Spencer Lee

The new position will see Lee, who is based in San Francisco, covering the responsibility for business and product management across US high-grade, high-yield, municipals, dealer and client solutions.  

He will also lead MarketAxess X-Pro, the firm’s trading platform for portfolio trading.  

Speaking on his new role, Lee said: “I am excited to be marking the next chapter of this journey at MarketAxess, as I believe my time as a trader and experience in helping adapt EMS technology to the fixed-income markets have uniquely prepared me to lead this product team in the next phase of innovation.”  

Lee brings more than two decades of fixed income trading experience to his new role. Most recently, he served as chief markets officer at TS Imagine, which he had held since September 2022. 

Prior to this, he also co-founded systematic credit hedge fund, Agilon Capital in July 2018, and served as a director at BlackRock for more than five years, leading global credit electronic trading and West Coast fixed income trading.  

Lee will report to MarketAxess chief executive, Chris Concannon, who said: “Spencer is a well-known and respected leader in the fixed-income markets.  

“He will bring tremendous fixed-income trading experience, market structure expertise, an invaluable buy-side perspective to MarketAxess and will further product advancement for our clients.” 

Read more – MarketAxess appoints UBS AM director as head of client solutions 

The appointment follows recent expansions in MarketAxess’ client-based team. In July 2024, the trading platform operator appointed ex-UBS AM director to a newly created position as head of client solutions.  

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The accelerating growth of automation in fixed income markets presents unique challenges and opportunities compared to other asset classes. Equities markets – which have long benefited from electronic trading and automation – are highly transparent, largely trading on order books and on an agency basis. Fixed income, by comparison, has historically been far more dependent on risk warehousing, is more opaque, and uses request-for-quote (RFQ) as the dominant execution protocol. 

These factors, paired with voice trading remaining prevalent, have resulted in slower adoption of automation. However, in recent years, the rise of passive, low-cost/low-margin investment products, and shrinking bid/ask spreads make the demand for efficiency in fixed income as significant as other markets. This has led to considerable innovation in fixed income automation and rapid growth in adoption, particularly in areas such as price making/liquidity provision and order execution.  

A key catalyst of this progress has been the rise of predictive pricing models – such as MarketAxess’ AI powered pricing tool, CP+. This solution delivers the same functionality as a ‘top-of-book’ price feed in equities, providing a reliable benchmark of the best available price that enables market participants to automate their decision-making processes. 

How has buy-side sentiment shifted towards automated solutions recently?   

There is a growing sense of confidence and optimism towards automated solutions on the buy-side with demand increasing year-on-year. Large asset managers and private banks have been the quickest adopters, with the majority of client orders now executed using automation. Until recently, however, their focus has been liquidity taking via RFQ workflows using our rules-based automation solution, Auto-X RFQ.  

We are now seeing increasing appetite for more sophisticated automation workflows that include smart order routing, liquidity provision and aggregation. 

How far could trading automation realistically go? Is there a point at which it becomes unfeasible or is the sky the limit?  

I don’t think it’s really a question of feasibility anymore – it’s a question of how fast the transition will happen. 

At MarketAxess, we believe technology can have a positive impact on the entire trade lifecycle by allowing traders to focus on spotting opportunity, solving problems and managing risk. In that sense, I do feel ‘the sky is the limit’ when it comes to trading automation, but I don’t think that is necessarily a single protocol or workflow. 

We often talk about the ‘last 50%’ to refer to voice trading still happening in US and EU IG credit. I think it is inevitable that electronification will shrink that number over the next few years, but I also think workflows are likely to be more nuanced and may require different approaches. For example, in some cases, this might involve using automation to break up blocks of liquid bonds and trade throughout the day, taking advantage of the increased turnover generated by the ETF ecosystem. In other instances, it may be about smartly sweeping up natural liquidity in the form of dealer axes or buy-side matching.  

Markets outside of IG are also experiencing a shift. For example, in 2024, we saw an 8% increase in automated emerging market trading volumes compared to 2023, showing increased adoption. This momentum is set to continue, particularly as investors look beyond traditional bond markets for new growth opportunities. 

