BY
BRIAN W. LEITE
An Insider's Guide to the Real Language of
Trading and Exchanges
Over 2700 Entries
Market Structure News
10-Second Rule Adopted for Reporting Transactions
'There Won't Be Anything Left For Us To Trade in a Couple Years'
April 25, 2013 Traders Magazine A crisis in capital formation to take companies public, if left unfixed, could mean there won’t be enough listed firms left to fill the Standard & Poor’s 500, when 2060 rolls around.
April 17, 2013 ModernIR You’ve heard that bit of cowboy wisdom on how to double your money? Fold it over and put it back in your pocket.I hear folks wanting cowboy wisdom on market structure. What do I need to grasp? In that sense, this could be the most important Market Structure Map I’ve ever written.
Exchange CEOs Said to Seek Dark-Pool Limits in SEC Talks
SLIDE SHOW: Top 10 Off Exchange Stocks
Switching Chairs at SEC Delays Market Structure Changes
Jan 16, 2013 ModernIR "Nobody seems to care about the issuers.” That short sentence in an email from an investor-relations officer recently reflects what many in our profession feel about share-ownership and trading data for public companies.
Are Exchange System Errors the New Normal in High Speed Markets?
Jan 11, 2013 Advanced Trading A steady string of technical glitches at the nation's exchanges has cast a shadow over high speed trading.
Jan 9, 2013 ModernIR What surprised me most was how twice as many people knew “high-frequency trading” compared to “dark pools.”
Jan 2, 2013 ModernIR Happy New Year! Boy, where to begin. With the Fiscal Cliff arrayed theatrically as the curtain rises on 2013, it’s a crapshoot picking what to write in the program notes.
TOP STORIES 2012: Trading Volume Continues to Fall, No End In Sight
Jan 1, 2013 Traders Magazine The dramatic drop in the trading volume of U.S. stocks continued to be one of the biggest stories of the year, notable not only for what it meant in its own right, but also for the corresponding impact it had on virtually all other major stories of the year. Layoffs, crushed brokerage commissions and shuttered trading desks all had their roots in the decline of trading volume that has gripped the industry over the past three years.
TOP STORIES 2012: The Year of the Glitch
Dec 26, 2012 Traders Magazine Today, Traders Magazine begins its review of the Top 10 equities stories of 2012 beginning with a look at the technologicial mishaps that plagued the market seemingly all year.
Dark pools, HFT braced for a tough 2013
Dec 21, 2012 The Trade The New Year is likely to bring increased regulatory pressure on off-exchange activity and high-frequency trading, according to market practitioners.
Dec 19. 2013 ModernIR No, our title does not refer to Surveillance. Despite the Thomson/Nasdaq deal last week.
Yesterday mavens of equity markets converged on Capitol Hill to debate trading woes. Apparently the Senate, unsatisfied with just one geological trope (“Fiscal Cliff”), must examine “Dark Pools."
Are new broker models built to last?
Dec 12, 2012 ModernIR Why don’t trading and ownership match? Sometimes you must change your point of view – put on the Magic Market Structure Spectacles – to see the truth. Say twenty-five institutions own 75% of your shares. From one month to the next there is little change in names or holdings. The remaining 25% of shares must be changing hands every few hours. Right?
Dec 5, 2012 ModernIR CNBC has a Fiscal Cliff countdown clock. You can’t click a TV remote or a web page without somebody declaring that Congress’s inability to compromise on tax rates and spending cuts before December 31 will incinerate equities.
Nov 28th, 2012 ModernIR It’s good to know what’s around you. En route back from Austin to Denver we traversed the hinterlands including eight miles of dirt track to visit the evocative scene of the 1864 Sand Creek massacre of peaceful Cheyenne and Arapahoe north of Lamar, CO. There’s an eerie stillness yet.
Nov 21, 2012 ModernIR We’re in Texas for Thanksgiving and it was 85 degrees yesterday as we idled in heavy I-35 traffic halfway to Fort Worth. I have to share a funny line you might use if your Thanksgiving guests linger long. My step father-in-law said, “As my dad used to say to my mother, ‘honey we’d better head to bed. These people might want to go home.
Nov 19, 2012 Traders Magazine A global group of investment professionals Monday raised concerns that the “incentive to display orders in public markets is being undermined” by off-exchange practices, such as sub-penny pricing.
Nov 14, 2012 ModernIR Why is our stock underperforming the peer group?” Ever got that question from your CFO or CEO?
Nov 8, 2012 ModernIR Will markets collapse? We’re a day late this week, steering clear of election bipolarity marked by the vicissitudes of demography and the barest palimpsest of republicanism, a diaphanous echo of Madison and Jefferson and Hamilton, names people now think of as inner city high schools.
Oct 31, 2012 ModernIR Boo! What a Halloween week. To our many friends, clients and colleagues on the Atlantic seaboard assailed by Hurricane Sandy, we in Denver are rushing sunshine your direction. Exchanges are hoping for sunshine too as trading resumes.
Oct 19, 2012 Advanced Trading The speed and connectedness of today's buyers and sellers is so much faster, that if a crash occurred, it could be more devastating.
Oct 18, 2012 Traders Magazine Brokerage executives are anxious about mechanisms being designed by stock exchanges that will automatically shut off a firm’s incoming orders, to prevent a market disruption or a spate of erroneous orders. Although the exchanges are considering a “layered” approach, whereby a brokerage receives alerts before a complete shutoff, the Securities and Exchange Commission appears to favor a more abrupt solution.
Oct 17, 2012 ModernIR Let’s go to the tape. That’s what we hear in sports now, especially football. Send it to the replay booth. Forget the referee’s call. We’ll check frame-by-frame and – yes, see, right there, his pinky finger holding the ball broke the goal line. TD!
Oct 10, 2012 ModernIR Have you seen that car commercial with the bearded guy? The car chimes when you should check the tires. To drive the point home, as it were, we viewers see our bearded fellow getting hired and, as the new boss extends a hand, going overboard with the handshake – until he hears the chime. Then he’s readying with cologne for a date and when he’s about to squirt a supply netherward, the chime stops him. He’s going in for a goodnight kiss with overmuch gusto. Chime.
Trading Official Says Fewer Order Types Will Help Simply Marketplace
Oct 9, 2012 Traders Magazine Recent public criticism over the swelling number of exchange order types can be partly addressed by changing a key part of Regulation NMS, argues a top brokerage compliance official. Specifically, changing the locked and crossed markets rule will go a long way towards reducing the number of order types.
Oct 3, 2012 ModernIR The Great Debate is upon us. No, not the presidential one tonight. The other one, about equity markets. The SEC’s technology summit yesterday aimed at finding ideas for preventing another Aug 1 Knight Capital debacle from ever happening again included mostly the folks who huddled after the 2010 Flash Crash to prevent glitches from…ever happening again.
SEC Roundtable Primer: A Collection of Discussion Topics
Oct 2, 2012 Traders Magazine As a primer for today's Securities and Exchange Commission Market Technology Roundtable, Traders Magazine presents three stories and topics that are sure to come up today. The topics range from so-called "kill switches," exchange views on technology testing and the heady pace of rulemaking. The first panel discussion of the day is slated for 10:15 am EST.
Oct 1, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor New algorithms should be tested in a “certification environment” and complex algorithms should be rolled out in stages, to limit the possibility of disrupting the operations of stock markets, according to BATS Global Markets.
Sept 26, 2012 ModernIR The structure of equity markets is like Lance Armstrong: Defining an industry but dogged by accusations.
Sept 26, 2012 Traders Magazine Executives for the two Securities Industry Processors of market data note that the public feed is naturally slower and those wanting information faster expect to pay up.
Commission Squeeze Strains Buyside-Sellside Relationship
Sept 24, 2012 Traders Magazine Hard times are affecting the relationship between the buyside and the sellside. With both volumes and the commission pool depressed, the buyside faces challenges adequately compensating its brokers while brokers at the same time are restructuring their services.
Knight: We 'Immunize' Retail Investors
Sept 21, 2012 Traders Magazine Tom Joyce, the chief executive of market maker Knight Capital, said his firm “immunizes” retail orders from “some of the activities” that occur at facilities where professional trading firms try to outrace each other to get to an order. Knight also assumed liability on August 1 for the flood of erroneous orders its own software released onto exchanges.
SEC'S Paredes: Fragmentation - Or Choice?
Sept 21, 2012 Traders Magazine A dozen national exchanges. More than 40 dark pools and alternative venues. A couple hundred internal broker order-matching systems. You may call that fragmentation of stock trading. But SEC member Troy Paredes calls it “competition and choice.”
