May 13, 2026 — U.S. corporate bond trading volume increased 22% last year, and more than half of institutional bond traders and portfolio managers expect trading activity to post another annual increase in 2026.
Trading volumes in investment-grade and high-yield corporate bonds have grown more than 14% per year since 2022. Buy-side trading desks expect that momentum to continue over the next 12 months, with 53% of investment-grade traders and half of high-yield traders projecting increases to their desks’ trading volumes, according to the results of a new study from Crisil Coalition Greenwich.
“Buy-side trading desks are making modest increases in staffing to help accommodate increased trading volumes,” says Kevin McPartland, Head of Research in Market Structure & Technology at Crisil Coalition Greenwich and coauthor of U.S. Corporate Bond Investors on Growth, E-trading and ETFs. “However, investments in technology are outpacing new spending on head count as a means of handling the accelerating pace of trading activity.”
Approximately 95% of investment-grade traders and 91% of high-yield traders execute at least some trades electronically, and e-trading now accounts for 48% of investment-grade volume and 32% of trading volume in high yield. The buy side expects e-trading to grow three percentage points relative to total market volume in the next two to three years.
“The most surprising point in the data is not how many buy-side firms are trading corporate bonds electronically, but rather that any are not,” says Troy Kelly, Senior Research Manager, Client Intelligence Analytics at Crisil Coalition Greenwich and report coauthor.
Portfolio Trading and ETFs
Portfolio trading is also working its way toward ubiquity among the buy side. Among the buy-side corporate bond traders participating in the study, 78% are using portfolio trading, up from 73% the year before. While the promise of improved liquidity is the main driver of that uptake, portfolio trading can also serve as an efficiency tool in a time of increased trading activity.
“Trades of baskets of bonds that once took a day or longer to execute can now be completed in 30 minutes or less with portfolio trading,” says Kevin McPartland. “The result is not a reduction in head count, but each trader being able to do more than they could even a few short years ago.”
The use of credit ETFs by corporate bond traders ties closely to the use (or not) of portfolio trading. Credit ETFs offer credit investors quick access to beta exposure, particularly when buying or selling the actual bonds is hard or would take too long. That explains why 34% of investment-grade corporate bond traders and 43% of high-yield bond traders trade ETFs. However, those rates could soon start to decline.
“The growth and increasing liquidity of portfolio trading has minimized the need for ETFs as a stop gap. Why trade a proxy for the portfolio when you can trade the portfolio itself?” says Troy Kelly.
U.S. Corporate Bond Investors on Growth, E-trading and ETFs draws on the results of a recent Crisil Coalition Greenwich of U.S. corporate bond traders in the United States. The report presents volume totals and projections for both investment-grade and high-yield corporate bonds, and analyzes trends in trading desk head count and the use of electronic trading, portfolio trading and ETFs.