Knowledge Center

Are new transparency rules changing how bonds trade? TraX Tape reveals the shifts that are already emerging.

Stellantis’ February reset drove sharper, persistent spread widening than auto peers, while bid-ask widths recovered and Open Trading® indicators remained comparatively resilient over time overall.

Fixed income markets have evolved but has regulation kept pace? This article examines the reforms that could help support a more efficient, transparent and resilient market structure.

While Oracle may still carry an Investment grade rating, its 30-year bonds are increasingly trading with high yield characteristics. Our latest AxessPoint dives into the recent liquidity dynamics and trading behavior around the recent rating downgrade.

The Federal Reserve recently announced the removal of forward guidance. In this analysis we examine how US HG and HY trading activity behaves around historical hike cycles.

Electronic trading in Brazil is up, since MarketAxess become an accredited platform supporting a new regulatory initiative aimed at making the secondary market for Brazilian sovereign debt more liquid and observable.

Access the right liquidity at the right time through a connected, multi-protocol approach that includes partnerships and data.

Explore how integrating SIX pricing into Axess IQ streamlines CHF bond trading, combining trusted benchmarks, broader liquidity insights and efficient, controlled execution workflows.

Automation in European credit trading is moving from early adoption to mainstream execution, driven by greater transparency, deeper liquidity pools and the rapid expansion of high-quality data.

Europe’s bond transparency rules are increasing data, not necessarily clarity. This article explains why usability, cleansing, and context matter now more than ever, and how MarketAxess TraX Tape aims to deliver decision-grade data to the market. 

New data highlights how axe quality continues to strengthen across electronic credit markets, with axed dealers consistently delivering higher response rates, stronger win rates, and more competitive execution than non‑axed alternatives. Drawing on CP+™ pricing data, the analysis shows that well‑maintained axes remain one of the most reliable signals of real liquidity, while greater transparency and performance‑based metrics are helping raise standards across the ecosystem.

Tradability is an AI-generated score designed to predict market liquidity for bonds at a detailed level, factoring in bond, side, and order size to enhance trading decisions. It helps traders identify optimal securities, timing, and execution strategies based on live market conditions and provider interest.

Dan Burke, Global Head of Emerging Markets at MarketAxess spoke to GlobalCapital about developments in the EM bond market and how the electronic bond trading platform his company operates is evolving.

New data shows axe content expanding across major markets while quality and reliability continue to improve, with axed activity consistently outperforming non‑axed trading on response rates, win rates, and execution quality. Powered by CP+ pricing data, axes are an increasingly clear signal of real liquidity and better outcomes for buy‑side traders.

Trader’s Table event highlight: Backed by resilient macro fundamentals and a strong primary market, Asia Credit is staging a solid recovery in 2025. Cathy Cai, Senior Sales Relationship Manager, shares her outlook on the evolving landscape, how MarketAxess’ data and protocol solutions support market makers, and key takeaways from a Trader’s Table discussion on the fixed income market landscape in 2025. 

Unprecedented AI infrastructure spending has driven hyperscaler bond issuance to record levels, normalizing once-superior liquidity metrics as dealers adopt a more selective trading posture.

The buy and sell sides are increasingly becoming comfortable with and utilizing automation in credit trading. Ryan Steffen, Product Specialist, explains what's behind this growth and how traders can gain a competitive edge using the MarketAxess suite of automation products, Auto-X™.

In late October, Argentine President Javier Milei’s party won in the country’s midterm elections. A political triumph that significantly strengthens his mandate in congress to implement radical economic reforms. For traders, this surprise was measurable in the increased use of block trades. MarketAxess’ data reflects spikes in trading volume, but trade sizes did not, indicating that trading was conducted at speed across large and small orders.

CP has once again ranked among the top pricing providers in the 2025 SSC Fixed Income Evaluations Benchmark Study. Chisom Amalunweze, Senior Manager of Quant Research, explains how CP secured this ranking and provides clients with the reliable pricing they need to navigate today's markets with confidence.

