Modern trading desks descend from the open-outcry pits of the 19th and 20th centuries, where human specialists matched orders face-to-face. The 1971 creation of NASDAQ and the 1975 May Day deregulation of fixed commissions forced desks to compete on execution quality rather than relationships.

1980s — program trading and portfolio insurance; the 1987 crash exposed feedback loops between desks.
1990s — electronic communication networks (ECNs) like Instinet and Island disintermediated exchanges.
2000s — Reg NMS (2005) mandated best execution across venues, spawning smart order routers.
2010s–now — colocation, FPGA latency, and ML-driven execution; the desk is now a software stack.

Era	Desk edge	Dominant cost
Pit	Information & relationships	Floor fees
Electronic	Speed & routing	Commissions
Algo	Modeling & data	Market impact