Exchanges Meet with Brokers Over Failsafe Mechanisms
Sept 20, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor “U.S equity markets are in dire straits,” David Lauer, a consultant and former high speed trader, told the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs at its hearing Thursday on computerized trading.
Sept 20, 2012 Advanced Trading Bank of America Merrill Lynch's Dan Nachtman describes the firm's testing procedure for a new algorithm.
Sept 20, 2012 Traders Magazine Shortly before he would lead a Senate Banking Committee hearing into computerized trading, Sen. Jack Reed told the Security Traders Association that technology has to be looked at closely because the change it is bringing is speeding up.
Sept 19, 2012 ModernIR An ode to erudition in professional sports, these pearls of wisdom overheard on sidelines come thanks to ESPN’s halftime report during the unfortunate demise of our Denver Broncos in Monday Night Football:
How to Save a Wounded Market from Rogue Algos
Sept 14, 2012 Traders Magazine Yes, said the head of equity trading at a leading institutional trading firm. No, said the head of operations at two of the nation's top stock exchanges
Who Owns The Risk If A Third-Party Algo Goes Rogue?
Sept 14, 2012 Traders Magazine The Securities and Exchange Commisssion charged the New York Stock Exchange Friday with giving an 'improper head start' to high-speed trading firms, giving them market data milliseconds or, in some cases, full seconds before retail and long-term investors got it.
SEC Fines NYSE $5 Million for Improper Market Data Distribution
Sept 14, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor The Securities and Exchange Commission may include large brokers and dark pools in a planned rule aimed at ensuring that regulated securities markets have adequate technology systems, an SEC official said.
Sept 13, 2012 Advanced Trading After Knight Capital's newest algorithm went rogue, buy side traders have to wonder about the safety and due diligence around their third-party algorithms. Advanced Trading interviewed a broker-dealer - anonymously, of course - on how traders can trust the safety of their trading formulas.
Sep 12, 2012 ModernIR We all love soaring markets. When were you last dead sure what drove your stock up?
Sept 12, 2012 Traders Magazine NYSE Euronext is trading about 6 million shares a day through a pilot program aimed at attracting retail investors, according to Michael Geltzeiler, the exchange operator's chief financial officer.
Sept 11, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor The challenges facing institutional traders and technologists now are not nearly as overwhelming or grim as 11 years ago this morning.
Sept 11, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor Market access rules as well as other new regulations affecting how exchanges operate will require a “huge technology spend” and “significant resource allocation,’’ according to the director of global execution services at Merrill Lynch.
Sept 11, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor Even with every scrap of news being turned into values that can be acted upon by quantitative traders, there’s plenty of public and private information that can be turned into above-average returns, says a Harvard Business School associate professor.
Sept 10, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor Certichron and CFN Services say they have pushed the means of timing and synchronizing the work of trading gear and algorithms below a billionth of a second. One rival maker of time-synchronization equipment calls the claim ''pretty questionable.’’
Sept 10, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor In opening remarks, Bank of America Merrill Lynch director of electronic sales trading Rod Burns says brokers, trading firms and other market participants are responsible for the technology they advocate or use – and explaining what happens to investors when the technology fails.
Sept 10, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor Redline Trading Solutions said the third generation of its accelerated ticker plant can update the full depth of all orders on the nation’s stock exchanges in 1.2 microseconds, down from 5.
Redline Delivers Stock Data Updates In Under Two Microseconds
Sept 7, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor Mutual funds are looking to put shares of exchange-traded funds such as GLD into their holdings. But they don’t publicize it.
Sept 6, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor Global assets invested in exchange-traded funds and exchange-traded products reached a record $1.76 trillion through the end of August 2012.
Sept 5, 2012 ModernIR Volcker would be a great name for a shred-metal band. It seems vaguely gothic and you can picture musicians in leather with guitars and tattoos. Maybe colored hair. Alas, no. The Volcker Rule is no band. But it’s prompting musical chairs that may rock IR. I’ll tell you how in a moment. First, this:
Sept 5, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor If you’re going to claim you backtested an investment strategy through different sets of economic conditions, you better be able to prove it, the SEC tells a nationally syndicated financial author.
Dark pools face up to harsh realities
Amid Weak Returns, Hedge Funds Take Aim at Risk Management
Nasdaq Provides Blow-By-Blow Details of Facebook Fiasco
Aug 29, 2012 ModernIR Define irony. Alanis Morrissette called things ironic in song and was criticized for the apparent absence of irony in her verse. So is it ironic, or instead coincidental or paradoxical, that the SEC may consider speeding up information by removing the quiet period around IPOs at the same time that many are calling on regulators to slow down trading markets?
$4.5 Billion Pulled Out of U.S. Stock Funds
Aug 29, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor For the week ended August 22, investors pulled an estimated $4.48 billion from U.S. mutual funds, substantially more than the $2.72 billion they withdrew the week before.
US SEC Proposes Lifting Ad Ban on Private Stock Offers
Aug 29, 2012 Advanced Trading U.S. securities regulators voted 4-1 on Wednesday to propose lifting a long-standing ban on general advertising for private securities offerings, a measure that some say will spur economic growth but one which critics fear could pave the way for fraud.
Low Volumes Have Even Less 'Real Money'
Buy-Side Firms Fund Lab to Promote Supercomputing for Market Regulation
Commentary: Making Sense of Exchange Liability
Aug 22, 2012 ModernIR The equity market is like Bourbon Street. No, we don’t mean the stock market is home to “Big Daddy’s World Famous Love Acts.” We mean it’s a bit off, a party, somewhat wanton, full of folks in disguise doing things they wouldn’t do anywhere else. Fantastical.
August 16, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor The federal regulator has ordered a review of Nasdaq’s proposal to create a type of order that would spawn child orders that would be “presumably outside the control and supervision of the broker-dealer firm that entered the initial order.”
August 15, 2012 ModernIR If our stock reverts to the mean, I don’t see that high-frequency trading matters. I’m paraphrasing what many CEOs and CFOs believe. The market is complicated. There’s volatility. Trading is global. ETFs and derivatives probably affect volume. But I’m trading at a reasonable multiple of forward earnings, so who cares?
Goldman Sachs Cuts Sales and Trading Staff
Aug 15, 2012 Traders Magazine In a move to cut costs, Goldman Sachs is in the process of cutting between 20 and 30 sales and trading staff. Most of the effected positions are in New York.
Would Going Back to Simpler Times Re-Inflate the Equities Market?
Aug 15, 2012 Advanced Trading Many market participants are saying we need to go back to simpler times, when spreads were wider, trading was slower, markets were simpler, research was more prevalent, and capital was more pervasive. But would that really fix the equity markets?
Investors Flee Equity Funds, Embrace ETFs
Aug15, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor Equity fund investors appear to be exiting from mutual funds and investing in ETFs instead. Fixed income funds are a different story.
JonesTrading to Acquire Conifer Securities
Aug 15, 2012 Traders Magazine JonesTrading Institutional Services said it signed a letter of intent to acquire Conifer Securities from the Conifer Group.
RISE AND FALL OF STOCKS: The Shape of Trading, 2012
Aug 15, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor Investing in stocks became almost a national pastime in the 1990s and the start of this century. Then came the credit crisis, the Flash Crash, high unemployment and fast trading that seemed to favor mathematicians rather than investors. Here’s how the shape of equities trading inAmerica has changed since 1990.
BATS Files to Launch Retail Price Improvement Program
Aug 14, 2012 Traders Magazine BATS filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission today to launch its own Retail Price Improvement (RPI) program on the BATS BYX Exchange. The filing today and program are a response to NYSE's recent installment of its own price program, the Retail Liquidity Program.
SEC OKs Nasdaq Plan to Speed Routing of ‘Away’ Orders
Aug 13, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved Nasdaq OMX’s plan to create a form of “routable order” that simultaneously executes trades against available shares on the Nasdaq Stock Market and routes it to other venues.
How the Buy Side Can Protect Against Rogue Algos, Broker Error
Aug 10, 2012 Advanced Trading In the aftermath of the fallout stemming from Knight Capital Group's disastrous trading error, Tabb Group's Miranda Mizen breaks down steps the asset management community can take to protect themselves from market mayhem.
U.S. Equity Volumes at More than Four-Year Low
Aug10, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor ConsolidatedU.S. equity volumes are at four-plus year lows, according to Raymond James Research. Volume in July was 11% down from June and 13% from a year ago.
Help Wanted: SEC Creates New Data Analysis Group
Aug 10, 2012 Traders Magazine Number crunchers, programmers and ex-traders can get their resumes ready. The Securities and Exchange Commission is in an expansion mode and hiring, because it is forming a new group to analyze trading data and monitor the markets.
