Where did everybody go?
The imploding volumes have puzzled many over the past months.
With HFT algos and a broken market microstructure, the exchanges need to do something.
Video below.
Untouchables-HFT
While all pundits try making the correct 2012 outlook during the last trading days, the HFT machines, churning some 70% of all traded volumes, still trade in a highly unregulated fashion.
Below interview with NYSE COO. Presented without comments. Wonder just how much HFT firms pay the Exchange?
HFT soon regulated?
Is this the beginning of the regulation of the HFT space? With “new” players taking over the trading scene, somebody (powerful) must have put in some serious complaints with the exchanges. Both NYSE and NYSE/Arca are proposing new regulations with regards to “manipulative quotes”. Hopefully, the so far unregulated HFT predatory market will slowly get regulated, and eventually we will see the return of a functioning market with true liquidity. Full proposals below;
NYSE Proposal, click here.
NYSE Arca, click here.
Courtesy Nanex.
Latour Trading-HTML HTML
We still have not heard much more about Latour Trading since Zero Hedge’s article some months ago. The HFT space has as we know, attracted many new players, and the old investment banks are rapidly losing the dominance in this field. Latour Trading is the number one firm on the NYSE these days. What strategies they run, how much capital they actually need etc is almost impossible to gain knowledge of. One thing is sure though. The Trading space is rapidly changing, attracting many smart and creative people, but there remains many questions to ask with what these firms contribute with in terms of volume, liquidity, volatility and most importantly the “morality” of the strategies conducted. A must read article courtesy of,Douglas Faneuil, Dis magazine.
On Monday, October 10th something strange happened in the world of high finance: Goldman Sachs lost its crown. The news, despite trumpeting a major new player in the world of HFT, or high-frequency trading, got no coverage at all from popular media outlets, save for a mention on Matt Taibbi’s blog at RollingStone.com. Yet for anyone with an interest in our fragile economy, the development would have been noteworthy: a new, unheard of company listed as Latour Trading LLC had surpassed Goldman Sachs as the most active trader on the New York Stock Exchange. I googled “Latour Trading” as soon as I read the news. Besides Taibbi’s post and his original citation (hat tip to Zero Hedge), there wasn’t a single article about this new titan of Wall Street—just a few job postings for salaried positions starting at $175,000 (not including bonuses), a YouTube clip of its staff ringing NYSE’s opening bell a few weeks earlier, and up top a link to its homepage,latourtrading.com. When I clicked on the homepage, my browser window went white. I tried reloading it—still nothing. It’s a strange feeling, loading a blank web page; it doesn’t happen very often. So I checked the source code of the site. In its entirety it read:
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