January 2009
Debt trading poll 2008: All change in secondary markets
The liquidity crisis has contributed to a dramatic change in the trading of fixed-income securities. A year ago the curtailment of the liquidity to investors could be written off as a temporary state of affairs that would be rectified as soon as market conditions got back to normal.
Are agency brokers the new powers in debt trading?
However, now the illiquidity in cash trading appears long term, the dominance of levered investors such as hedge funds, and prop and structured credit desks is a distant memory.
Investment banks are not only short of funding avenues but also of capital. With capital in short supply – and often provided by new stakeholders such as governments – the commitment of numerous dealers has come under scrutiny. Furthermore, measures of risk such as VAR have exacerbated the problem. Volatility in the underlying market conditions has led to all banks cutting their risk positions at the same time.
Some banks remain in the secondary trading game but the withdrawal of several players has had a significant impact on overall liquidity. The trading houses that come out well in the latest trading poll have mostly been strong players in previous years. Société Générale...
More information on debt trading poll
The rest of this article is only available to subscribers (Level 2)
If you are already a subscriber (level 2), please log in now to view this article, by entering your username (email address) and password at the top right-hand side of this page.
If you are not a subscriber just subscribe today for full access to this article. You can do this either by clicking the link or calling +44 (0)207 779 8999.
If you are a trialist or subscriber, please enter your username and password at the top right-hand side of euromoney.com
Subscribers to Euromoney benefit from:
- 12 months access in print and online - on euromoney.com, read the latest issue early online, search for specific developments by region or sector, interrogate the results of Euromoney's benchmark polls, and view the archive dating back to 1996
- More than 30 specialist research guides free
- The results of Euromoney’s polls and surveys
- Tailored RSS news feeds direct to your desktop
- News delivered directly to your mobile device or PC
- Personalised email newsfeed of 'Top stories' and 'Breaking news'
Click here to subscribe