Market Expert Speak: High-Frequency Trading Should be Regulated, Not Stopped
High-frequency trading should continue to be regulated and not stopped, indicated Edgar Perez, The Speed Traders Workshop 2011: The Present and Future of High-Frequency Trading (http://www.thespeedtradersworkshop.com), on an interview with Hong Kong’s Oriental Daily News, for its column Market Expert Speak (http://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/finance/20110830/00275_001.html). Perez, author of The Speed Traders, An Insider’s Look at the New High-Frequency Trading Phenomenon That is Transforming the Investing World (http://www.thespeedtraders.com), noted that high-frequency trading in particular is a development that was born out of the evolution of the regulatory environment, certainly facilitated by technology; therefore, it would be against its roots to oppose regulation per se.
As Ben van Vliet, Adjunct Professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology, says in The Speed Traders, “We all want to race fast but safe. It doesn’t do any good if someone crashes into the innocent crowd and kills people. There are external people that may be affected when things crash. What we want the government to do is to create a safe track for us to race fast.” Perez noted that regulators in the U.S. have adopted circuit breakers in May 2010 for 404 NYSE listed S&P 500 stocks and widened in September for Russell 1000 stocks to halt or slow down trades of a particular stock if the price moves 10% or more in a five-minute period; lately, they have proposed limit up, limit down rules, which would require that trades in all listed stocks be executed within a range tied to the recent prices for that security and impose a five-minute pause if trading is unable to occur within the price band for more than 15 seconds; those are measures that fall into the category of improvements to the race tracks for high-frequency trading. Additionally, they are implementing a consolidated audit trail that would help the SEC track information about trading orders so it can better understand the fast-paced markets. Ultimately, a flexible regulatory environment that can incorporate input from participants will be the optimal setting for the development of the industry.
The Speed Traders Workshop 2011, led by Edgar Perez, will reveal how high-frequency trading players are succeeding in the global markets and driving the development of algorithmic trading at breakneck speeds from the U.S. and Europe to India, Singapore and Brazil. Highlights of The Speed Traders Workshop 2011 include:
- The first and most comprehensive initiation to the world of high-frequency trading
- Study materials provided by Edgar Perez, the author of the latest book on the subject of speed trading, and a well-known presenter in America, Europe and Asia
- Latest update on high-frequency trading in the world and current regulatory initiatives
- Techniques to detect high-frequency trading in the markets
- Key enablers of high-frequency trading in the U.S., Europe and Asia
- Proposed regulatory initiatives after the “flash crash”
- Up-to-date review of the future of high-frequency trading
The Speed Traders, published by McGraw-Hill Inc., is the most comprehensive, revealing work available on the most important development in trading in generations. High-frequency trading will no doubt play an ever larger role as computer technology advances and the global exchanges embrace fast electronic access. The Speed Traders explains everything there is to know about how today’s high-frequency traders make millions—one cent at a time. In this new title, The Speed Traders, Mr. Perez opens the door to the secretive world of high-frequency trading. Inside, prominent figures drop their guard and speak with unprecedented candidness about their trade. For more about The Speed Traders, readers can visit its Facebook and Twitter pages, as well as the most popular online retailers, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Borders, among others.