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Tuesday, November 19, 2024

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Recent member discussions

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We asked traders....

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 Jeff Joseph, Alternative Investments & Media

 Friday, October 24, 2014

Is high frequency algorithmic trading actually making markets more efficient, or is it simply pushing the smaller trader out of the markets?


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5 comments on article "We asked traders...."

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 Vince Sansalone CFA, Equity Trader

 Tuesday, October 28, 2014



HFTs provide volume NOT liquidity, and do NOT reduce volatility, does anyone remember the Flash crash?


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 Jim Witkam, Owner Altreva, agent-based forecasting models

 Thursday, October 30, 2014



It would be interesting to get some good research on what effect HFT is having on market efficiency on the longer (non-HF) time horizons (like return distribution and other stats). I suspect HFT may very well be decreasing it, giving non-HF traders an edge.


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 Liam Cheung, Chief Executive Officer at Tactex Asset Management Inc.

 Thursday, October 30, 2014



For those interested in an indepth look at this question, I would recommend the articles in this special issue of Journal of Financial Markets.


http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/13864181/16/4



Most of the papers point out that there are characteristics of HFT strategies that can be good and bad for market quality measures such as spread, volatility, frequency of extreme events, etc. After extensively reviewing the literature, academic studies of historical data indicate that on the whole HFT activity is associated with higher market quality.



I have also given a number of lectures that describes various types of strategies and how under different circumstances, may be associated with positive and negative effects on market quality. I do believe that on the whole HFT are the current provider of a type of liquidity and that the market will always need (and have) a set of participants filling these niches. They are as efficient or better than previous regimes but of course that does not mean the they could not be replaced by something better.


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 Sean Cooper, Commodity Trader

 Thursday, October 30, 2014



The title of the post and the article is "We asked traders...." but the article shows that they actually asked 1 IB and 6 analysts, none of which actually trade, ie no traders. Hence you are left with the opinions of people who watch from outside the market and not those that actually trade the market.


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 Roland Geiling, Analyste produits dérivés chez Autorité des marchés financiers

 Saturday, November 1, 2014



first we need to define HFT then define their strategies (liquidity provider/predatory/arbitrage..so forth). Predators HFT do not have any added value for the market. Liquidity providers provide liquidity until they stop...triggering an abrupt increase in volatility much higher than before (flash crash). On contrary of market makers, liquidity providers don't have any obligation to be in the market. Arbitrage HFT can provide liquidity but in case of high volatility, they can spread the volatility across others markets....so to answer your question, we must define the used trategies et above all define the term HFT...algorithm (as regulators define them) or heavy users of orders routers or high "Cancel order / trade" ratio system...many questions to answer before answering your question.

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