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Fixed income data:
Maximising the benefits
of a changing landscape
The explosion of market data in fixed income is creating a host of new opportunities and
challenges for the fixed income trading environment, but there are ways to benefit from the
changes in this landscape, writes Jon Williams, head of fixed income at Refinitiv.
A
new Refinitiv report,
produced in collaboration
with Greenwich Associates,
entitled Defining Fixed Income
Data – The Value of Centralising
and Normalising, takes an in-depth
look at the explosion of available
market data in the fixed income
space and tackles the challenges
associated with accessing relevant,
quality data that can empower
traders to identify the right trading
opportunities with speed and
precision.
The fixed income market is
witnessing an explosion of market
data, which presents both benefits
and challenges. With this plethora
of available information, traders
are faced with the task of forming
a truly holistic view of available
opportunities, and must do so with
speed and accuracy.
Refinitiv’s extensive and often
exclusive partnerships with best in
class providers mean that we can
deliver holistic, complete and flexi-
ble data from multiple sources – all
in a single solution – to optimise
efficiency.
76 // TheTrade // Fall 2019
The data explosion
The fixed income market, much
like the equities market, is wit-
nessing an explosion of market
data, driven by new technology,
legislation and the rise of electronic
trading.
This burgeoning availability of
data and information brings many
benefits, including increased price
transparency, amplified by the im-
plementation of MiFID II. Instead
of only indicative bids, true bids or
live prices are now the norm when
trading bonds.
This changing landscape, how-
ever, also presents a unique set of
challenges as fixed income traders
must determine how best to har-
ness this plethora of available infor-
mation to pinpoint when and what
to trade, optimise their strategies,
and boost their performance.
The complexity of data
The fixed income market remains
characterised by complexity. Not
only does it comprise a diverse
amalgamation of securities and
asset types, but the proliferation of
Jon Williams, head of fixed income,
Refinitiv
data means that pinpointing and
accessing the most relevant data
sets has become highly complex for
a number of reasons.
Firstly, data types are numerous
– including, for example, real-time