The market is mostly machines now
the market is mostly machines now: algorithmic trading covers 60 to 75 percent of volume in us, european and major asian markets, 86 percent of hedge fund managers use generative ai somewhere in the workflow, and retail platforms like numerai and quantconnect let individuals run models that used to be institutional-only. the new wall street edge is not the model.
it is who audits the model.
Context
The Paper Trading Journal summarised in Mar 2026 that algorithmic trading accounts for roughly 60 to 75 percent of trading volume in major equity markets. The Trade's 2026 hedge fund algo survey breaks down how much of firms' flow runs through algorithms.
EWC Investments labels its claims as observed, modelled or postulated in a 2026 paper on AI and quant trading.
The 60 to 75 percent figure matches the Paper Trading Journal, a secondary summary, and it refers to major equity markets, not all asset classes. The 86 percent of hedge fund managers using generative AI and the Numerai and QuantConnect retail-platform claim were not seen in the sources read, so unsupported here, not refuted.
Related work
- The Paper Trading Journal: Algorithmic trading statistics 2026 ↗Volume share.
- The TRADE: Algo survey, hedge funds 2026 (PDF) ↗Survey data.
- EWC Investments: AI and quant trading ↗Sourced overview.
Watch next
- Find the survey behind the 86 percent generative AI figure.
Sources
- Paper Trading Journal, Mar 12, 2026papertradingjournal.com
- The TRADE, Jul 2026thetradenews.com
- EWC Investments, Aug 3, 2026ewc.investments
Provenance
The note above is reproduced unedited from the original post, first published on Threads on 2 October 2026 at 22:18 IST. Sources are the papers and datasets the note draws on.
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