The UBS trading floor in Stamford, CT was dubbed (by Guinness World Records) the largest in the world. But now… as the WSJ reports, there are virtually no traders shouting into their phones or staring at terminals. UBS’s cavernous floor is taken up mostly by back-office, legal and technology staffers, according to people familiar with the bank. Simply put, a deep slump in trading activity in everything from stocks and bonds to currencies is changing the face of Wall Street. Today’s markets are “boring,” rants a senior credit trader; “It’s been absolutely dead,” warns another adding, “When you go a day or two and don’t have a trade on the tape, it’s frustrating,” as stock trading in the second quarter fell 43.6% from second-quarter 2009 levels to their lowest level since 2007.
“You go through lulls,” he said. “If you’re going through this for the first time, you have no context.”
UBS’s trading floor in Stamford, Conn., once teemed with traders occupying a space equal to two football fields. The Guinness World Records recognized it as the biggest such facility on the planet. And the Swiss bank used it to showcase its Wall Street credentials.
Today, there are virtually no traders shouting into their phones or staring at terminals. UBS’s cavernous floor is taken up mostly by back-office, legal and technology staffers, according to people familiar with the bank.
The reason…
A deep slump in trading activity in everything from stocks and bonds to currencies is changing the face of Wall Street. Businesses that once contributed disproportionately to the revenues of the world’s largest banks are now bleeding jobs and sparking fears of a permanent decline.
Today’s markets are “boring,”
“This is affecting the opportunity to make money, and ultimately the earnings these [trading] businesses can provide.”
Global revenue from trading in fixed income, currencies and commodities, or FICC, dropped to $112 billion last year, down 16% from a year earlier and 23% from 2010, according to Boston Consulting Group.
“It’s been absolutely dead,” said Jarrod Dean, a municipal-bond trader at Sierra Pacific Securities in Las Vegas. Municipal-bond trading volumes are down about 30% since last August, he said, while profits are down more than 70%.
Equities trading volumes also have taken a beating of late. Stock trading in the second quarter fell 43.6% from second-quarter 2009 levels to their lowest level since 2007, according to Credit Suisse Group data.
Bill Nichols, head of U.S. equity trading at Cantor Fitzgerald LP, said low volumes have taken a toll on traders’ psyches.
“When you go a day or two and don’t have a trade on the tape, it’s frustrating,” he said.
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Sounds eerily familiar to the total and utter collapse of Japanese bond markets – described as “dead” by traders with days going by with no trading… stunning!!
via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1nAFH92 Tyler Durden