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A holistic view of fixed income market data

Jon Williams
Jon Williams
Head of Fixed Income, Refinitiv

The explosion of fixed income market data has both benefits and challenges for bond traders. In this ever more complex landscape, a Refinitiv white paper presents a single solution for helping to identify trading opportunities with speed and precision.


  1. Multiple data sources add to pressure on the ability of bond traders to form a truly holistic view of fixed income market data with speed and accuracy.
  2. A Refinitiv white paper examines the explosion of fixed income market data, including the challenges of being able to access relevant and quality data.
  3. Refinitiv’s extensive and often exclusive partnerships with best-in-class providers mean that we can deliver holistic, complete and flexible data from multiple sources.

The bond market, much like the equities market, is witnessing 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 implementation of MiFID II.

Instead of only indicative bids, true bids or live prices are now the norm when trading bonds.

This changing landscape, however, also presents a unique set of challenges as fixed income traders must determine how best to harness this plethora of available information to pinpoint when and what to trade, optimize their strategies, and boost their performance.

The data explosion. A holistic view of fixed income market data

Multiple trading platforms

The fixed income market remains characterized by complexity.

Not only does it comprise a diverse amalgamation of securities and asset types, but the proliferation of 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 pre- and post-trade data, historical data, risk related data, reference data and more — but moreover, data sources tend to be fragmented.

This means that, even for a single security type, market participants must very often engage several data providers, multiple trading platforms, and different regulatory bodies in order to form a truly holistic view of fixed income market data.

Jon Williams Quote. A holistic view of fixed income market data

A changing data landscape

It is also worth remembering that the overarching goal of optimizing alpha is unlikely to be achieved if only basic fixed income trading data is being accessed.

To remain cutting edge, traders must ensure that they take full advantage of new data sources, however daunting, as this will enable them to continue refining and perfecting their investment and execution strategies.

If they are to succeed in this changing data landscape, however, it is crucial that the process of collecting and aggregating this data is simplified and streamlined.

Execution management systems and third-party data and analytics platforms are able to aggregate pre- and post-trade data, but in the absence of data sharing, forming a truly holistic view remains an elusive goal.

Jon Williams quote. A holistic view of fixed income market data

Fixed income market data solutions

Refinitiv’s open technology platform, Eikon, now has access to both MarketAxess and Tradeweb/Dealerweb data, and enables multiple data sources to be aggregated and analyzed in a single solution for the benefit of portfolio managers and traders on both the buy- and sell-sides.

These users can now run more robust transaction cost analysis calculations, counterparty analysis and risk assessments of portfolios.

We remain committed to the open sharing of quality data, and our extensive and often exclusive partnerships with best-in-class providers mean that we are able to offer flexible and complete solutions, while continuing to support the fixed income market’s transformation to the benefit of all stakeholders.

Defining fixed income data report