Trading Technologies Readies Fixed Income Launch | Bonds & Fixed Income

Trading Technologies is branching out past its roots in futures and choices on futures. The SaaS supplier to the capital markets industry has moved, or plans to maneuver, into FX, US choices, and fixed income.

Traders Magazine caught up with Chris Heffernan, EVP Managing Director, Fixed Income at Trading Technologies, finally week’s Fixed Income Leaders Summit in Washington, DC, to study more about TT’s plans in fixed income.

What’s your sense of the massive themes from this 12 months’s Fixed Income Leaders Summit?

FILS 2025 highlighted a number of transformative trends shaping the financial industry. The overarching theme was undeniably the rise of AI and its impending integration throughout the whole trade life cycle. From enhancing investment determination making to refining execution methods, artificial intelligence is poised to drive important efficiencies and optimize efficiency going ahead.

Another distinguished subject was the continued development in automation. While Electronic Communication Networks (ECNs) initially spurred the electronification of fixed income trading and launched beneficial rules-based automation instruments like auto-quote/auto-respond and auto-ex, the industry is now keenly asking, “What’s next?”

Multi-asset trading options additionally generated appreciable dialogue, notably the evolving relationship between Execution Management Systems (EMS) and Order Management Systems (OMS). A key takeaway for me, main a multi-asset EMS business, is the shoppers’ pressing need for new technology that facilitates cross-asset execution whereas seamlessly integrating with their current legacy systems.

Finally, the convention underscored the growth of trade electronification into much less liquid securities, similar to municipal bonds and securitized merchandise, in addition to the continued ascent of portfolio trading.

These 5 themes collectively painted a clear image of the industry’s direction.

You spoke on a June 9 Spotlight on Automation panel at FILS. What had been the takeaways?

The three major takeaways from our panel had been (1) the specified optimism surrounding continued growth in electronification and automation; (2) the evolving position of human merchants in an automated world; and (3) the unlucky actuality that there will probably be much less people and more machines in our future.

While we’ve got made large strides over the past ten years in electronifying and automating bond trading, we’re nonetheless noticeably behind the opposite main asset lessons similar to equities, futures, and FX. Although it’s unlikely we’ll see a world during which 80-90%+ of all fixed income is traded on screens, there’s nonetheless a lot of room to run larger from present ranges. Advancements in technology and AI would be the driving power behind this subsequent leg up. Whereas commonplace “static” guidelines drove most of the automation over the past 5 years, “dynamic” rules-based automation will turn into entrance and center over the subsequent 5, with AI altering execution guidelines on the fly to adapt to adjustments in market situations.

Automation will probably end in a lot fewer people on the execution facet, with more trading duties given to portfolio managers. By offloading monotonous trading duties to technology, corporations can free up human expertise to concentrate on high-level strategic initiatives like block trading and in-depth analysis. The execution merchants that stay will probably be centered on “overseeing” the automated systematic methods, and in some instances, tackle cross-asset trading roles. Portfolio managers is probably not immune although both as developments in AI might additionally result in reductions in headcount. Ultimately, automation is about leveraging technological developments to maximise the return on investment from trading desks, and that’s precisely what’s prone to occur. This pattern mirrors what we’ve already noticed in different asset lessons: More machines, much less people will probably be trading bonds in 2035 than they’re in 2025.

What is your position at Trading Technologies and what have you ever been engaged on because you joined the firm in early 2024?

I run our fixed income line of business, which is one of the biggest areas of growth on the firm. Since I joined TT, I’ve primarily break up my time between two major pursuits. The first is working the previous AxeTrading business that TT acquired in March 2023. This is predominantly a sell-side Fixed Income EMS business, with shoppers all through the globe. My second duty has been to assemble a crew, develop a strategy, and start building out our next-generation fixed income EMS product which will probably be appropriate for each buy-side and sell-side corporations, of all sizes and shapes. In addition, this new fixed income EMS product will probably be built-in with all of our different strains of business, together with Futures & Options, FX, Data & Analytics, Compliance, and Execution Algos, so as to create the multi-asset trading platform that shoppers are searching for.     

Historically, Trading Technologies isn’t recognized for fixed income – how are you getting the TT identify on the market and boosting model awareness?

We’re taking a strategic, long-term method to our product launch. As the saying goes, “slow at first and then all at once.” Greatness takes time, and we aren’t trying to put the cart earlier than the horse. We are nonetheless building out our product, with an anticipated launch date in early 2026. We’ll ramp up our advertising and marketing efforts nearer to that date. For now, we’re concentrating on planting seeds by means of convention sponsorships similar to FILS and thru media engagements similar to this interview, to spark the conversations which might be essential to help drive innovation in our market. 

What is the buy facet searching for? What are they not getting from {the marketplace} that Trading Technologies can present? 

Simply said: Better, quicker, cheaper. Our cross-asset EMS will offer a really unified trading expertise, setting a new commonplace that few opponents can match. Built on technologically superior, cloud-native, and API-first structure, the TT platform will guarantee unparalleled efficiency, ultra-low latency, and distinctive scalability, guaranteeing seamless integration with third-party software program. We’re revolutionizing fixed income trading with new execution protocols, already extremely efficient in different asset lessons, to empower shoppers’ trading expertise. We will even be dedicated to driving higher automation by means of the developments in AI. And we’ll offer all of this at reasonably priced costs, with distinctive customer support and help. Our major aim is to create a large trading benefit to any clients that use the TT EMS — and in the end be branded because the #1 trading software program company in capital markets.