Sunday, June 15, 2014

SEC eyes new HFT oversight

 

SEC eyes new HFT oversight

By: Kevin McCoy June 5, 2014 1:58 pm
 
SEC Chair Mary Jo White shown speaking at a May 2014 meeting of the Financial Stability Oversight Council. (Alex Wong, Getty Images)
SEC Chair Mary Jo White at a May 2014 meeting of the Financial Stability Oversight Council. (Alex Wong, Getty Images)
SEC Chair Mary Jo White Thursday outlined plans for new regulations to address the market impact of high-frequency trading and other computer issues.
Speaking at a New York City conference, White said the agency would soon propose rules that ultimately could:
  • Require high-frequency traders to register as broker dealers, extending new regulatory control over a sector that has largely avoided oversight.
  • Establish an “anti-disruptive trading rule” that could restrict high-frequency traders from executing short-term strategies that might disrupt markets.
  • Require firms to improve their management of trading algorithms and enhance regulatory oversight of their use.
“The SEC should not roll back the technology clock or prohibit algorithmic trading, but we are assessing the extent to which specific elements of the computer-driven trading environment may be working against investors rather than for them,” said White.
To that end, SEC will also work with stock exchanges in an effort to reduce disparities between the public data feeds used by small traders and the faster, proprietary feeds typically used by high-frequency traders, White said.
The market regulator will also examine the reliability and fairness of market data feeds, White said in her speech at the Sandler O’Neill & Partners Global Exchange and Brokerage Conference. The proposal is aimed at addressing alarm raised last August when a Nasdaq public data feed failed, halting trading in Nasdaq-listed stocks for hours.
Additionally, the SEC will work with Wall Street’s self-regulator, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, in an effort to expand disclosure by so-called dark pools, where trading takes place away from traditional stock exchanges. FINRA this week for the first time made some dark pool trading data available to average investors on a delayed basis.
The proposals mark the SEC’s broadest public response so far to rising public questions about the impact of high-frequency trading and other computer-driven transactions, which together account for a majority of U.S. trading. Those concerns have intensified since the recent publication of Flash Boys, a book in which author Michael Lewis argued the stock market is rigged against average traders.
White said the proposals would “further promote market stability and fairness, enhance market transparency and disclosures, and build more effective markets for smaller companies.”
However, some of the initiatives could face opposition from high-frequency traders. Many of the proposals would also require a vote by the full, five-member commission after a public comment period. That likely means enactment could be months or years away.
“In general, it’s a very reasonable regulatory approach to improving and strengthening the markets,” said Peter Nabicht, senior advisor of Modern Markets Initiative, an advocacy group organized by firms involved in quantitative or high-frequency trading.
But he cautioned any regulatory changes pressed by the SEC should seek speed improvements in the public data feeds used by average investors, rather than try to slow the proprietary feeds that facilitate high-frequency trading. MMI will support “a reasonable, data-driven approach to improving the markets for investors,” said Nabicht.
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Lawsuit targets financial exchanges over HFT

Cameron Saucier and Kevin McCoy, USA TODAY7:52 p.m. EDT June 7, 2014
 
Thirteen major U.S. financial exchanges, including the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, are targets of a recently-filed federal lawsuit that accuses them of improperly giving high-frequency traders priority access to trading data over other investors.
Filed in Manhattan federal court in New York, the civil action said the stock and options exchanges and their subsidiaries enabled high-frequency traders equipped with lightning-fast data feeds to get vital market data — and trade on it — in advance of other investors.
"This is a case about broken promises," said the 37-page complaint, which seeks class-action status. The data "is still en route from the exchanges" to average investors long after high-frequency traders "have received, and acted on, the information to their advantage."
The financial exchanges have not yet filed responses to the allegations because the lawsuit is in a very early court stage.
Nonetheless, the case potentially represents a major legal challenge amid rising public concern about high-frequency trading. That concern has been spurred by the recent publication of Flash Boys, the book in which author Michael Lewis argued that U.S. stock markets are rigged.
The complaint comes days after Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Mary Jo White announced plans that could rein in high-frequency trading with new regulations.
England's The Guardian and U.S.-based Marketwatch first reported the filing Saturday.
The lawsuit is led by prominent lawyer Michael Lewis, who gained fame from successfully wrestling billions from the tobacco industry through legal actions 20 years ago. The attorney is unrelated to the author.
In an interview with the Guardian's weekend magazine, attorney Lewis characterized the action as a skirmish in a larger war against concentrated wealth and political power.
"The illusory market – the market that the investor sees when he looks at his monitor – is anywhere from 1,500 to 900 milliseconds old," said Lewis. "That doesn't sound like much, because the blink of an eye is 300 milliseconds. But that's a long, long time in the world of HFT."
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Senators fret over high-frequency commodity trades
Laurel White, Medill News Service, May 14, 2014
WASHINGTON — Senators are fearful that high-frequency traders are getting an unfair advantage and endangering the stability of the U.S. futures market, the financial exchange for commodities like corn and gold. But industry experts warn against rushing to impose new regulations.
"These markets have changed dramatically over the years – for a 21st century market, we need a 21st century regulator," said Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., who called a hearing of the Senate Agriculture Committee she chairs to consider the issue.
High-frequency trading, the practice of utilizing high-speed fiber optic connections and computer algorithms to trade, has become a hot topic in recent months. Some say high-frequency traders have unfair advantages, "jumping the line" before other traders. Industry experts worry about a repeat of the 2010 "flash crash," which saw a precipitous drop in the market. A federal report found that high-frequency trading accelerated and contributed to the crash.
The Justice Department and the Securities Exchange Commission are investigating alleged abuses by high-frequency traders in the equities market. Stabenow said she is concerned about the potential for similar abuses in the futures market, which operates separately.
Some experts say increased regulation of high-frequency trading isn't the answer to ensuring integrity in the commodity futures market.
"What is really driving this is a fear that (electronic trading) could go out of control," said Scott Irwin, professor of agricultural and consumer economics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. "I don't believe that's a valid concern."
"I think you have to be very careful in evaluating regulatory changes," said Pete Kyle, professor of finance at the University of Maryland.
Instead, Kyle said serious concern should be given to dwindling staffing levels at the federal agency that oversees the futures market, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
"They don't have the staff to do what they're required to do," he said.
The commission, which picked up a raft of new responsibilities under the 2009 Dodd-Frank Act , has lost staff in recent years. Its division of market oversight, which is responsible for rules enforcement and market surveillance, is operating with "about 109 employees," down from 130 or so in 2012, according to Vince McGonagle, director of the division.
"We do face substantial staff shortages," McGonagle said at the hearing.
The president of CME Group Inc., which runs the nation's largest futures exchange, told the senators he would welcome increased oversight by the CFTC.
"I don't believe the CME has a credible business if we don't have a credible regulator," Duffy said.

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