After Knight's Fall, Does Your Broker Have a Kill Switch?
Aug 8, 2012 Advanced Trading After a trading algorithm executed by Knight Capital went rogue and lost the market-maker roughly $400 million in a single trading day, buy side traders need to know if their broker-dealers can stop a runaway trade. Advanced Trading spoke with Michael Chin, CEO of financial services firm Mantara, which offers a kill switch for brokers and the sell side to stop trades that start to misbehave.
Industry Sounds Off On Paying ETF Market Makers
Aug 8, 2012 Traders Magazine If issuers of exchange-traded funds could pay to attract market makers to their products, would there be more liquidity in ETFs? Or would paying market-makers create a dangerous precedent and harm long-term investors?
Knight's Trading Volume Rebounds After Cash Infusion
Aug 7, 2012 Traders Magazine For Knight Capital Group, what a difference a day makes. Knight regained its perch in the trading world today and finished as the No. 2 broker in equities, executing 163.61 million shares---just one day after receiving a cash lifeline of $400 million from brokerage firms.
Investors in Illiquid ETFs May Get Hurt by Knight Debacle
Aug 3, 2012 Advanced Trading Retail investors and traders who want to buy and sell small, illiquid exchange-traded funds may be unwittingly losing money in the aftermath of the Knight Capital Group trading disaster Wednesday, according to an analysis by IndexUniverse, a San Francisco-based ETF research provider.
Knight: First Victim of Fragmented, Fast Trading
Aug 3, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor The increasingly fragmented and high-speed trading ofU.S. stocks appears to have claimed Knight Capital as its first major victim.
SEC's Schapiro: Circuit Breakers Contained Knight Capital Damage
Aug 3, 2012 Advanced Trading The SEC Chairman said the regulator is examining whether additional steps must be taken to shore up the markets.
August 1, 2012 ModernIR Do you hate day traders? Reading the 30-page Waiver and Consent letter from Peter Beck, who once ran now-defunct day-trading firm Swift Trade, it seems FINRA must.
High-Frequency Trading Is Costing Investors Billions: Pragma Securities
July 31, 2012 Advanced Trading The firm said it reached that conclusion after studying high-volume stocks and discovering they were more difficult - and expensive - to trade.
Investment Algos Seek Unseen Factors
July 26, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor What happens when humans are not in the loop on automated approaches to portfolio management.
Nasdaq Shaves 2+ Microseconds, With 40G Connections
July 26, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor Nasdaq OMX said that customers using recently introduced 40 gigabit a second connections at its data center in Carteret,N.J., are seeing order acknowledgment times drop by between two to seven millionths of a second.
July 25, 2012 ModernIR What happened to our stock? It remains the question that haunts the dreams of IR professionals. Well, that and whether its better to use via or through in the call script.
July 25, 2012 Traders Magazine The launch of the Nasdaq OMX BX options exchange, at the end of June, marked not only the debut of the industrys 10th exchange, but an expansion of the use of taker-maker pricing.
The Danger of Too Much Dark Liquidity
July 25, 2012 Advanced Trading Dark pools play a critical role in today's market. But rising dark pool volumes mean wider spreads and higher costs on the lit markets, according to researchers in theU.S. and abroad.
The Danger of Too Much Dark Liquidity
July 25, 2012 Advanced Trading Dark pools play a critical role in today's market. But rising dark pool volumes mean wider spreads and higher costs on the lit markets, according to researchers in theU.S. and abroad.
Russell Recap: No News Is Good News
July 20, 2012 Traders Magazine Last months reconstitution of the Russell indexes continued a trend of less volatile rebalance days, according to a report released Wednesday by independent research broker ITG. Similar to the rebalance in 2011, this years recon day saw healthy trading flows as stocks got added to or deleted from the Russell 1000 and Russell 2000 indexes.
As Dodd-Frank Turns Two, Tech Solutions Lacking
July 19, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor On the second anniversary of the Dodd-Frank act, the technology to handle its resulting rules is far from complete.
Nasdaq, BATS, Direct Edge Developing Retail Price Programs
July 19, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor The exchange operators are developing strategies to deliver hidden orders to retail investors seeking lower prices when they buy and higher prices when they sell.
SEC Implementing Real-Time Market Tracking System
July 17, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor The federal regulator dropped its requirement for real-time reporting when it mandated last week that the securities industry produce a consolidated and auditable trail of all market activity in stocks and options. But four of its divisions are working together to implement a system for pulling in all market data feeds in real time and analyzing them for patterns. A contract was awarded in June and work on the project has begun.
Debate on Playing Field Heats Up
July 16, 2012 Traders Magazine Be careful what you wish for. Duncan Niederauer, chief executive of NYSE Euronext, one of the largest operators of stock exchanges, called on Congress in June to level the playing field between exchanges and brokers alternative trading systems.
Consolidated Audit Trail: The Cheat Sheet
July 13, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor The differences between the proposed rule for creating a Consolidated Audit Trail for systematically tracking activity on the nations equity and equity options exchanges and the adopted rule are fairly stark.
NYSE retail program raises market structure questions - ITG
July 13, 2012 The Trade Agency broker and technology vendor ITG has raised objections toUS regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission handling of NYSE Euronexts retail liquidity program, arguing it risks exposing investors to unintended consequences
Daily Trading Volume Drops 14.1% in First Half
July 13, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association data shows a double-digit drop in average daily trading volume, across NYSE, Nasdaq, BATS and Direct Edge exchanges.
Buyside Exec Opposes Sub-Penny Pricing
July 12, 2012 Traders Magazine There is nothing wrong with regulators experimenting with new pilot programs in order to improve the structure of the equity marketplace. But the one thing they should avoid at all costs is sub-penny pricing.
July 12, 2012 Securities Technology Monito r It is no longer an option to ignore the vast amounts of images, videos, news, tweets and other unstructured data that is being accumulated, within or outside your firewalls on what's happening in capital markets. Here's a structured way to mine it.
SEC Adopts Consolidated Audit Trail to Boost Trade Oversight
July 11, 2012 Traders Magazine The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission adopted a rule today that would build a single system to monitor and analyze trading activity acrossU.S. equity and options markets.
Cross-Border Trading, I: TMX Eyes Acquisition of Direct Edge
July 11, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor The operator of theToronto andMontreal exchanges is reportedly looking at acquiring Direct Edge Holdings, the operator of two national exchanges in theUnited States.
Bigger Ticks for Smaller Stocks Get Warm Reception
July 10, 2012 Traders Magazine Industry players are encouraged by new legislation that authorizes the Securities and Exchange Commission to increase the minimum trading increment for stocks of certain small companies.
The Impact: Dark Orders, but Not a Dark Pool
July 6, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor he NYSE says its retail liquidity program is "still operated in the exchange framework, but all rules on treating retail customers are those that are "filed and standardized and submitted to the SEC.''
Risk Checking in Under 500 Nanoseconds
July 6, 2012 Traders Magazine With the Securities and Exchange Commission's new rule banning naked access in place, an arms race has developed among trading systems vendors.
SEC Approves NYSE Retail Liquidity Program
July 5, 2012 Traders Magazine Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday approved controversial proposals by exchanges operated by NYSE Euronext that will enable them to compete with wholesalers for retail order flow.
SEC Approves Nasdaq Technical Error Policy
June 29, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor The federal regulator has approved a rule change requested before the May 18 Facebook IPO that defines the responsibility of Nasdaq and its Nasdaq Execution Services affiliate for errant orders when a technical issue arises.
Congressman to Propose Bill Allowing Issuers to Pay for Market Making
June 27, 2012 Traders Magazine A Republican congressman plans to introduce a bill that would encourage stock exchanges to develop programs that permit their listed companies to pay market makers to support their stocks. The bill would also void rules of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority that bar the payments.
When Price is Not Right, Move it
June 26, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor The Nasdaq Stock Market may look at moving stock prices back in band, as testing begins next year of rolling limits in upward and downward movements.
Panelists Call Facebook IPO a "Black Eye" for Industry
June 22, 2012 Traders Magazine Nasdaq's botched initial public offering of Facebook has seriously damaged investor confidence, said several industry leaders at a conference in New York. The remarks came at the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association Tech Leaders Forum earlier this week.
Liquidnet Screwed Up on Customer Data
June 22, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor The operator of the largest venue for institutions to trade large blocks of shares anonymously acknowledged to its customers that it failed to fully guard information about them.
Trading Industry Urges Varying Levels of Action on Market Structure
June 19, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor "We need to use algorithms to surveill algorithms," Commodity Futures Trading Commission member Scott OMalia said, a day before his Technology Advisory Committee meets to begin to define what constitutes high-frequency trading and how it should be dealt with.
