5  In order to promote the smooth clearing of Treasury and agency securities, the Federal Reserve offers a securities lending program to primary dealers. 6  Many automated trading firms are now able to directly access these platforms. There is also a sizable amount of trading between dealers and their customers that does not take place on these platforms.
While much of that trading is still by phone, an appreciable share is also electronic. 7  Marcia Stigum (1990), in describing the secondary bond market, noted that trades could be completed in a matter of seconds. Currently, trading can occur at speeds below one microsecond. (See Marcia L. Stigum (1990), The Money Market, 3rd ed. (Homewood, Ill.: Dow Jones-Irwin), p. 649.)