Riad Chowdhury, Head of Asia-Pacific, and Paulo Costa, Global Head of Data Sales, sits down with The TRADE to discuss the importance of data transparency across fixed income. Diving specifically into its potential impact across the APAC sphere, possible challenges posed by the region and what the buy-side is thinking.  

Asia Credit is trading bigger—and smarter. In this article, Andre Cherbonnier, Head of Sales, Singapore at MarketAxess, explores how technology and data innovations are enabling larger, more efficient trades across the region.

Dan Barnes talks to Chris Egan from MarketAxess about the barriers to engagement in block trading and the benefits it can bring.

The long end of the US investment grade curve is quietly transforming. Curve steepening has created attractive yields while liquidity has dramatically improved—RFQ responses have nearly doubled and spreads have tightened significantly. With enhanced tools and deeper markets, long-duration trading is more accessible than ever.

Traders and portfolio managers are becoming more confident putting automation to work to optimize their fixed income trading workflows, and are increasingly harnessing a greater risk appetite, as both dealer and buy-side algos continue to offer immense time savings.

Kat Sweeney, Global Head of ETFs and Data Solutions at MarketAxess, sat down with Jeff Lenamon, Head of Portfolio Construction and Senior Portfolio Manager at DWS, for a conversation on how innovation is reshaping ETF management. Their discussion centered on how DWS is leveraging CP technology to enhance ETF performance, integrating it into both daily workflows and the create/redeem process.

During April 2025’s tariff-driven turbulence, credit markets saw notable but orderly volatility, unlike the severe disruptions of the COVID-19 crisis. The April 2 tariff announcement triggered uneven global market swings, highlighting credit markets’ growing resilience through increased dealer algos and steady PT performance, which are strengthening market structure.

Riad Chowdhury, Head of Asia-Pacific, and Dan Burke, Global Head of Emerging Markets, sit down with WatersTechnology to discuss e-trends in EM fixed income, and how AI fits into the enhancement of Targeted RFQ.

In February 2025, J.P. Morgan announced it would reclassify Qatar and Kuwait as developed markets, leading to their removal from its Emerging Market Bond Index (EMBI). We talked to The Desk about the changes in trading behaviour we have observed on the platform since the announcement.

Regulators in the UK and EU are introducing new post-trade bond transparency rules, aligning with the US TRACE system to provide clearer market data. Though consolidated data offerings have the promise to increase transparency, there are complexities. In this environment, TraX® dataset by MarketAxess stands out by refining data quality, ensuring actionable insights for trading strategies. Discover more key points of consideration and insights across this evolving market landscape.

Our strategic partnership with S&P Global Market Intelligence is delivering groundbreaking innovation for fixed income markets. By integrating CP+ with S&P’s evaluated bond pricing, we're setting new standards for data quality and market responsiveness. Read the Q&A with our own Kathryn Sweeney and S&P's Tasha Gonska in Traders Magazine as the pair discuss the synergies that make this collaboration so successful.

In our Portfolio Trading vs RFQ List White Paper, we found that PT provides superior execution outcomes for illiquid bonds, particularly when these lower-liquidity instruments are included in well-balanced baskets compared to traditional RFQ list methods. In this AxessPoint, research confirms that PT serves as an effective price discovery mechanism for US IG and HY bonds, with traders leveraging the protocol to access bonds they would otherwise have little opportunity to trade.

In today’s increasingly complex and fragmented fixed income landscape, private banks in APAC face a unique set of challenges when trading fixed income securities. Axess IQ and Axess IQ Lite bridge the gap in enabling smarter and more efficient trading.

While conventional AI chatbots can't tell you when to portfolio trade, We can. Our platform combines real-time market data with AI-driven tools like CP+™ pricing and Tradability metrics to guide your execution decisions. From pre-trade cost estimates to post-trade analysis, discover how our comprehensive data suite helps you choose the optimal trading protocol and achieve better outcomes for every bond transaction. 

