US equity brokers are putting more pressure on their trading desks as a result of staff cutbacks at precisely the time they should be investing in this area because of the growing demand for electronic trading, according to financial services consultancy Greenwich Research .

US firms have cut the number of traders they employ over the past year, leading to a drop in the overall industry average from 3.9 traders last year to 3.6 this year, according to a survey by Greenwich Research.