I’m not a great fan of regulation for regulation’s sake. While this is too strong and cursory a judgment on what has been happening in the US and Europe for the past few years, some suggested regulatory changes make you wonder. For instance,...

High costs can be a barrier to success for any swap execution facility (SEF), but there’s more to it than that. Based on our conversations with the buy side, simple fee models are preferable. Thankfully most major SEFs have taken a transpar­ent...

A reduction in systemic risk is one great benefit of global financial reform; another is the increasing volume of data made available to market participants and observers.  Even still, finding and deciphering that public data is often easier...

Market structure changes in the bond market appear to be happening organically.  Shocking I know. Rewind back seven years to 2007.  Market structure research was primarily focused on technology innovation, evolving business models and a...

I'm of the belief that the regulatory changes with the biggest long term impact are those related to the cost of capital.  Basel III, CRD IV and whatever the US regulators ultimately decide will prove to be both the carrot and the stick...

Over the last few weeks many have speculated that low volatility must mean that investors are complacent. As I was writing this post, in fact, an email came through about a new volatility study from ConvergEx showing that half of their ...

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 (although in neither case are those dealers required to respond to the...

Sales trader relevance has been debated for more than a decade as buy-side driven execution algorithms and trading tools have made self-service trading ubiquitous. Despite the ability of institutional investors to trade via cheaper self-directed...

Its a little sad how excited I get about charts.  Maybe its because they do such a good job telling a complex story, or maybe because looking at a chart is easier than reading - but I digress.  Another great view of the fixed income world...

Greenwich Associates (and I) have for the most part stayed out of the recent high frequency trading debate. Thankfully the discussion has gone (somewhat) beyond whether HFT is good or bad and has moved towards a broader debate around the best market...