subscribe now to get the evening briefing five things matt levines money stuff balance of power and tech daily subscribe now to get the evening briefing five things matt levines money stuff balance of power and tech daily subscribe now to get the evening briefing five things matt levines money stuff balance of power and tech daily by submitting my information i agree to the privacy policy and terms of service and to receive offers and promotions from bloomberg ken griffin’s marketmaking powerhouse is challenging wall street banks on their own turf as it enters the multitrilliondollar world of corporate debt citadel securities llc started offering investmentgrade trading to clients this month with plans to make markets in highyield bonds by the end of the year according to executives already responsible for more than a third of all us retail stock trades in the era of online apps like robinhood the firm is ramping up its presence across fixed income beyond interestrate swaps and treasuries it also plans to offer portfolio trades a novel techpowered approach to buy and sell hundreds of debt securities in one fell swoop as the etf boom helps shake up the oncesleepy world of bond marketmaking after routing recent orders via marketaxess holdings inc citadel securities plans to go live on other platforms including tradeweb markets llc and bloomberg as soon as possible its investmentgrade offering has been rolled out to 100 clients in the last two weeks “it’s a natural area for us to be involved in and the barriers to entry weren’t that high given our existing franchise” said jordan cila the firm’s global head of fixedincome distribution the marketmaking firm run by chief executive officer peng zhao matches buyers and sellers in roughly one out of every five us stock trades and generated about 75 billion in revenue last year using algorithms to capture and profit from tiny differences in prices but while electronic trading has long transformed the equity landscape corporate bond investors have historically transacted over the phone and retail access has lagged equities things are changing the rise of sophisticated algorithms and exchangetraded funds are helping to boost liquidity across debt markets providing some relief to investors weathering aggressive federal reserve tightening now around 40 of investmentgrade bond trading is done electronically compared to only 8 in 2013 according to consultancy coalition greenwich about 31 of highyield bonds traded this way in 2022 from just 2 in 2013 jane street a quantitative trading firm that competes with citadel in other asset classes is already trading corporate bonds bloomberg lp the parent company of bloomberg news competes with electronic platforms to offer fixedincome trading data and information to the financial services industry the trading houses are encroaching on the turf of wall street dealers that still dominate trading with their originatetodistribute model yet the opportunities to transact across the credit market are vast and citadel’s ability to ride techfueled trends has made it one of the biggest power brokers on wall street the firm says it now provides clients liquidity in 10000 investmentgrade securities it expects to quote highyield debt and to enter the portfolio trading space where dealers package up a series of bonds often via an etf later this year “for a liquidity provider who has a history of disrupting and improving markets that they have entered this should be a net positive in the long run” said kevin mcpartland head of market structure and technology research at coalition with electronic trading helping to curb transaction costs and boost market efficiency citadel is betting its marketmaking capabilities will be met with demand from fixedincome clients “firms that invest in credit are now relying on best price rather than who issues them newissue bonds” said bob cariste head of fixed income etf and credit trading “as credit becomes more electronic there is an opportunity for us to be a provider of liquidity”