Rick McVey, CEO of multi-dealer credit trading and research system MarketAxess, predicts that the company will be profitable by the end of the year. He argues that the addition of Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch as dealers is a further vote of confidence in the platform's technology and investor participation. Morgan Stanley is live in the US and is expected to be on the European system shortly. Merrill Lynch should be trading within a month. McVey says many banks on the platform see participation as a strategic equity investment as well as simply an opportunity to post bids and offers to a wider range of clients. "It's a major part of our success story over the last year that we have managed to get the vast majority of the world's leading dealers onto the platform," he says.
Global trading volumes have risen steeply - August 2001 was the first month with more than $1 billion; in January the platform had its first $1 billion week, and managers say they expect the first $1 billion day soon. In Europe, the platform was hampered by the fact that it launched in September. It only did 60 trades in January but executives say they expect growth to be faster, if anything, than it has been in the US.