Corporate Debt Issuance Soars As Machines Take Over

There are several bastions of old-school Wall Street that have remained relatively intact despite the recent algorithmic onslaught. Listed derivatives products, with their boring product standardization, transparency and clearing method that didn’t put the middle connector – the exchange – at risk were among the early financial industries to automate. Now listed derivatives trading is almost entirely automated. But there are those on Wall Street who resist the automation trend. Among the old school fighting to hang on to not only a trading methodology but a lucrative way of life is the corporate bond trader.  But a new study from Greenwich Associates shows the steady time decay of the human bond trader as automation continues its relentless advance. Now...