boundaries of deal size. Whereas algos, at least in fixed income, were once limited to odd-lots and other small trades, theys have gained traction as a way to execute larger deals. There remains much work to be done in this area, but algos have made steady progress up the trade-size ladder.
Just the dollar amount alone makes larger trades riskier for an institution, and thus more critical for a sell-side desk to get right. For the biggest orders, one-on-one counterparties are scarce; instead, such deals typically need to be ‘worked’ through multiple liquidity channels spanning electronic and voice.
The level of automation on the sell side varies by asset class, with the most