Bond business - down but not out

My prognosis for interest rates, esp bond rates, for the next few years gives a high probability that rates will meander around a relatively low base level. So the view that the bond trading business will be less profitable from now on is quite justified. But one has to remember that volumes during the previous 5-10 years were abnormally high. Declining and/or volatile interest rates are manna for bond traders. In addition, many innovations - some useful, some less so - in the bond market created new business opportunities. But there are no new products on the horizon, and some 'innovations' turned out to be duds. But taking all this into consideration, given the enormous volume of outstanding bonds and the large number of investors and issuers in a globalised bond market one can expect a good but down-sized bond market business from now on.