June 19, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor In cases like the May 6 Flash Crash and most recently the failure of Facebook shares to launch for public trading smoothly, exchanges need to come together to prevent repeats of breakdowns, said the chief technology officer of BATS Global Markets. BATS had its own technical disruption that prevented its own shares from going public this year.
Wedbush Looks to Put Buyside on Par with HFTs
June 11, 2012 Traders Magazine Wedbush Securities is courting hedge funds, long-only firms, registered investment advisors and other buyside traders to use the company's new hyper-fast electronic trading infrastructure.
Make or break time for maker-taker
Investors Lose Faith In Computer Trading Models
June 8, 2012 Advanced Trading Investors are losing faith in the computer-based trading models that made them millions in the bull market years, as Europe's financial convulsions have shown how poorly they cope with the unpredictable.
June 7, 2012 Traders Magazine As the quantity of data for trading grows exponentially, it is creating challenges for the industry and its regulators. Computing experts descended upon the Times Center in New York City this week to discuss some of the issues caused by the explosion of data in the financial markets.
Noll Discusses Nasdaq's Options Plans and Trends (Part II)
June 7, 2012 Traders Magazine Eric Noll, a Nasdaq OMX executive vice president responsible for transaction services in the U.S. and U.K, discussed his various businesses during Nasdaq's Investor Day on May 10. What follows is an edited transcript. In this, the second part of a two-part series, Noll discussed Nasdaq's moves in options as well as trends in the options industry
Wall St and Republicans Team Up to Curb CFTC
June 7, 2012 Advanced Trading The GOP has an ally in Wall Street in the fight to weaken the Dodd-Frank Act.
Nasdaq's Facebook Remedy Called "Underwhelming at Best"
June 7, 2012 Traders Magazine Market participants continued to bash Nasdaq OMX Thursday over the exchange operator's botched handling of the Facebook IPO, even as its chief executive continued to unveil further details of a $40 million plan for addressing the debacle.
Facebook Plan Not Market Share Grab, Greifeld Says
June 7, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor Nasdaq OMX chief executive Robert Greifeld said Thursday that the $26.3 million earmarked to reduce trading costs of customers affected by technical problems on the opening day of trading in Facebook shares is not a competitive-type issue.
NYSE: Industry Should Not Pay for Nasdaq's Missteps
June 6, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor The owner of the New York Stock Exchange criticized Nasdaq OMX Groups plan to compensate customers for technical problems on the first day of trading in Facebook shares as a means of diverting future order flow to the Nasdaq Stock Market.
Noll Discusses Nasdaq's Strategic Moves (Part 1)
June 6, 2012 Traders Magazine Eric Noll, a Nasdaq OMX executive vice president responsible for transaction services in the U.S. and U.K, spoke about the exchange operator's new initiatives during Nasdaq's Investor Day last month on May 10. What follows is an edited transcript. This is the first part of a two-part series, covering Nasdaq's moves in cash equities. The second part will cover Nasdaq's options business.
Microblink Markets: Zeroing in on Speed Records
June 6, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor It takes you or I somewhere between 300 and 400 milliseconds to blink an eye. That's a thousand times too slow for today's microsecond market operations. Here are 10 measures of what it takes to operate markets now.
Former Pipeline Wrapping Up Operations
June 5, 2012 Traders Magazine After selling its crown jewels to Portware and disposing of the rest of its intellectual property to ITG, Aritas Group, formerly known as Pipeline Trading Systems, is winding down and looking to sell off anything left with value.
Research: Quote Stuffing Aims to Slow Rivals
June 5, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor A University of Illinois research term finds evidence of industry practices consistent with quote stuffing designed to slow down trading in a channel carrying market messages.
Speed Will Always Matter, Prop Trader Maintains
June 5, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor Everyones spent too much on speed to give it up, says a partner at proprietary trading firm Virtu Financial. At least in the trading of stocks.
Big Data: Keeping IT All 'Not Sustainable'
June 5, 2012 Securites Technology Monitor Intel is beginning to plan for the processing of a million terabytes of data at a time, as video, the twittersphere and market data surges. But for a market participant to keep on hand more and more terabytes of data is not sustainable, a senior vice president at Citigroup said Tuesday.
What if the upturn doesnt turn up?
June 4, 2012 The Trade Clearly investor appetite for equities continues to be weak. But isn't that a reflection of macro-economic uncertainties rather than market structure problems?
SEC Approves Market-Wide & Single-Stock Circuit Breakers
June 1, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor The federal regulator reduced the thresholds for triggering the breakers to as low as a 7 percent drop in the Standard & Poors 500 Index. Also approved is the limit-up, limit-down rule that blocks trading in single stocks when the price moves outside a specified price band.
Nasdaq Steps Up Penalty for Excessive Orders, Delays Start
June 1, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor Nasdaq OMX Group delayed the start of its program for curbing excessive orders until July 2. It is going to start the penalties at an order to trade ratio of 100 to 1, instead of 1,000 to 1. Direct Edge started a similar message efficiency program Friday.
US markets in need of repair Themis Trading heads
May 31, 2012 The Trade A new book from the heads of US agency broker Themis Trading states that the combination of new regulations and technology have undermined market structure and prohibit effective capital raising through stock markets.
Equity Commissions Continue to Slide for Third Straight Year
May 31, 2012 Traders Magazine Commissions paid by U.S. institutions dropped for the third straight year, down 6 percent for domestic equities, according to a recent Greenwich Associates study of the buyside.
May 31, 2012 Traders Magazine To rekindle interest in equities, a group of market experts called for wider spreads for less liquid stocks, and possibly even instituting a fee that would aid market making and research for these thin traders.
Can Brokers Evolve to Avoid Extinction?
May 30, 2012 Advanced Trading In a "Night At The Museum" Fidessa's Steve Grob explores how brokers must adapt to keep the Buy Side up and running.
SEC Expected to Greenlight Anti-Volatility Measures
May 30, 2012 Traders Magazine The Securities and Exchange Commission is expected to approve today two proposals by the nation's exchanges intended to dampen volatility in the stock market.
Circuit Breaker Deadline Looms
May 29, 2012 Traders Magazine The Securities and Exchange Commission is scheduled to decide on Thursday whether or not to approve two anti-volatility measures proposed by the nations stock exchanges. Up for a vote is a proposal to refine a rule that halts trading in individual securities and one that halts trading in the market as a whole.
iShares and Bloomberg offer consolidated tape for ETFs
May 28, 2012 The Trade iShares, the exchange-traded fund provider owned by Blackrock, and Bloomberg have teamed up to offer a consolidated tape for ETFs designed to improve transparency and limit the impact of market fragmentation.
Why Do Retail Investors Always Seem to Get the Shaft?
May 25, 2012 Advanced Trading Facebook's botched IPO is the latest example of how small investors often get a raw deal in today's marketplace.
BATS Fastest in Executing Orders on NYSE Stocks
May 25, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor Despite the well-publicized failure of its technology to handle the offering of its shares to the public earlier this year, BATS Global Markets two national exchanges rank as the fastest market centers in handling stocks issued on the New York Stock Exchange, according to Celent.
Did a Stuck Quote Prevent a Facebook Opening Day Pop?
May 25, 2012 Nanex On 18-May-2012, within seconds of the opening in Facebook, we noticed an exceptional occurrence: Nasdaq quotes had higher bid prices than ask prices. This is called a cross market and occurs frequently between two different exchanges, but practically never on the same exchange (the buyer just needs to match up with the seller, which is fundamentally what an exchange does).
FINRA's Market Data Store Reaches 5X Library of Congress
NYSE Invites Service Providers to Mahwah
May 24, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor NYSE Euronext has announced that its is opening up its Mahwah, N.J.-based U.S. Liquidity Center to network providers and vendors such that they can acquire data center space and offer their services to customers of the center.
Regulators Finishing Probes on Layering & Spoofing of Trades
May 24, 2012, Traders Magazine Federal regulators are close to finishing "five or six" investigations that are based on emerging forms of false trading that use high-speed electronic access to markets.
Consolidated Audited Trail Could Save Industry Money
Nanex pins Facebook blame on HFTs
Dark Pools Handle 13% of U.S. Equity Volume - Tabb
May 22, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor Dark pools accounted for 13% of total volume in U.S. equities volume during April and March, a sign that trading firms are increasingly trusting the anonymous venues, according to the Tabb Group.
Writing on the wall for exchanges after Facebook IPO
Nasdaq seen struggling with aftermath of Facebook IPO
May 22, 2012 Reuters Nasdaq OMX faces short-term costs from its botched handling of Facebook shares on their first day of trading but the longer term repercussions could be more expensive as it struggles to restore its image.
