This report examines the key trends driving ‘buy-side’ demand for outsourced trading solutions, and how vendors have evolved their solutions over time. It forms the basis of ongoing research that analyzes the evolving dynamics of the outsourced trading solutions stack. In subsequent research we will also consider governance, risk, and how to manage conflicts of interest in the outsourced trading solutions space. We will also consider the impact that shifting fixed, management-level, trading costs to variable, fund-level commissions has on demand for outsourced trading services.