Monthly Archives: January 2010

“Look, I just made $82,000 in one second!”

says, Sergei Tchetvertnykh, pointing at a flashing spreadsheet on his desktop’s screen. Keep reading here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-magazine/theres-millions-in-those-milliseconds/article1443505/

Infinium executes between 500,000 and 1,000,000 trades each day. It is the largest trader on the TSX.
Anyway… some highlights:
1) “the danger is that nobody really seems to think of themselves as owners. How can management be accountable to investors [...]

Sub Penny Quoting – Institutional traders comments

We decided to poll a number of institutional traders and ask them what they thought of the idea of quoting stocks in sub-pennies.  The responders were unanimous and were all strongly  against the idea.  Below are a few of their comments:
“I disagree with the idea of sub-penny pricing.”
“It’s not just the HFT’s who will be playing [...]

Sub-Penny Pricing

Exchange officials are lobbying hard for sub-penny quoting. They say it is because their institutions and hedge funds have been asking for this ability. I doubt that. My customers have not been demanding 1/10th of a penny pricing. Have you been?
I think that this is more of the exchanges courting High Frequency interests, at [...]

A well-reasoned Blog Post from Japan

http://nihoncassandra.blogspot.com/2009/01/in-defense-of-case-against-hifters.html
A friend send me the above link, which I copy below. I admire the author’s cool, level-headed reasoning and presentation of his/her viewpoint. I hope you enjoy it.
In Defense of The Case Against HiFTers
In principal, I am reticent to contradict Burton Malkiel because I respect him, large, but I feel that I must [...]

“Trading Thin Issues” Test Question

Section III : Trading Thin Issues
Situation: You are responsible, either as an agency broker or as a buyside trader, to execute a buy order, monster block of 2,500 shares,  in APU, Amerigas Partners. The date is January 14th, 2010. What can you expect to happen should you send 2,500 shares to buy at the market [...]

An “Insider” HFT video, and SEC funding

This is a video of Manjo Narang, CEO of Tradeworx, discussing HFT and what these systems mean in the market today. It is educational. It is frank. He does  say that HFT has an outsized impact on financial markets, which is why we have been so persistent in trying to have everyone be more aware [...]

Dark Pool Proposals, and Short Sale Proposals

Emails are making the rounds today that highlight what the likely Washington response will be regarding Dark Pools and Short Sale Rule changes. In the past I feel we have made our views on Dark Pools known, specifically the difference between those that add value and those that do not, and the importance for size [...]

RMBS Volatility and HFT…

RMBS drops in minutes from $24 to $16 and back up to $23. The word is the move is the result of a “fat finger”.
This illustrates, however, how market structure has changed the velocity in today’s equity markets. “Stop loss” market orders are dangerous in today’s world. Don’t let anyone fool you into thinking that [...]