Nasdaq's Handling of Facebook: 'Not Our Finest Hour'
May 21, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor Trading opened a half hour late on Friday. Orders placed on its IPO Cross system did not get delivered to the market. For about two hours, Nasdaq could not issue quotes on Facebook shares. And, yet, it continued trading in Facebook shares, a possible violation of Regulation National Market System.
Facebook: Nasdaq Offers Post-Mortem, Changes Some Practices
May 21, 2012 Barrons The story of what happened Friday with Facebooks (FB) problematic first day of trading received its official explanation this morning.
Special Report: The algorithmic arms race
May 21, 2012 Reuters It's the day after Cambridge physicist Stephen Hawking's 70th birthday party and David Harding, the head of one of the most successful hedge funds in the world, is bubbling with talk of black holes.
Could HFT Hedge Funds Spark a New Flash Crash?
May 21, 2012 Advanced Trading High-frequency trading firms were once the new kids on the block but now there are plenty of hedge funds using similar formulas and the same historical market data to chase alpha. Is this a recipe for disaster?
Wedbush signs 10 buy-side firms to HFT platform
UPDATE 1-Facebook IPO averts 'odd lot' question
May 18, 2012 Reuters Facebook Inc's modest debut on Friday may have averted a potential headache for the company and regulators, and kept at bay a debate over the role of "odd lots" in the marketplace.
Nasdaq Launches Express Connections to Other Markets
US bourses seek revenue diversification
May 15, 2012 The Trade Nasdaq OMX plans to launch new algorithmic services for its broker-dealer members, in further evidence that US bourses are looking to expand their businesses to maximise revenue.
New Canadian Trade-At Rule Gets Mixed Reviews
May 15, 2012 Traders MagazineCanadian regulators have passed new rules governing dark pools in Canada, eliciting mixed responses from market participants, with no discernible consensus from either the buyside or sellside, or from the dark pools themselves.
NYSE Does Away With Most of Amex Brand
May 10, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor NYSE Euronext (NYX) is renaming the small cap equities market NYSE Amex to NYSE MKT, effective May 14, 2012, subject to SEC approval. The options market will continue to do business under the name NYSE Amex Options.
The Evolution of a Broker's Market Access Decision
May 10, 2012 Advanced Trading New developments in technology, sponsorship, performance and flexibility have created a spectrum of market access options.
Where Has All the Stock Trading Gone?
May 10, 2012 Bloomberg Its been a rough few months for NYSE Euronext, owner of the countrys biggest stock exchange. In February, European regulators scrapped its planned $9.5 billion.
Pipeline Trading Ceases Operations; Top Executive Steps Down
May 10, 2012 Traders Magazine Troubled brokerage Pipeline Trading, which recently rebranded itself as Aritas Group, is selling its key technology assets and has stopped accepting orders. As a result, Aritas Group's executive chairman, Jay Biancamano, will be joining software vendor Portware.
Forget the Flash Crash. Could a 'Splash Crash' Be On the Horizon?
May 8, 2012 Advanced Trading Progress Software's John Bates says that with more instruments beyond equities becoming electronic and interlinked, the markets are vulnerable to a multi-asset flash event.
Dark pools must prove they have nothing to hide ITG
Flash Crash AnniversarySees More Oversight
May 7, 2012 Advanced Trading Since the market's loss of nearly 1,000 points two years ago, circuit breakers have been activated with greater frequency.
Flash-Crash Story Looks More Like a Fairy Tale
May 7, 2012 Bloomberg Two years after the frightening spring day when the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost and regained about 600 points in a matter of minutes, we still don't really know why. This is a problem, because it means something similar-- or worse--could happen again.
Poor routing decisions costing US investors billions
Two Years After The Flash Crash, Are Markets Any Safer?
May 6, 2012 Forbes Two years ago, an accidental trade in the midst of a jittery market set off a cataclysmic plunge that seemed to defy all reason and pulled back the curtain on high-frequency trading for millions of investors who had no idea that computer-driven strategies account for the lions share of daily market volume.
May 6, 2012 Traders Magazine Using sophisticated monitoring and analysis techniques, bulge bracket brokers are starting to build profiles of the traders in their dark pools. They know who's naughty and who's nice, and they are using their newfound information to shore up the integrity of their trading systems.
NYSE Backs Payments for ETF Market Makers
May 3, 2012 Traders Magazine Following a similar proposal by Nasdaq OMX, NYSE Euronext has unveiled a plan to allow market makers to get paid for providing liquidity for exchange-traded funds. If approved, the plan could reduce the number of funds listed without lead market makers.
May 3, 2012 Advanced Trading With U.S. equity volumes in the dumps, the buy side increasingly is searching for liquidity in dark pools, stoking fears about a lack of execution transparency in the opaque markets. But buy-side traders are finding value in the dark -- if they know where to look.
Narrowing Spreads For Illiquid ETFs
May 2, 2012 Traders Magazine For some illiquid exchange-traded funds, the price isnt always right. Spreads can be unreasonably wide, luring the less informed to take the bait and accept a price that is far from reasonable. Fortunately, those spreads are slowly narrowing due to competition.
Is Buy-Side Order Flow Really Going Dark?
Brokers Want Changes to Volcker
NYSE boss says high-frequency firms on the move
April 30, 2012 Reuters Increased scrutiny by U.S. regulators and politicians of high-frequency traders is creating an incentive for them to move to less regulated markets inside and outside the United States, Duncan Niederauer, chief executive of NYSE Euronext, said on Monday.
5 Reasons Why One In Every Three U.S. Equities Shares Is Traded In the Dark
April 26, 2012 Advanced Trading Tabb Group offers the real reasons why 33 percent of U.S. equities volume is traded off-exchange.
Startup Hedge Funds Battle Gale Force Headwinds
April 26, 2012 Advanced Trading From fundraising difficulties, to IT and regulatory headaches, smaller hedge funds are struggling to take off while investors seek security with the larger players.
Could Volcker Affect the Russell Rebalance?
April 25, 2012 Traders Magazine Russell Investments begins the process of rebalancing its indexes at the end of next month, and the industry is already starting to wonder if this years rebalance will see increased speculative activity, or if the impending Volcker rule will mean less liquidity coming from proprietary trading desks. In the last two years, the Russell rebalance has been relatively orderly on reconstitution day, meaning buys and sells have been able to pair off without too much market dislocation, at least when compared to the large order imbalances seen during the financial crisis.
High-Speed Trading: My Laser Is Faster Than Your Laser
April 23, 2012 Bloomberg A few weeks ago I wrote about Project Express, a new fiber-optic cable being built across the Atlantic that will give a select number of high-frequency traders a tiny speed advantage in trading times between New York and London. Currently, data take 64 milliseconds (give or take a few fractions of an eye blink) to travel round-trip between New York and London along a cable built in 1998 called the AC-1.
Under-60 Millisecond Roundtrip Between London, New York Promised
April 23, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor Perseus Telecom and Reliance Communications are upgrading a submarine cable route between the two financial centers so that, by years end, they say will set a new speed record for transferring market data and instructions.
Algorithmic Trading May Spur Volatility, Mispricing, Turner Says
Apr 19, 2012 Bloomberg The rise of algorithmic trading may cause markets to be more volatile and securities to be mispriced, Adair Turner, chairman of the U.K.s Financial Services Authoritywill tell a U.S. audience today.
April 18, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor That was one-third of the record outflow from domestic stock funds of $4.5 billion the prior week, according to the latest ICI stats.
April 17, 2012 Traders Magazine The Securities and Exchange Commission is preparing a review to see if raising the minimum trading increment for so-called "emerging growth companies" and other small-cap stocks could increase liquidity in these thinly traded names.
What's Next For Exchanges After Fizzled Merger Plans?
April 16, 2012 Advanced Trading In an interview with Advanced Trading, Tabb Group analyst Adam Sussman spells out what's next for the global exchange industry after their best-laid merger plans were halted by regulators across the world.
ETF Volume Down, Fallback in Correlation Blamed
April 16, 2012 Traders MagazineVolumes for exchange-traded funds are down, and many people believe that declines in correlations at the beginning of this year could be the cause. According to a recent Credit Suisse report, ETFs made up only 16 percent of overall volume in the first quarter of 2012, down from 19 percent for all of 2011.
April 16, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor A Celent report says that high-speed processing of market and event data now represents a $115 million market and is expected to grow by 30% each year for the next two years.
Nasdaq Proposes Paying ETF Market Makers
April 13, 2012 Traders Magazine Nasdaq OMX is pushing forward with a plan to allow issuers of exchange-traded funds to indirectly pay market makers for quoting, a proposal that could help bring greater liquidity to lightly traded ETFs.
