Sounds like you and I were in parallel universes in the late-90’s through 2000’s! I was with a tech company that was automating those trading processes for the buy-side - particularly the trading network from them to their sell-side counterparts. It was obvious (to me) that this was all going to be automated, but the sell-side players squealed like stuck pigs. They just couldn’t imagine being displaced by computers. They were absolutely convinced that they added so much value to the process that they could never be replaced.
Some sell-side firms lived in denial, and died off. Some immediately embraced automation - and the good ones got bought up by the big Wall St. firms (like Goldman). It was a wild time!
Yes. And I was in Germany when the DTB put in computerized futures trading with a terminal on every trader’s desk at the big banks. Compared to the open-outcry system at the LIFFE it was beautiful. The LIFFE floor boys were basically thieves. The computer on the other hand showed you a clear offer and a clear bid, and you could do what you wished. It was obviously superior, and once people realized it, the LIFFE volumes dried up instantly.