Dan Barnes

Markets have turned positive on UK government bonds, which rallied across the curve following the release of unemployment data indicating a higher rate and softer earnings, all of which soft, signalling all of which could push inflation lower. Ex...

EchoStar Corp saw the largest proportional increase in notional debt outstanding in the technology sector in 2024, with a 509% increase, taking it to US$7.64 billion of debt year-on-year (YoY), up from US$1.5 billion at the start of the year, ba...

Transparency can smell like information leakage by any other name, to butcher a Shakespeare quotation. Giving up information needs to happen at the latest point, and to the fewest people possible, on both sides of a trade. Clearly, however, that e...

Analysis of MarketAxess’s CP+ data, which analyses composite trading costs based on traded bonds, has found that bid-ask-spreads have tightened by double digit percentages across credit markets for US, Europe and in emerging markets. European c...

Primary debt markets are likely to be a major revenue earner for dealers facing tighter margins in secondary bond markets. Issuance has started strongly in 2025 with “heavy” primary market activity. Over fifty issuers have issued bonds in US inve...

Pension funds are preparing to move to a defined contribution model in the Netherlands, ahead of a mandatory switch on 1 January 2028. They are required to share their transition plans by the end of January 2025 with the Dutch central bank, De Ned...

We asked the buy-side traders we have profiled on The DESK for the past ten years to discuss the biggest changes they thought had affected the market, the best outcomes that they had seen for traders, and the greatest changes that traders need t...

For investors, the derivatives market is a potentially a rich source for investment returns and risk management. It can also be a valuable source of information. The key inputs that traders assess ahead of engaging in the market – price, liquidit...