U.S. Treasury volumes in October hit their highest level since May 2018, with an average daily volume of $554 billion. The equity market’s precipitous decline drove a drop in Treasury yields that brought with it the market volatility traders have long been waiting for. And while the future of the bull market remains top of […]
Category: Commentary
What Technology is Doing to Banks
Another fun conversation between Jim Jockle from Numerix and I about what new technology means for banking, how it helps, how it hurts and why relationships still matter.
High Frequency Needs High Touch
Originally posted on the Greenwich Blog There is a tremendous amount of irony in the path high-frequency trading – excuse me, principal trading firms have taken from their heyday in the late 2000’s. We alluded to this a few months ago in our Top Market Structure Trends to Watch in 2017: When I first started meeting […]
Is a crisis a crisis if everyone knows its coming?
(also published on the Greenwich Associates blog) A crisis is a crisis because most people didn’t see it coming. Unexpected events freaks people out causing a bad chain of events – a crisis. So despite evidence that a liquidity crisis is on the horizon in the bond market, wide spread recognition that this crisis is […]
The SEF RFQ Minimum is Moving to 3. Does it matter? Nope.
On October 2 market participants requesting price quotes for an order via a SEF will have to ask a minimum of three dealers to respond rather than the current minimum of two. For those of you that followed the SEF rule writing process from the beginning, you’ll remember that the inclusion of RFQ as an acceptable trading […]
Corporate End Users Unfazed by Derivatives Reform
Earlier this year we spoke with just shy of 400 corporate treasurers about their use of interest rate derivatives. Given this group of IRD users isn’t covered as closely from a market structure perspective as financial end users, I was excited to see what trends we could find within the interview responses. So with the […]
Where in the world is volatility?
I’m a little obsessed with volatility lately – well, the lack of it actually. The VIX has been hovering around 12 for months despite emerging markets turmoil, rigging scandals and regulatory environment that can only be described as volatile. How can volatility be so low in a market where complexity and uncertainty are so high? Calm markets […]
ETFs as part of the credit liquidity story
Liquidity in the corporate bond market is tough. We’ve written about it time and time again. At a high level we see two solutions. One, inject new electronic trading tools and liquidity providers into the existing corporate bond market to better match buyers and sellers (a theme discussed in our 2014 European Fixed Income Study). Two, […]
Package trade rules – can they do that?
On Thursday May 1 the CFTC released an eagerly awaited clarifying document outlining when and how package trades would be required on SEF. Packaged transactions will be phased in by type from May 15th through November 15th, and to deal with the pre-trade credit checking issue (checking limits against each leg as opposed to the limit utilization […]
FX volumes are down, but its more than just economics
First some admin notes. We’ve recently created an official Greenwich Associates market structure blog. The goal was to create a seamless method for us to get new research and commentary out to the market. The market structure commentary I’ve been posting here at Kevin on the Street will mostly all end up on the new […]