What changes are you seeing in how fixed income traders are accessing liquidity?
At Ninety One, we’re active across both developed and emerging markets, trading across rates, credit, and derivatives.
Over the past few years, we’ve seen a steady rise in the number of liquidity providers across a number of these markets. That’s brought healthy competition and tighter pricing, but also more fragmentation. While competition is good for the buy-side, fragmentation can make it harder to source consistent liquidity efficiently.
That’s why we’ve leant on the platforms’ ability to access alternative liquidity. As an example, on MarketAxess, roughly a quarter of European credit trades now execute via all-to-all protocols, where you can connect directly with non-traditional liquidity providers. Every major platform now offers some version of all-to-all protocols, and it’s become a vital part of how we find liquidity that might otherwise be hidden.
How is technology improving price transparency in markets?
In general, the more electronic a market becomes, the more transparent it gets. In highly liquid markets like US Treasuries, pricing is now effectively live and executable, you trade at or very close to the posted level for meaningful size.
As you move down the liquidity spectrum into HY credit or EM debt, transparency naturally falls away, but technology is closing that gap. Execution platforms are getting much better at pre-trade price prediction and data-led analysis. The composite pricing models and TCA tools we now have are more sophisticated, driven by much deeper data pools. AI will only accelerate this in the future.
The result is that even in less liquid bonds, traders are gaining clearer visibility on likely execution levels, and that’s a meaningful improvement over just a few years ago.
Are buy-side traders gaining more control in protocol selection?
Absolutely. From my seat, protocol selection is fully within my control, and that autonomy has expanded as electronic trading has matured.
Often, the choice comes down to familiarity and comfort. Traders naturally stick to what they know, but that can mean missing out on protocols that might better suit a particular trade type.
A good example is automation. It’s been around for years, but adoption is now accelerating and we’re integrating it directly into our workflow now. Platforms like Bloomberg RBLD, MarketAxess Auto-X, and Tradeweb AiEX are helping us systematise low-touch flow, while freeing up human traders to focus on more complex, illiquid risk.
Automation adds efficiency and precision, but importantly, it also gives time back to the desk. That’s what makes protocol selection strategic rather than just operational.
What advice would you give to traders preparing for the 2026 fixed income trading landscape?
Over the past 12 to 24 months, we’ve gone through a lot of change at Ninety One, including onboarding a new OMS and migrating away from a legacy system. Change is rarely comfortable, but it’s often where the biggest gains come from.
My advice to traders is simple: embrace change and stay curious. Try new workflows, new protocols, even if they feel unfamiliar. Every test or pilot you run teaches you something, and that feedback helps shape how the platforms evolve.
The pace of innovation in fixed income trading is accelerating. Firms that engage with that change rather than resist it, will be the ones best positioned for 2026 and beyond.