Private banks face a complex trading landscape with tight regulations and demanding clients. Axess IQ revolutionizes trading by combining liquidity, data, and efficiency features into an intuitive EMS. It supports the 'US HG on Price' protocol, allowing traders to handle cash price limits with precision and execute trades faster. The ASAP Protocol further enhances bond trading speed and efficiency, providing direct access to deeper liquidity pools and offering more competitive pricing.

Algorithms command a significant and growing share of trading volume in the largest market segments, while rapidly expanding into the HY space (both US and EUR). This rise has been fueled in part by the growth of the electronic bond market and by the increasing availability and depth of data from platforms, allowing dealers to continuously refine pricing and liquidity‐prediction models. It is becoming clear that algos are dominating the liquidity pool and will continue to increase in importance.

USHG ASAP Price protocol is primarily used by Private Banks and Wealth Management execution desks across various order sizes. We observe strong liquidity and favorable execution outcomes for odd-lot and retail-sized orders within this protocol. Especially smaller orders below 150K benefit from deep liquidity and faster execution.  

Technology is reshaping execution strategies in EM Hard Currency. MarketAxess’s recent client panel in London highlighted the growing importance of electronic solutions like TRFQ and Open Trading® when trading larger sizes.

A decision that clients often face is which trading route to take—a high touch or low touch approach. The latest innovation is the opportunity to execute larger trades with strong execution, while gaining the transparency, competitive pricing and straight through processing benefits of e-trading.

We're out with the next installment of our 2025 Outlooks, with our Data and Technology experts forecasting key trends shaping their sectors in 2025. Will policy have an impact on fixed income in 2025? See what our featured leaders are forecasting for fixed income within Technology and Data.

Our thought leaders in international markets share their 2025 outlooks in their respective product areas. From the role of AI to the proliferation of e-trading, our experts expect 2025 to be a pivotal year for the fixed income market. See what our leaders featured here are forecasting for 2025. ...

CP+, our AI-powered algorithmic pricing engine for the global credit and rates markets, is an integral part of the MarketAxess trading system and a critical data input and pricing source for multiple trading protocols. CP+ consumes millions of data points across various sources to help power solutions like Auto-X™ and Portfolio Trading. Beyond fuelling trading protocols, CP+ delivers consistent and unbiased data to help provide value across the entire investment lifecycle for traders, portfolio managers and quants. 

This AxessPoint takes a look at intraday liquidity trends and the factors that impact this activity. A deep dive reveals that access to liquidity is strong throughout the trading day as indicated by cost of trading and depth of liquidity. We start by looking at market liquidity through the traded...

This AxessPoint, Blockbusting Part 4, provides an update on the liquidity profile of block-sized trades on MarketAxess, with a specific focus on the $5mm-$10mm segment in US High Grade (blocks) for maturities over 5 years. In response to client inquiries and driven by the record trade volume in t...

As Japanese investors seek newer, higher-yielding opportunities away from home, electronic trading is playing an increasingly important role in how they navigate the global market challenges today. We explore this in our latest white paper that was published in collaboration with Coalition Greenw...

Setting the scene: Fixed income in ChinaChina’s fixed income market has continued to thrive and flourish despite recent volatility in global fixed income markets. Relative to other Emerging Markets, investors and traders have been benefitting from the People’s Bank of China (PBOC)’s accommodating...

MarketAxess is on a mission to optimize trading workflows and technology resources by enhancing and expanding our Auto-X™ suite of automation protocols. The efficacy of our classic Auto-X RFQ (launched in 2018) is evidenced by the impressive growth in auto-executed trade volume, surpassing ...

Highlights:The unique position of MarketAxess as a leading electronic trading platform allows CP+ to leverage insights from both trades and non-traded inquiries.Our analysis reveals that on-platform trades are more reliable inputs for CP+ than off-platform trades and that even inquiries that Did ...

As we navigate the early days of 2024, it's helpful to take stock of the year gone by—a year that was replete with global events and policy decisions that have left an indelible mark on the Asia-Pacific bond markets. Let’s delve into the economic undercurrents of 2023 and cast an eye ...

Highlights and objectives We aim to investigate any key drivers of Portfolio Trading (PT) Trading Cost Analysis (TCA) outcomes, as measured by PT price outcomes versus CP+™ side. An analysis of PT features found no meaningful driver of TCA outcomes for PTs across ETF overlap and L...