SEC readies vote on circuit-breaker replacement
April 11, 2012 The Trade On 4 April, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced, after several extensions, that it would finally decide whether to approve a new volatility-mitigation plan for the US equities market by 31 May.
High-Speed Trading Is Progress, Not Piracy
April 10, 2012 Bloomberg They steal from the rich and keep it! That sums up the criticism of E-pirates, aka high-frequency traders, the current bad boys of the financial markets. Many retail and institutional investors believe that as much as $2 billion annually in high-frequency trading profits are coming out of their own pockets.
Algo customisation the new norm ITG
April 10, 2012 The Trade Off-the-shelf algorithms are now considered the exception, according to agency broker and technology provider ITG, with most buy-side firms insisting on customising strategies to suit their trading style.
Cover Story: Last Vestige for Small Caps
April 10, 2012 Traders Magazine With the majority of equities being traded with algorithms, the handling of small-capitalization stocks has been one of the last vestiges of old-school trading. For small-cap stocks, the buyside will actually pick up the phone, call up sales traders and ask them to use their capital or know-how to move some shares. But those days are fading. Algos are now conquering smaller stocks as well.
33% of Trading Taken Off Exchanges - Tabb
April 10, 2012 Securities Technology Monitor In March,33 percent alltrading in U.S. equitieswas executed away from registered exchanges, with a growing amount taking place via internal orders, according to commentary released by the Tabb Group.
Internalization of Order Flow on the Rise
April 9, 2012 Traders Magazine March saw a new record in U.S. equities trading executed away from registered exchanges, according to commentary released by the Tabb Group.
Exchange Fatigue Strikes Options Brokers
April 9, 2012 Traders Magazine With Nasdaq's recent announcement that it plans to launch a third options exchange, the number of options exchanges could climb from nine to 12 this year. That has some brokers grumbling.
Did a Rogue Algo Cause BATS IPO Crash?
April 4, 2012 Advanced Trading Research by a market data firm has traced the crash of BATS' IPO to a single algorithm that executed over 500 times on Nasdaq, driving its price from $15.25 to about two cents in less than a second.
Do todays markets lack resiliency?
April 1, 2012 Futures Magazine Traders' View of the World: High-frequency trading has created a push-back to markets focused on efficiency. World leaders are looking to create resilient markets, and the two dont always go together.
Andresen Sees U.S. Volume Rising From Four-Year Low
March 30, 2012 Bloomberg U.S. equities trading, mired at the lowest levels in at least four years, should pick up as confidence among investors builds, according to Matthew Andresen, an executive at quantitative trading firm Headlands Technologies Inc
Cable Across Atlantic Aims to Save Traders Milliseconds
March 29, 2012 Bloomberg In April, the Canadian research ship CoriolisII will set out from Halifax to survey parts of the continental shelf stretching 1,000 miles off the east coast of Nova Scotia.
Global Exchanges Strike Back at Abusive HFT Technique
March 29, 2012 Advanced Trading A growing number of exchanges are fighting quote-stuffing with fees aimed at punishing high-frequency traders for excessive order cancellations.
BATS Regroups After Big Systems Glitch
March 26, 2012 Traders Magazine BATS Global Markets is still reeling after a trading glitch last Friday embarrassed the exchange and led to the cancellation of its initial public offering as the company began trading on its own exchange.
U.S. securities watchdog probes high-frequency trading firms - report
March 23, 2012Reuters The U.S. securities watchdog is looking at whether some high-frequency trading firms have used their close links to computerised stock exchanges to gain an unfair advantage over other investors, the Wall Street Journal said.
Suffering a "Flash Crash," BATS Withdraws IPO
March 23, 2012 Advanced Trading The debut of BATS Global Markets Exchange Inc on Friday was overshadowed by a series of blunders, including its own shares erroneously trading for less than a penny and confusing investors.
March 20, 2012 Traders Magazine Algorithms today are much better at trading illiquid, small-cap stocks than they were in years past. Previously, algos simply sliced up orders and spread them out across time and venues.
Knights New Sumo Algo Wrestles with HFT
March 19, 2012 Traders Magazine Knight Capital Group on Monday unveiled a new version of its Sumo algorithm that aims to help institutions camouflage their trading activity so they can safely interact with high-frequency traders.
STA Helps Scuttle Trading Amendment
March 16, 2012 Traders Magazine A note to Congress: Please stop casually messing around with market structure in the equities marketplace. If there are going to be any major changes, we'd much rather they be handled by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Or at least not be tacked onto another bill as an afterthought.
Q&A: Beware a Tax On Cancelled HFT Orders
March 15, 2012 Advanced Trading As the SEC ponders how to slow down the furious pace of high frequency trading, different ideas have come to light. Advanced Trading spoke with Michael Jenkins, partner in the financial services and strategy practices of A.T. Kearney. Portions of this interview appeared in our March 2012 cover story.
A Former SEC Enforcer On Slowing Down HFT
March 12, 2012 Advanced Trading After years of trading near the speed of light can regulators realistically place a speed limit on high frequency trading? Mark Fickes, a former attorney for the SEC enforcement division and currently with Braun Hegey & Borden of San Francisco, weighs in.
HFTs Adapting to Stay Profitable
March 12, 2012 Traders Magazine High-frequency trading firms and other low-latency traders are expanding their trading strategies and the geographic regions where they trade in order to maintain profits as the U.S. equities market becomes more challenging, one agency broker executive said.
TradeTech Coverage: Former SEC Official Says Volcker Rule Will Harm Market
March 9, 2012 Traders Magazine Implementation of the so-called Volcker Rule will do nothing but harm theU.S. equities market and trading because of the lack of clarity regarding what constitutes proprietary trading and market making, according to a former Securities and Exchange Commission official.
Nasdaq to Charge Heavy Quoters
March 8, 2012 Traders Magazine Nasdaq OMX plans to start penalizing trading firms that quote excessively.
Regulators Contemplate Slamming the Brakes on High-Frequency Trading
March 7, 2012 Advanced Trading Regulators, including the SEC and the CFTC, are struggling to keep up with -- and keep a grip on -- the warp-speed world of high-frequency trading. Fearing that the markets are dangerously out of control, regulators are considering some severe measures to slow down high-speed traders.
Thomson Reuters Adds Social Media to Machine-Readable Newsfeed
March 7, 2012 Traders Magazine Thomson Reuters announced today it is adding a new social media sentiment analysis feed to its machine-readable news product. The service, which already gives users access to news from Reuters and about 50 third-party services, will now provide information from up to 50,000 news sites and four million social media sites.
March 5, 2012 Traders Magazine On Wall Street, risk is suddenly a four-letter word. Retail investors can't stomach it. Pension plan sponsors are allocating away from it. That's bad news for stocks. Volume has been dropping almost nonstop for three years and shows no signs of improvement. The situation is worse than it was following the crash of 2000. It's worse than it was after the crash of 1987.
Q&A: How Can HFT Truly Slow Down?
Feb 27, 2012 Advanced Trading As regulators and politicians look to manage the impact of high-frequency trading, change is coming. Advanced Trading spoke with Jamie Selway, managing director of broker-dealer ITG on what's in store for these high speed-trading firms.
Dimmer Growth Prospects Ahead For High-Frequency Trading Firms
Feb 23, 2012 Advanced Trading With regulators determined to slow down the practice of rapid-fire trading, HFT operations that traditionally focused on speed will need to turn more attention to strategy development, market research firm IBISWorld says.
'Quantference' Brings Together Industry and Academia
Feb 22, 2012 Traders Magazine Academics and industry veterans mingled and shared ideas at the inaugural Pragma "Quantference" in New York City last week, discussing some of the latest developments affecting quantitative trading.
Little Chance Transaction Tax Will Make It to U.S.
Feb 17, 2012 Traders Magazine Although Frances cabinet, the Council of Ministers, has recently adopted a plan for a financial transactions tax, similar measures are highly unlikely in the United States.
Feb 16, 2012 Advanced Trading In the upcoming March Advanced Trading cover story, we look at the efforts to slow down high-frequency traders. Will fines work or are we looking at other filters? AT spoke with Scott DePetris, COO of Portware for his thoughts.
Dow Jones Entices Quants, Traders With Machine-Readable News Analytics
Feb 14, 2012 Advanced Trading The platform is designed to enable traders, quantitative analysts and risk managers to build more predictable trading models off prevailing news sentiment.
