You're now on the archive server. Commenting has been disabled.
Arthur Levitt's Continuing Quest For The Holy HFT
Arthur Levitt is on a crusade to prove just how innocuous HFT is, first in the WSJ yesterday, now on Bloomberg. This begs the question, if it really is so wonderful, why defend it so vociferously? Which, of Arthur's conflicted interests, has pushed so hard for this PR campaign?
At least here he acknowledges that he is an advisor to Goldman Sachs, without however providing much detail on that relationship.
"HFT is a net positive for the public: squeezing down spreads and costs, getting better execution and adding liquidity."
Once again, Arthur, can you please discuss Implementation Shortfall costs and how liquidity provisioning increasingly affects Slippage?
In the meantime, Senator Ted Kaufman continues his campaign against HFT, and dark liquidity, and for "a level playing field for investors." Perhaps it would be best if the two had a public conversation.
FOR RELEASE: August 17, 2009
CONTACT: Alex Snyder-Mackler (302) 573-6059
Kaufman on SEC Expanding Uptick Comment Period: “Way Beyond Deliberative”
WASHINGTON, DC – Sen. Ted Kaufman (D-DE) released the following statement today after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced it is again seeking public comment on reinstating some version of the uptick rule:
“For the markets to have credibility, we need urgency at the SEC to restore a level playing field for investors. The SEC’s process to date has been way beyond deliberative behavior. It’s been four months since the SEC proposed reinstating a version of the uptick rule, and we’re still in the comment period. What’s worse, if the SEC was going to seek additional comment, it should have issued immediately a proposed rule that short sellers must pre-borrow the stock or that DTCC implement a centralized “hard locate” system, two solutions that would end naked short selling with an enforceable rule that are still sitting on the SEC’s shelf.
I’m concerned the SEC is too worried about the effects of its proposed rules on convenience for high speed trading programs than it is on protecting investors through action. As we learn more every day about market developments like flash orders, co-location of servers at the exchanges, high frequency trading and dark liquidity pools, which have happened with SEC approval, I’m concerned the SEC still is not putting investor interests first.”
»
- 2728 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
Similar Articles You Might Enjoy:
- Senator Kaufman: "The Market Is Currently Heavily Fragmented And Dominated By High-Frequency Traders"
- Mary Schapiro: "We Need Significantly More Money"
- Levitt, Advisor To Goldman And Getco, Voices For HFT
- Whitney Tilson Probes Deeper Into High Frequency Trading
- Senator Kaufman Reminds Most HFT Issues Still On Table; Notes Rising Market Structure Concern By Regulators And Market Participants
I would love to see his monthly statement from GS????
I saw this "interview"; interviewers and Levitt reading directly from text supplied by .....GS?
He who pay's picks the script!!!
Levitt wishes the Clinton team had acted before derivatives got out of control.
I
good articles; good articles 4 slow news day ..http://www..
hat tip: finance news & finance opinions
Arthur Levitt is presently a Senior Advisor to The Carlyle Group, Promontory Financial Group, Getco and serves on the board of Bloomberg LP. He also became an advisor to the Goldman Sachs Group on public policy in June.
That's not news. Does it matter?
He must have been one of the most unbiased, objective SEC chairmen ever! He appears to have no prominent connections.
Maybe he's defending it so vociferously because of the constant flood of frothy, misinformed attacks coming from the naysayers who think that human traders should be the only ones to make money off the back of retail.
If they are not human, what do they need to make money for?
I am very skeptical of anything defined as "net positive for the public" especially by someone whose experience with the "public" is probably limited to paying his household staff.
Can someone please tell me at which point in the last 10/20 years the SEC has actually put investors first (and by investors i don't mean tbtf banks and their institutional clients)
This mother fucker represents everything that is WRONG with our "financial regulation"...
Here is what you do: Do a shitty job and deregulate which spawns a collapse.....all so ARTHUR can get a sweet ass pay check when you get done from none other than GOLDMAN.
Way to go Vampire Squid your Ex-regulator dollars are hard at work but what you don't realize is that people like him just validate all ....what do you call them again?....oh yea 'conspiracy theories'....
I spoke to an ex Goldma alumni (mang. dir. level) last week (just met him) ..... his words not mine, "I worked for Goldman Sachs but don't hold it against me..."
Your reputation is officially hitting scum bag level...
Note to Senator K: the SEC is a p.o.s. and so is your letter (a.k.a. a press release). Preparing for the election next year?
Not to Mr. L: Keep talking, you're the perfect crusader for things that are "net positive for the public".
Maybe everyone should start following all our political leaders money trail a lot more closely...seems everybody wants in on the pot (of GOLDman)
Art tells Bloomberg there's no front running going on. Of course, Art told Business Week in 2005 that AIG was fundamentally sound when he was collecting consulting fees from them.
