The race to the top in algorithmic trading is getting harder for agency brokers that want to challenge full-service brokerage houses. Algorithmic execution, or the use of formulas to guide electronic trading, is giving bulge-bracket brokers the upper hand just as the buyside is getting harder to please.

However, agency brokers are not willing to concede defeat. John Comerford, head of global trading research at Instinet, said that while bulge-bracket firms have “formidable offerings”, Instinet, which has about 200 traders in 14 offices across the globe, “is closer in scale and size to these firms than most people realise”.