High-Frequency Trades, CFTC Budget, Trading Tax: Compliance
Feb 13, 2012 Bloomberg High-frequency traders may win a partial reprieve from proposed European Union rules designed to prevent a repeat of the so-called flash crash after banks and exchanges including Deutsche Bank AG and NYSE Euronext warned they could damage markets and lead to an exodus of traders.
High-Frequency Trading Declines in Canada
Feb 9, 2012 Advanced Trading Venues that were known for being dominated by high-frequency trading have seen a significant drop-off in the number of orders they handle, according to a report by agency broker Investment Technology Group, Inc.
Feb 8, 2012 Traders Magazine As buyside traders hit the send button, they can take comfort in the fact that their orders are flying out at the speed of light. But to where? Read on!
FINRA Dealt Setback in OTC Plan
Feb 7, 2012 Traders Magazine The Securities and exchange Commission has halted plans by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority to impose a new quoting regime on the over-the-counter market, citing concers over market quality.
Report Calls for Revamping of Data Payment Plans
Feb 3, 2012 Traders Magazine Use of real-time market data is increasing, as the consolidated tape is no longer sufficient for many traders, according to a new study by Tabb Group. And with real-time data on the rise, the advisory firm is calling for a revamping of how traders pay for that data.
Feb 3, 2012 Traders Magazine Trading desks are starting to get visits from Washington's new super regulator: the Financial Stability Oversight Council. Formed in 2010 by the Dodd-Frank Act, FSOC is an inter-agency regulatory body chaired by the U.S. Treasury and charged with identifying risks in the U.S. financial system.
EU Blocks "Near-Monopoly" of D.Boerse-NYSE Merger
February 1, 2012 Advanced Trading EU regulators have blocked the tie-up of exchange operators Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext to stop them taking a stranglehold on the European futures market.
On second thought, low volume not so bad for stocks
Jan 31, 2012 Reuters The U.S. stock-market surge in January may feel to some like having reached a remote mountain peak. It was a lot of work, but there are not many people to celebrate with.
CFTC Weighs New Rules for High-Frequency Derivatives Trading
Jan 30, 2012 Bloomberg The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which is working to complete Dodd-Frank Act rules for derivatives markets, is weighing new rules and oversight of companies that use automated and high-frequency trading systems.
CFTC panel to review high-frequency trading
Jan 30, 2012 Reuters The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is expected to review a rapid-fire technique that allows traders to buy and sell shares at lightning speed, a step that could help it better understand the impact of an activity critics say threatens market stability.
Jan 30, 2012 Advanced Trading Hedge funds are overwhelmed by market data and yet they want even more. How can smaller funds and prop shops tame the market data beast?
'Bailout Nation' Author Says Correlation Killing Volumes
Jan 27, 2012 Traders Magazine Barry Ritholtz, author of the bestselling book "Bailout Nation," said yesterday he expects equity trading volumes to remain low for the foreseeable future due to the rampant correlation in the stock market.
Trichet, Turner Question Real Value of Bigger, Faster Trading
Jan 27, 2012 Bloomberg The technology-driven jump in trading volume has been of little discernible benefit to the real economy and must be more closely watched by regulators, policy makers said at a debate at the World Economic Forum.
Could Market Volatility Be Hiding a Flash Crash?
Jan 26, 2012 Advanced Trading Market Volatility is not the same a Flash Crash, Instinets Alison Crosthwait says.
Volatility Spurs Aggressive Algo Strategies
Jan 25, 2012 Advanced Trading In volatile markets traders choose more aggressive algorithmic trading strategies and increase the level of human interaction.
How Buy-Side Traders Are Adapting to the Volatility
Jan 25, 2012 Advanced Trading Buy-side traders are demanding stronger trading tools to navigate the increasingly volatile markets, according to a recent TABB Group study.
Stock Trading Lowest in U.S Since 2008 Amid Fund Withdrawals
Jan 23, 2012 Bloomberg Trading in U.S. stocks fell to the lowest level since at least 2008 amid mutual fund withdrawals and Wall Street job cuts
Uptick rule could curb quant fund risk Man Group CEO
Jan 23, 2012 Reuters The head of Man Group, the worlds biggest listed hedge fund manager, is backing the reintroduction of the so-called uptick rule to reduce the risk of a market crash prompted by lighting-fast computer traders.
Fundsmith's Terry Smith fires fresh warnings on ETFs
Jan 18, 2012 Reuters Exchange traded funds (ETFs) are being widely missold as a low cost form of index tracker when in fact they are highly complex vehicles best suited to hedge funds and proprietary trading desks, a leading investor said.
Are Fundamental Hedge Fund Managers Trained to Be Good Traders?
Jan 17, 2012 Advanced Trading An industry source gets to the bottom of why so many hedge funds swooned last year in the wake of rampant stock market volatility.
Jan 13, 2012 Traders Magazine As regulators start to press their agendas for the coming year, Traders Magazine asked some industry experts what they expect to be the biggest regulatory and market-structure issues of 2012.
Is a Shorter Trading Day the Cure for What Ails the Markets?
Jan 12, 2012 Advanced Trading Volume at the close is way up, and retail investors are nowhere to be seen. Somethimes a sick market needs strong medicine. In this case, it could be a one-hour trading day.
Insight: SEC tightens leash on exchanges post "flash crash"
Jan 12, 2012 Reuters The May 2012 "flash crash" was bad for almost everyone involved in the stock market, but for the Securities and Exchange Commission, it was a disaster.
Ed Knight of Nasdaq OMX Discusses ....
Jan 9, 2012 Traders Magazine Ed Knight, general counsel and executive vice president at Nasdaq OMX, testified before the Senate Banking Committee in December during a hearing on the status of capital formation and job creation. Knight argued that the marketplace was overly fragmented and that exchanges needed government help in supporting the trading of small company stocks.
T. Row Price fears high-frequency computer trading
Jan 7, 2012 Baltimore Sun Along with Europe's financial crisis, Middle East unrest and sluggish U.S. growth, mutual-fund seller T. Rowe Price has identified a 2012 economic risk you probably haven't thought about.
HFT Firms Brace for a New, Bolder SEC
January 06, 2012 Advanced Trading The unfolding new year could see the arrival of a new, more powerful Securities and Exchange Commission. Now well have to see how high-frequency-trading firms react, says editor-at-large Ivy Schmerken.
Wall Street Trades at Speed of Light Need Traffic Cops: View
Jan 2, 2012 Bloomberg The past year in U.S. stock markets earned a place in the volatility (VIX) Hall of Fame, coming in just behind the full-blown financial crisis years of 2008 and 2009
Top Stories 2011: Exchange Price War!
Dec 29, 2011 Traders Magazine With volume slumping for the second year in a row, the industry's major stock exchanges competed aggressively for brokers' business. That meant cutting prices.
U.S. Clears NYSE-Deutsche Boerse Deal With Direct Edge Sale
Dec 28, 2011 Bloomberg NYSE Euronexts acquisition by Deutsche Boerse AG was cleared by the U.S. Department of Justice, putting the transaction in the hands of European antitrust authorities who have resisted approval.
Industry Balks at NYSE Sub-Penny Plan
Dec 27, 2011 Traders Magazine An NYSE Euronext proposal to permit its members to quote in sub-pennies is proving highly controversial. The exchange operator's "Retail Liquidity Program" would create dark pools at the New York Stock Exchange and NYSE Amex, where members could vie for retail order flow with quotes only a tenth of a cent better than the market's best displayed prices.
SEC Rejects Nasdaq's 'Paid-For-Market-Making' Proposal
Dec 23, 2011 Traders Magazine Nasdaq OMX, on the verge of creating a stock exchange for small companies, was dealt a setback by the Securities and Exchange Commission over a plan to ask issuers to pay market makers for quoting.
Designated Market Making Alive and Well at NYSE
Dec 23, 2011 Traders Magazine Floor trading might be in decline, but it's far from dead. In fact designated market makers on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange have been making headlines recently.
Nasdaq Buys Machine-Readable News Co.
Dec 21, 2011 Traders Magazine Nasdaq OMX has acquired the machine-readable news company RapiData, getting Nasdaq into the business of providing trading firms and financial institutions with the latest government and economic news.
Exchanges Say Colocation Is A Regulated Business
Dec 20, 2011 Wall Street and Tech All market participants are equidistant from the matching engines in colocation facilities, say exchange officials who've had to file their policies with regulators.
Dec 19, 2011 Traders Magazine High-frequency trading may have transformed the country's stock exchanges into ultra-fast, high-volume marketplaces, but it has had little impact on U.S. options exchanges. Five years into the penny tick/maker-taker revolution, high-frequency traders are bit players at best in options.
