Thursday, July 25, 2013

High Frequency Trading: Do Regulators Need to Control this Tool of Informationally Efficient Markets?

High Frequency Trading (HFT) is a form of algorithmic trading where firms use high-speed market data and analytics to look for short term supply and demand trading opportunities that often are the product of predictable behavioral or mechanical characteristics of financial markets. Often called "equity market making," HFT firms usually hold their positions for less than a minute while perpetually looking for opportunities to buy and sell. These transactions happen thousands of times a day, take microseconds, and often net less than a penny in profit per share traded.
Concerns have been raised in recent years about the potential market risks associated with HFT and algorithmic trading in general. Some opponents have argued that these practices create risk and require aggressive regulation. Purported risks to the stability and integrity of financial markets created by HFT include the creation of a two-tiered market system as a result of asymmetric information, potential volatility, "noise" and informational distortions, out-of-control algorithms, and "flash crashes." However, many of these concerns are neither new nor exclusively related to HFT.

http://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/high-frequency-trading-do-regulators-need-control-tool-informationally 

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