration exposes double counting
An adjustment to bond trade reporting to TRACE, the US post-trade reporting tape for fixed income, has cut the volume of trades arranged via alternative trading systems ...
Dealer engagement in multi-dealer platforms is growing
Sell-side firms appear to be increasing their engagement with corporate bond trading platforms. The narrative of increased bilateral trading between dealers and clients ...
Juggling the growth in CUSIPs
If the population of a country increased by 50% since 2014, you would think a housing crisis was likely.
The high impact of low volumes in Q2
Volumes in US investment grade (IG) bonds have fallen significantly in the second quarter of this year compared with the same period in 2020. The underlying causes of ...
Sub-2bps bid-ask spreads in US IG are below pre-crisis levels
The US investment grade (IG) credit market is seeing very tight bid-ask spreads in 2021, according to the Composite Plus (CP+) data supplied by MarketAxess. It has found ...
Chart of the week: Trading into Europe
Following our analysis of when to trade into US markets, we examine spreads for European rates markets across the day. For overseas traders working European markets the ...
Chart of the week: When trading into the US, when should I trade?
Timing is everything in the markets, but not every market shares the same timing. It is common for trading desks to employ a trader to work in overseas markets by ...
Secondary volumes in 2021 outpace 2020 sell-off implying greater liquidity
The first quarter of 2021 saw record volume in US and European investment grade trading volume. This is surprising on several fronts, with significant implications for ...