Volcker Rule Could Limit Market Making
Dec 16, 2011 Traders Magazine The Volcker rule as currently written will affect market making on equities trading desks by limiting their abilities to facilitate trading. Subsequently, this will raise the cost of trading and hinder liquidity, sources tell Traders Magazine.
France Urges Tougher Rules on High-Frequency Trades, Dark Pools
Dec 16, 2011 Bloomberg Frances financial market regulator urged the European Union to toughen its planned overhaul of rules, highlighting the need for more oversight of high-frequency trading and new trading platforms.
Top Stories 2011: Regulators Look to Pacify the Market
Dec 15, 2011 Traders Magazine The Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulators had a busy year, addressing market concerns about how to create a more stable trading environment and restore confidence rattled by last year's flash crash. Regulators introduced a myriad of rules this year and floated new proposals to fix market structure flaws that led to the May 6, 2010 event and to get a better handle on the forces driving the market.
Top Stories 2011: Volume and Volatility - The Comeback Kids
Dec 13, 2011 Traders Magazine The year began with low volume and little volatility, and then changed rapidly midyear, making 2011 a year of stark contrasts. Usually, the end of July and the month of August are the summer doldrums, when not much happens. This year, it was when everything changed.
NYSE Retail Order Program May Spur Sub-Penny Quotes, Knight Says
Dec 7, 2011 Bloomberg Knight Capital Group Inc., one of the main market makers on the New York Stock Exchange, said an NYSE plan to offer retail investors better prices than those available to others could disrupt trading by dismantling a ban on quote increments of less than 1 cent.
France wants tougher ultra-fast EU trading curbs
Dec 5, 2011 Reuters Draft European Union plans to directly regulate ultra-fast share trading for the first time need strengthening, France's top market regulator said on Monday.
5 Steps to Turning the Market Data Crush Into an Advantage
Dec 03, 2011 Wall Street and Technology To handle the explosion in market data, capital markets firms must invest in a high-speed data infrastructure. Here are five steps to help firms turn the market data challenge into an opportunity.
Dec 3, 2011 Advanced Trading Under the new MiFID II proposal, European regulators are focusing even greater scrutiny on dark pools and high-speed trading. On the bright side, the law won't take effect any time before 2013.
NYSE Sub-Penny Proposal Dead on Arrival, Knight's CEO says
Dec 2, 2011 Traders Magazine An NYSE Euronext proposal to offer sub-penny trading at the New York Stock Exchange and NYSE Amex is unlikely to get the go-ahead from the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to a senior trading official.
Dec 1, 2011 Traders Magazine Chicago-based Getco is expanding its market making operations with an acquisition of Bank of America Merrill Lynch's designated market maker business for the New York Stock Exchange. The acquisition will more than double Getco's designated market making services at the NYSE.
Investors Brace for More Volatility Next Year
Nov 30, 2011 Traders MagazineThe vast majority of market participants are expecting another volatile year in 2012. However, they also have an appetite for continued risk, according to a recent survey by Information Management Network.
Hedge Funds Dont Expect Major Impact From Dodd-Frank: Survey
November 29, 2011 Advanced Trading The research contrasts with the widespread perception that the financial services community is wholly against the new market rules in theUnited States andEurope.
Algos Once Again Come Under Fire
Nov 28, 2011 Wall Street and Technology Rogue algos have been increasingly scrutinized by regulators and critics since the Flash Crash.
Nov 27, 2011 Reuters The fight for mom and pop's stock orders is getting testy on Wall Street.
Buy-Side Firms Remain Suspicious of High-Frequency Trading
Nov 26, 2011 Advanced Trading A large slice of the buy side remains concerned about interacting with toxic, high-speed order flow. But many firms continue to struggle to find ways to deal with it.
High-frequency firm fined for trading malfunctions
Nov 25, 2011 Reuters Exchange operator CME Group Inc (CME.O) fined Infinium Capital Management, a U.S. high-frequency trading firm, a total of $850,000 for three separate computer malfunctions that rattled futures markets in 2009 and 2010.
Crazy Market Swings - Inside the New Normal
Nov 23, 2011 Advanced Trading We had better get used to the recent market volatility because the steep swings will be here for a while.
Nov 22, 2011 Traders Magazine Volume is up for the ninth straight year in the options industry, but there's a big difference this year. Of the 21.6 percent increase in total year-over-year volume through October, over a third of the growth is coming from contracts that expire weekly.
High-Frequency Traders Prowl The Web For Even More Data
Nov 22, 2011 Wall Street and Technology Market data both on and off the web is skyrocketing and as hedge funds rebound, they are trying to digest it as quickly as possible.
Milstream Gone, Pipeline Tries To Win Back Customers
Boerse/NYSE Offer Concessions for Merger Approval
Nov 18, 2011 Advanced TradingFinancial exchanges Deutsche Boerse AG and NYSE Euronext are offering to sell some businesses and give rivals access to a major derivatives clearing house to win support from antitrust regulators for their $9 billion merger.
Nasdaq's Lax Security Made Exchange an Easy Target for Hackers
Nov 18, 2011 Wall Street and Technology Although Nasdaq defends its procedures and says no data was compromised, investigators examining last years cyber attack criticized the exchanges lax security practices.
SEC Needs Resources to Police Algorithmic Trading, Khuzami Says
Nov 16, 2011 Bloomberg U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigators need additional tools to adequately police market advances such as high-frequency and algorithmic trading, the agencys enforcement chief told lawmakers today.
Payments to Market Makers May Boost Stock Trading, NYSE Says
Nov 15, 2011 Bloomberg Regulators should consider allowing smaller companies to pay broker-dealers to make markets in their shares as a way to spur trading and encourage initial offerings, NYSE Euronext and Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. executives said today.
Pipeline's Bombshell Hurts All Dark Pools
Nov 15, 2011 Advanced Trading Trust in all dark pools takes a hit as the industry reacts to SEC charges that Pipeline filled the vast majority of customer orders through an affiliated trading entity rather than by matching them against other customer orders, as advertised.
Nov 14, 2011 Traders Magazine As high-touch trades continue to decline and trading algorithms get increasingly complicated, buyside firms are turning to the sellside to offer execution consulting that combines high-touch service with low-touch technology. That's according to a new report by Tabb Group, which found that by 2013 the way the sellside services clients will look radically different from today.
Post 'flash crash' monitoring emerges at Berkeley
Nov 9, 2011 Reuters Berkeley Lab seeks early warning of future flash crashes.
Parity and Point of Sale Positioning Keeps Floor Brokers Relevant
Nasdaq Loses 'Holy Grail' Status for Offerings: Israel Overnight
Nov 6, 2011 Bloomberg Companies from Israel, the second- biggest source of foreign listings on the Nasdaq Stock Market behindChina, are favoring mergers over selling equity inNew York as a cheaper and easier way to generate cash.
Factbox: Key outcomes of G20 Cannes summit
Nov 4, 2011 Reuters Following are the main achievements of the Group of 20 heads of state summit in Cannes,France, on November 3-4.
Nov 3, 2011 Traders Magazine In the wake of Pipeline Trading Systems' settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, experts say "transparency" and "trust" have to become more than mere buzzwords, especially as they relate to dark trading venues.
CFTC Preparing Oversight for High-Frequency Firms, Gensler Says
Nov 3, 2011 Bloomberg Derivatives exchanges may be required to establish and enforce new rules to limit risks of high- frequency trading firms, Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Gary Gensler will tell lawmakers today.
High-Frequency Trading to Blame for Market Volatility?
Nov 1, 2011 Advanced Trading As the markets continue their wild gyrations, regulators continue to struggle with high-frequency trading's role in the volatility and with how to stabilize the markets.
Commentary: When Hidden Orders Come to Light
Nov 1, 2011 Traders Magazine The news on Pipeline Trading Systems' $1 Million dollar SEC fine for trading with an undisclosed affiliated entity brings to light some very important questions about trading in so-called dark venues, and how best to go about selecting which is best for your specific investment strategy. Read a commentary by Garrett Nenner, head of global markets at Momentum Trading Partners, about when dark pools aren't really dark.
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Q&A: UBS and Hyannis Port Research Predict the Spread of Low Latency Trading
Q&A: UBS and Hyannis Port Research Predict the Spread of Low Latency Trading
Q&A: UBS and Hyannis Port Research Predict the Spread of Low Latency Trading
Q&A: UBS and Hyannis Port Research Predict the Spread of Low Latency Trading
Q&A: UBS and Hyannis Port Research Predict the Spread of Low Latency Trading
Q&A: UBS and Hyannis Port Research Predict the Spread of Low Latency Trading
Copyright 2016 by Brian W. Leite. All rights reserved. Reproduction of all or part of this dictionary without explicit permission is prohibited..