On Research and Data "In 2024, AI will continue to be front and center in conversations with our clients. When combined with our unique data, it will allow us to further elevate our suite of top-tier data products for pricing and liquidity. From Adaptive Auto-X to our cutting-edge trading i...

Driven by heightened market volatility and yields not seen in over a decade, MarketAxess saw record monthly trading volume and client engagement last month. In October 2023, clients traded over $7.4bn on the MarketAxess platform, surpassing the previous monthly volume record of $5.8bn set just la...

In a rapidly changing and interconnected world, transparency in financial markets is more crucial than ever. We recently hosted a discussion titled “Transparency in APAC fixed income markets” in collaboration with the Asia Securities Industry & Financial Markets Association (ASIFMA) t...

At a time when interest rates demand that funds perform, hedge funds are emerging as the new ‘liquidity begets liquidity’ bastions and with that they are seeking new, forward-thinking trading and data solutions. MarketAxess has observed this evolution across our businesses; when look...

Institutional firms investing in Asia’s fixed income markets face the unique challenge of dealing with a wide range of countries and investor segments. They also are challenged with the availability and transparency of data. During times of heightened market volatility amid an uncertain ec...

Highlights and objectives We aim to examine the price impact of client-initiated inquiries on the market, during a period of extreme volatility, to examine what drives information leakage. When trading large EUR IG blocks on MarketAxess in March 2023 , traders managed to minimize market...

Highlights In 2022, LQD and HYG constituents generated 61% of the inquiry volume seen by Open Trading® in US IG & HY on MarketAxess The proportion of buy inquiry volume on Open trading in US IG & HY increases when the corresponding ETF is trading at a premium according to CP+™. Introd...

Highlights Time to trade is on average 13 times faster in the EU markets than in the US: the median time to trade is 43 seconds in EUR IG vs 10 minutes in USD IG. Growth of algos in both EU and US markets means that trading can be faster than it used to be. Submitters already calibrate their...

The International Capital Market Association (ICMA) released its latest edition of the Asian International Bond Markets report, and MarketAxess is proud to be a contributor for the third consecutive year. This report leverages our TraX data to provide global market stakeholders with an updated ov...

Highlights Liquidity measures such as Bid-Ask spread in 144A and Regulation S (Reg S) bonds across markets can vary widely for otherwise identical bonds. Reg S and Rule 144A securities have distinct regulatory backgrounds and key differences. Issuers wanting to maximize buy-side engagement m...

Will 2023 be the year of transparency in fixed income markets? If 2022 will be remembered for something in bond markets, it will certainly be the highest volatility and some of the most challenging liquidity conditions we’ve seen since 2008. Now the question on everyone’s mind is, w...

Earlier this month, PIMCO, one of the world’s largest fixed income asset managers, published their view on how to improve the functioning of the US Treasury market. The paper was picked up quickly by Robin Wigglesworth at the FT – which served to further highlight how market participa...

Fixed income markets are evolving at pace, with smarter electronic trading protocols, more sophisticated, automated investment strategies and a greater availability of useful data. Read our joint paper on how the new MarketAxess US Investment Grade 400 Corporate Bond Index, is driving greater inn...

Last week State Street Global Advisors launched the SPDR MarketAxess Investment Grade 400 Corporate Bond ETF (LQIG). Designed to blend the advantages of an ETF with the tradability benefits of investing in US Investment Grade corporate bonds with higher liquidity compared to the broader U.S. corp...

Kat Sweeney, head of index and ETF Solutions, and John Keller, ETF and index product manager, share their views with Risk.net on the evolution of credit market structure and how MarketAxess is using its unique vantage point to inject tradeability and transparency into the traditional indexation o...

Highlights Reported corporate bond transaction volumes spike at regular times daily due to the printing of delayed treasury spot trades. Delayed spotting is commonly used to hedge against price movements in the underlying benchmark Treasury and reduce interest rate risk. Delayed spotting has...