What should be front of mind for the industry when adopting increasingly automated solutions? 

Automation creates incredible potential for operational scale but that scale carries increased risks that need to be carefully managed. Helping clients do this is front and centre in our product design approach. We focus on providing automated and manual risk controls, observability, transparency and process auditability. This ensures the user is always in control, even during periods of high volatility.  

Quality of data is also paramount: automation outcomes are only as good as the quality and reliability of the data you use for decision making. Machine learning can play an important role here in making sense of the vast amount of fragmented data in fixed income markets, but this needs to be underpinned by a large, well-cleansed data set and robust model validation. These models take time and experience to get right. 

I think the potential for increased efficiency in fixed income is immense, but it’s all about choosing the right technology and data partners to help you on the journey.

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Erik Tham

The move is set to enhance the liquidity and workflow options available to Axess IQ users.

Erik Tham, head of product management, global private banking at MarketAxess, said: “This collaboration between UBS and MarketAxess makes Axess IQ an even more powerful one-stop-shop. The seamless integration with UBS now allows users of Axess IQ to place their limit orders with a single click from their Axess IQ order manager straight to UBS Bond Port’s liquidity pool.

“All orders will continue to be monitored in Axess IQ, giving the trader maximum control with less clicks – further boosting execution workflow efficiency.”

Axess IQ’s limit monitoring, data driven order and execution management, and RFQ trading features are set to be particularly impactful when it comes to increasing the efficiency of execution desks which use UBS Bond Port.

Specifically, execution traders can remain using Axess IQ as their central order manager while also accessing UBS Bond Port as well as other various trading protocols and liquidity pools, without having to navigate away from MarketAxess.  

“Enabling Bond Port and MarketAxess’ mutual clients to route orders directly to Bond Port via Axess IQ is another great illustration of UBS’s collaboration with market participants to allow clients to participate seamlessly with our unique liquidity leveraging their existing connections,” added Mark Eardley, global product manager at UBS Bond Port.

“By utilising our proprietary API, MarketAxess will be the first to benefit from future Bond Port functionality enhancements.”

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By leveraging proprietary data from the MarketAxess trading platform, TraX market data, and public sources such as TRACE, CP+ claims to go beyond traditional fixed income pricing sources to deliver value across the investment lifecycle.

Through the expansion of coverage, MarketAxess clients trading munis will benefit from accurate and unbiased reference pricing for the MSRB-reportable municipal bond market.

“We are excited to see the difference the introduction of real-time, AI-powered algorithmic pricing can make to a historically fragmented market like municipal bonds,” said Julien Alexandre, global head of research at MarketAxess.

“Our award-winning models excel at extracting pricing signals from multiple data sources, which is crucial in munis where trading is known to be sporadic.”

Initially introduced in 2017, CP+ is a data input and pricing source for multiple MarketAxess trading protocols and solutions, including Auto-X and portfolio trading.

“The muni marketplace has seen notable e-trading growth in recent years, and we believe innovations like CP+ with real-time, actionable data for [roughly] 930,000 municipal bonds will not only increase transparency and efficiency, but also the speed of adoption for electronic trading,” said Daniel Kelly, head of municipal securities at MarketAxess. 

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Laura Misher, Kat Sweeney

As part of the partnership, S&P Global bond reference data will be integrated into MarketAxess’ suite of data products, while MarketAxess CP+ real-time pricing will also be included into S&P Global’s evaluated bond pricing.

MarketAxess CP+ is a real-time bond pricing source for global credit, rates and emerging markets powered by AI and proprietary data. The source is used by clients for price discovery, transaction cost analysis, and automated trading strategies.

The combination of S&P Global’s evaluated bond pricing of over 1.2 million corporate, sovereign and municipal bonds with MarketAxess CP+ is expected to lead to more consistent pricing and greater efficiencies across the trade lifecycle including front-, middle- and back-office functions.

“We are excited about this collaboration as it connects a market-leading institutional trading platform with a leading data provider, bringing transparency and consistency in data used across the different functions of our customers,” said Laura Misher, vice president at SPGMI.

“Additionally, our combined expertise will allow us to develop solutions that will address customer challenges across the trade lifecycle.”

