The buy-side is rearing its head as aggressively as ever. According to the Financial Times, the world's largest asset manager is bent on building out its own in-house trading platform. It has tapped Minder Cheng--love that first name--who will join the firm as part of the acquisition of Barclays Global Investors, to head up the effort.

There's a huge amount of order flow to be internalized, and no one would be surprised if this grows to become a massive operation. It certainly represents good news for clients; the firm does not intend to charge any trading fees. Certainly, fees have soared in the wake of the crisis, and the bigger firms are the hardest hit. Perhaps we'll see the big firms offering special deals for BlackRock trades. One issue is whether it will start accepting order flow from beyond BlackRock, enhancing liquidity for clients and pressuring spreads across the industry.   

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