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From benchmark tracking to realtime adaptation
Algorithmic trading entered 2026 with renewed momentum, building on the strong revival observed in 2025 and reflecting a clear structural shift in how algorithmic strategies are engineered and deployed. The market has shifted decisively toward more adaptive and intelligent execution tools, as firms confront persistent volatility, fragmented liquidity and an overwhelming expansion of data sources.
Multi-asset class execution has become increasingly seamless, as firms integrate unified algo frameworks that intelligently route across equities, fixed income, FX and listed derivatives. In continuous-trading environments, these adaptive algorithms demonstrate greater effectiveness by adjusting in real time to shifts in liquidity, volatility and microstructure signals, thereby ensuring more consistent execution quality across diverse markets.
After recent years of stagnation, The TRADE’ s Algorithmic Trading Survey reports a resurgence in growth, driven by innovation in strategy development and implementation, as traditional asset managers navigate increasingly complex and volatile markets.
The geographic distribution
A shift from static, rules-based algorithms toward adaptive models that respond to market conditions and operate seamlessly across asset classes.
of long-only managers in this year’ s survey remained broadly consistent with previous years. The proportion of respondents from the UK declined by 7 points to 21 %, while Europe increased by the same margin to 57 % compared with 2025.
Together, the UK and Europe continue to dominate the respondent base, accounting for a combined 78 % of the total, unchanged from last year. North America saw a modest increase, rising from 14 % in the prior year to 16 %. Meanwhile, the Asia Pacific and the Rest of the World regions experienced a slight decrease, falling from 7 % in 2025 to 6 % in 2026. Overall, these shifts have contributed to a slightly more diverse global perspective on algorithmic trading.
Looking at asset classes traded by long-only and institutional respondents over the past three years, equities remains the core asset class, with near-universal participation( 96 %). Multi-asset capability is expanding, especially via FX( 38 %) and listed derivatives( 38 %), however fixed income lags slightly at 34 %, despite industry focus on electronification. Lastly, crypto remains marginal at just 4 %, with limited institutional penetration.
Rating algo performance Respondents were asked to rate their algo providers on a scale of 1 to 7 across 15 functional services areas( Figure 1). Overall, broker ratings from long-only respondents decreased marginally this year to 5.94, compared with 6.00 in 2025, yet remain the second highest on record.
The top three categories once again include increased trader productivity and ease of use, however customer support loses position to speed, all achieving a top score of 6.06. Breadth of dark pools ranked fourth overall, holding the same position as in 2025 and anonymity also scored well, both factors underscore the importance of minimising market impact for buy-side traders.
Another significant note was with the exception of speed and cost, all remaining 13 aspects of service experienced a year-on-year
60 // TheTRADE // Q1 2026