The data integration is expected to start in H1 of 2025, enabling the companies to differentiate their existing product offerings and innovate new solutions.

The development follows Intercontinental Exchange’s ICE Bonds and MarketAxess connecting their respective liquidity networks in a bid to improve efficiency and access to deeper liquidity in fixed income markets, announced in August.

Read more: ICE Bonds and MarketAxess connect liquidity networks to bolster bond market efficiency

“Incorporating CP+ into S&P Global evaluated bond pricing service will enable our firms to close the gaps between best execution, intraday trading decisions and end-of-day valuation,” said Kat Sweeney, global head of data and ETF solutions at MarketAxess.

“We are thrilled to be working with S&P Global Market Intelligence, an innovator across the entire fixed income ecosystem, to further our common goal of bringing more transparency to the fixed income cash and ETF markets.”

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Rich Schiffman

The new connectivity will offer mutual clients an enhanced trading experience through the integration of select MarketAxess credit protocols natively within the Aladdin platform.

“As the market evolves, we’re seeing increased adoption of our automation protocols, with many of our clients turning to our strategies for over 90% of their trading volumes,” said Rich Schiffman, global head of trading solutions at MarketAxess.

“We look forward to bringing the latest of our automation protocols, Adaptive Auto-X, as well as our market leading RFQ solutions, Open Trading, and Live Markets central limit order book directly to Aladdin clients through this partnership.”

Read more: ICE Bonds and MarketAxess connect liquidity networks to bolster bond market efficiency

BlackRock’s Aladdin technology platform offers a common data language within an organisation to enable scale, provide insights, and support business transformation.

Risk analytics are combined with portfolio management, trading, operations, and accounting tools on a single, unified platform.

“As the electronification of credit markets continues to accelerate, the demand for robust liquidity, sophisticated workflows, and analytics grows,” said Kamya Somasundaram, global head of Aladdin Partnerships. “We are excited to partner with MarketAxess to deliver an improved trading experience for our users.”

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Pete Borstelmann

The two firms plan to establish connectivity to their respective protocols and liquidity pools, with the move set to enable ICE Bonds’ automated trading system (ATS), ICE TMC, and MarketAxess’ Open Trading network to communicate with each other directly, enhancing depth and reach for users globally.

“This collaboration connects two mature liquidity networks in fixed income markets to offer new trading and risk management solutions for clients,” said Pete Borstelmann, president of ICE Bonds.

“By combining our complementary strengths, we aim to offer users expanded opportunities to access liquidity in corporate and municipal bonds, enhancing market efficiency and benefiting participants across both platforms.”

The interaction between these two liquidity pools aims to bolster price transparency, best execution and overall market liquidity for all users, through leveraging ICE Bonds’ retail brokerage and wealth management presence and MarketAxess’ institutional trading expertise.

Rich Schiffman, global head of trading solutions at MarketAxess, said: “We look forward to delivering enhanced value and innovation to our clients through this collaboration.Our joint efforts are focused on providing access to deeper liquidity across municipal and corporate bonds and diversifying trading options for participants in our marketplace.”

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Ninety One trader Tom Nickalls is set to leave the asset manager after 11 years to join Morgan Stanley. According to an update on social media, Nickalls will join the sell-side next month in an emerging markets credit role. He joined Ninety One in 2013 as a client operations analyst, moving into a portfolio implementation role in 2015 and taking up his current role as fixed income trader in 2018. He was recognised as a Rising Star of Trading and Execution at Leaders in Trading in 2021.

Robert Whelan joined Citadel as equity trader following almost eight years at Pictet Asset Management. Whelan joined Pictet AM as an equity trader back in 2016. Prior to that, he worked at Morgan Stanley, initially joining as an electronic trading associate before going on to a role as equity sales trader. Whelan will act as an execution trader on behalf of the desk and his role is non-risk taking, The TRADE understands.

Lara Jacobs was appointed vice president – equities electronic trading coverage at JP Morgan following six years with Liquidnet. She most recently served as head of international client trading, EMEA. Prior to this, she worked as a market structure and strategy analyst before moving onto a role as equity trader. Before her stint with Liquidnet, London-based Jacobs worked on the debt restructuring team for fixed income at M&G Investments.

