Quantitative hedge fund firm Renaissance Technologies, founded by mathematician James Simons, has had near real-time prices on corporate bonds and other debt for years. 

The top six U.S. government bond dealers have an aggregate annual technology budget of $26 billion. That astounding figure illustrates the extent to which technology prowess has become the key determinant of success or failure for banks competing in capital markets, reports Greenwich.

Bloomberg, the financial data giant, is offering customers of its signature terminal a way to use its chat function as a stand-alone feature for just $10 a month. The offering, first reported by the Financial Times, undercuts Symphony, a chat and data startup once touted as a “Bloomberg killer” because of its low-cost offering and backing from Wall Street’s biggest firms.

Most respondents who were negative about the sell-side trading role were positive about other parts of financial services. Moving from the sell side to the buy side was mentioned more than once, as there is more opportunity for growth with less stringent regulations and a debatably steadier stream of recurring revenue based on assets rather than transactions.

Bond markets, for example, have been relatively resistant to the technology onslaught, even as electronic platforms eat up market share at the less sophisticated end of things. Unlike stocks, which are fairly homogenized and easy to trade, bonds come in many different shapes and sizes.

Schwartz provided some rarely seen detail on sales performance by client type. Sales credits are down heavily for hedge funds. Given hedge funds make up almost a quarter of Goldman Sachs’ sales credits, that’s a problem for the bank. 

Regardless of your position, settling this debate is critical because the US corporate bond market is the most systemically important market in the financial world. If there is a liquidity problem, it is vital that we identify the causes and begin to implement solutions.

Blue-chip companies have sold more than $1 trillion of bonds in 2017, passing that milestone for the sixth straight year, as Federal Reserve rate hikes spur companies to borrow while it’s still cheap.

Global securities regulator umbrella body IOSCO has recommended that its members seek more information on corporate bond trading, particularly on the specifics of the market before a trade is made, and how it is subsequently reported

Many fixed income firms are gaining a massive competitive advantage by structuring Bloomberg messages to find more trades and to find them before competitors.