Welcome to the world of daytime fragulation!
As some of you have already seen, the clever chaps back at Fidessa Labs have created a live version of our award-winning Fragulator. This enables you to watch the ebb and flow of fragmentation for any European stock or index on a real-time basis (sorry, no other markets just yet). As you can see below, it was especially useful last Tuesday when Deutsche Börse had a hiccup and delayed its opening by 80 mins. The absence of trading during the outage... Read More
Still hacking away at HFT
Had a distinct sense of déjà vu at TradeTech in London last week. Seems like much of the debate and chatter was the same as it was last year – HFT, ill thought through regulation, etc. It struck me, though, that maybe the regulators should let the market decide what is good or bad for us rather than agonising over these issues on our behalf. Take HFT for example. Whilst different definitions abound, electronic market making has just as much... Read More
The attraction of OTC clearing
Had an interesting week in the sunshine at the FIA annual conference at Boca Raton, Florida. Not surprisingly, the main topic was the move to bring the worlds of exchange traded and OTC derivatives together. This has been mandated by politicians/regulators on both sides of the Atlantic and will lead to the creation of a multitude of electronic platforms known as SEFs in the US and OTFs in Europe… or will it? Despite all the noise and hoopla, market... Read More
Alternative venues play waiting game in Japan
Just back from an interesting week in Japan where I was presenting at the annual GMAC conference, Japan International Banking & Securities Systems Forum. The impact of Japan’s alternative venues (known as PTSs) was a particular area of discussion, especially now that Chi-X has set up in Australia and with Korea looking to introduce a multi-market structure too. It’s been a hard slog for the alternative trading community in Japan, however,... Read More
And another thing Europe can’t agree about
Two stories this week demonstrated that Greece isn’t the only thing Europe has to disagree about. Together they both help highlight the problem regulators have worldwide with HFT. The first story, by the FT’s Jeremy Grant, describes how Italy’s Borsa Italiana is bowing to Consob pressure and introducing a fee structure that will charge participants more depending upon the number of orders they submit. This effectively introduces... Read More