Outset Global appointed William Bradley managing director within its London office. Bradley brings considerable experience in the equity sales and trading space to the role, joining from Goldman Sachs where he served as vice president on the cross-asset sales desk in New York. Before joining Goldman Sachs, Bradley served as assistant vice president at Barclays on the equities liquid markets sales trading desk.

Bill Spencer was appointed head of client solutions at MarketAxess following five years at UBS Asset Management, most recently as executive director, multi asset centralised trading. The role is newly created, with Spencer set to hold responsibility for buy-side experience within MarketAxess’ trading system. Whilst at UBS, he worked as a senior trader on the US fixed income desk, as well as working on the daily trading of cash rates, credit, ETFs, and municipal bonds. He also lent his expertise to the trading of credit derivatives and listed futures and options. New-York based Spencer also previously held ETF-related positions at: REX Shares, Gelber Group LLC, and Chicago Trading Company.

Chris Robinson was appointed multi-asset trader at Liquidnet, joining from Louis Capital Markets where he worked for almost 13 years. He most recently served as a EMEA and US equity sales and execution trader. Prior to this he worked in equity derivatives for six and a half years, focused on Eurostoxx and sectoral indices. London-based Robinson has also previously served in a pension execution role at BDO UK LLP.

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Bill Spencer

The role has been newly created, with Spencer set to hold responsibility for buy-side experience within MarketAxess’ trading system.

Whilst at UBS, he worked as a senior trader on the US fixed income desk, as well as working on the daily trading of cash rates, credit, ETFs, and municipal bonds.

He also lent his expertise to the trading of credit derivatives and listed futures and options.

Read more: Ex-RBC head of US credit sales joins MarketAxess as North American head of client sales

New-York based Spencer also previously held ETF-related positions at: REX Shares, Gelber Group LLC, and Chicago Trading Company.

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Citi appointed Mitali Sohoni as new head of North America markets alongside other senior leadership changes. Sohoni has been selected to head up the bank’s North American markets business alongside her existing role as head of asset backed financing. In her new role  she will coordinate strategy for the division. Sohoni joined Citi 19 years ago and during her tenure has overseen several business areas, including: credit financing, asset-backed securities, clean energy, global infrastructure, residential, Citi Community Capital, municipal, and Citi’s Asset Finance Group.

Elsewhere, Citi named a new chief executive of its broker dealer entity Citigroup Global Markets Inc (CGMI). Dina Faenson takes on the responsibility alongside her existing role as head of markets counterparty trading and risk. Faenson joined Citi in 2005 as a credit valuation adjustment (CVA) trader. During her tenure she has gone on to serve in several capacities across North American rates trading, rates and currencies, cross-markets, and X-value adjustment trading.

Banque Havilland multi asset trader Mark Ralph joined the prime services team at Marex, based in London. Ralph joined from Banque Havilland where he served for seven years, most recently working in prime services and as a multi asset trader, focused on trading strategies and “bespoke” multi asset solutions for clients. Prior to this, he spent more than eight years at Societe Generale Corporate and Investment Banking (SGCIB), working across multi asset sales and trading, hedge fund sales, and prime brokerage.

DWS Group senior equity trader, Alex Cotar, departed for pastures new after over 16 years at the asset manager. Cotar left the asset management arm of Deutsche Bank to join Bankhaus Metzler as an equity sales trader, having originally joined DWS Group back in 2008 as a senior equity trader covering Europe and emerging markets. Prior to joining DWS Group, Cotar spent over 12 years at UBS Investment Bank originally serving in an equity derivatives sales trading role and later working as an equity trader for Europe.

MarketAxess appointed John Maggiacomo as head of client sales in North America, a newly created position at the firm. Maggiacomo joined from Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), where he most recently served as head of US credit sales. Elsewhere in his career, Maggiacomo spent 11 years at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he served as managing director, credit sales. As part of his new role, Maggiacomo will be responsible for sales leadership for MarketAxess’ North American client sales segment, with a focus on expanding its institutional client footprint across all product areas.

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