What really frosts me about this bastard is that he carries himself, with the fawning support of the media, as some kind of paragon of virtue. He is one more regulator turned lobbyist whore, trading off the access he gained as head of the SEC for fees.
One of the worst things Levitt did was be so passive when Rubin, Greenspan et al were giving Brooksley Born the shove down on regulating derivatives.
Captured ex-regulator who loves Goldman and all things Wall Street. He thinks it's all about speed and shiny computers... the guy is a tech illiterate. Reading from a GS script.
Why doesn't he explain all the prop trading Goldman does? Goldman is a commercial bank supposedly... eh?
One of the worst things Levitt did was be so passive when Rubin, Greenspan et al were giving Brooksley Born the shove down on regulating derivatives.
Captured ex-regulator who loves Goldman and all things Wall Street. He thinks it's all about speed and shiny computers... the guy is a tech illiterate. Reading from a GS script.
Why doesn't he explain all the prop trading Goldman does? Goldman is a commercial bank supposedly... eh?
When was it, around 2 months ago when he showed up on Bloomberg when it was announced he was going to be helping out GS. Of course he's a Bloomberg guy too but the fawning and deference to the old whore was disgusting almost beyond my ability to keep my rasin bran down.
Being a loser with a decideidly lazy bent I marvel that an old fart like him will spend his last years being a shill for Pigmen. Why? I am incapeable of understanding it. Spend your summers in Nantuckt or the Hamptons with the grandkids. Take a sail. Take charge of constructing the moat and wall of your castle.
The nation’s leading financial officials – Levitt, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin, and his deputy Lawrence Summers – pummeled the proposal, saying it was dangerous to even discuss the idea. Led by Rubin, Levitt and Greenspan, the Clinton White House instead proposed a modest set of reforms. Months later, Clinton Administration officials walked away from their own recommendations, concluding the market could be best managed by the financial industry.
I was in Brooksley Born’s office when Larry Summers called and said, 'I've got 13 people in my office'," said Greenberger, to whom Born relayed the conversation. Summers told Born that the 13 were industry lobbyists, "and their view is that if you do this, just issue this release, it will cause the worst financial havoc since the end of World War II.”
The day after publication in the Register, Greenspan, Rubin and Levitt issued a news release “seriously question[ing] the scope of the CFTC’s jurisdiction,” and calling for Congress to take the matter out of Born and the Commission’s hands.
Had the proposal gone forward “it would have dramatically changed the situation we find ourselves in now,” he said.
Levitt wishes the Clinton team had acted before derivatives got out of control.
“The market was too large, too explosive in its growth to merely allow pure market forces to suffice as self-regulatory mechanisms,” he said. “I have some regrets about it, clearly.”
http://www.propublica.org/feature/former-clinton-official-says-democrats-obama-advisers-share-blame-for-marke
Don't kill our front run which will hinder the issuance of huge bonuses which will hinder the economic recovery which will hurt the treasury tax receipt which will hurt the Federal Reserve which will hurt treasury which will hurt banking which will then hurt joe-6-pack who may start the riot in the Capitol hill.
Exactly, if they are doing the job right they will be back.
I don't see the direct relation between what is happening to UBS clients and the secrecy of other bank accounts in the country, especially in banks that are not international.
good articles; good articles 4 slow news day ..http://www..
hat tip: finance news & finance opinions
Vampire Squid says HFT is healthy and nutritious for your bloodstream.
Maybe Artie could confer with Elliot:
Still a Chump's Game
"High-speed trading" produces not only the reality of a two-tiered market but also the probability of front-running—that is, illegally trading on information not yet widely known—that eats into the possible profits of the retail clients supposedly being served by these very same market players, violating the obligation of the banks to get their clients "best execution" without stepping between their customers and the best available price.
That sense of fair play in the market has been virtually destroyed by the bubble burstings and market drops of the past few years. Recent rebounds notwithstanding, most people now are asking whether the system is fundamentally rigged. It's not just that they have an understandable aversion to losing their life savings when the market crashes; it's that each of the scandals and crises has a common pattern: The small investor was taken advantage of by the piranhas that hide in the rapidly moving currents. And underlying this pattern is a simple theme: conflicts of interest that violated the duty the market players had to their supposed clients. It is no wonder that cynicism and anger have replaced what had been the joy of participation in the capital markets. Take a quick run through a few of the scandals:
http://www.slate.com/id/2225505
Is anyone surprise about the media push. this was an announced program taken by the wall street banks and I read the article on Bloomberg. What that means is that all you folks have to write letters to congress, etc and get off your asses before we take it up the ass once again
Translation, we worked on how can we increase the speed through computers to front run in micro-seconds and tell the public we're providing liquidity and decreasing spreads. He coughed twice before answering the front running question - other liars touch their nose while lying.
This guy looks like he is either hypnotized or posessed.