Liquidity Fragmentation, Innovative Disruption and Good Old Fashion Arguments

On Tuesday, January 24th we held our Fixed Incophotome Trading 2012 event. Over 450 people attended to hear three panels, one armchair interview and an economist keynote which provided a someone positive picture for 2012.

Wall Street & Technology posted a good, quick recap of what was discussed at the event. We have also posted several behind the scenes interviews with the panelists and speakers.

My short intro at the event explains the tone of the afternoon:

When we gathered here a year ago, on January 26th to be precise,the CFTC had just proposed its final Dodd-Frank inspired rule.

Much of that afternoon was spent debating the pros and cons of the proposals and what the various rules would do to liquidity and competition amongst market participants.

If you recall, we ended the day expecting – well, maybe hoping, really – that by time we held our next TabbFORUM conference, that trading and clearing mandates would be in place and we could discuss how the market had changed.

That was then and this is now and that rather optimistic prediction unfortunately hasn’t come true.

However, I’m sure you’ll all agree, the fixed-income world has in fact changed quite a bit during the past 12 months.
– a few rules have actually been set in stone…
– Electronic trading in a few swaps products has taken off, finally…
– And according to some, the U.S. Government is no longer a risk-free investment.

Our goal today is to not have a regulatory debate, but instead discuss what’s actually happening in the fixed-income market today, and how macro and micro events across the world’s landscape will impact how market participants trade, invest, innovate … and make money.

Over the next few weeks I’ll post some of the video from the day on Kevin on the Street and most of the event in some way, shape or form will be available on TabbFORUM, so keep an eye out.

Now that we have the 2012 event behind us, its time for me to get back to work. Thanks everyone who attended, sponsored and helped.

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