Program trading desks adapt as volumes fall

Asset managers have been cutting back on sending orders to brokers’ program trading desks in favour of self-managing their flows using algorithms that send orders directly to exchanges, or through their brokers' electronic trading desks. Buy-side traders say they have been increasingly splitting orders on account of overlap between the two desks. This comes amid decreasing equity market activity and shrinking commission pools. The role of program trading within an investment ban…