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Germany Does What The SEC Hasn't - Prepares To Ban HFT
The EU assembly just voted affirmatively to impose a spate of rules to control 'high-frequency-trading that, as the WSJ reports, was advanced by Germany following their concerns that speedy traders have brought instability to markets. It is somehow reassuring that three-years after we first brought HFT to the mainstream's agenda, at least one nation is taking it seriously, doing something about it, instead of being filibustered into the 'liquidity-providing' meme. The rules will initially require registration, collect fees on excessive use of HFT methods, and install circuit breakers with the goals to "limit the risks associated with high-frequency trading" per a senior German FinMin; but the more stringent rules to come will have the greatest impact as they intend to include requirements for orders to rest on the exchange book for at least half-a-second, and potentially order-to-trade ratio caps. Not surprisingly, the HFTs believe a "one-size-fits-all approach would be very harmful." Indeed - to their profits.
Via WSJ: Germany to Tap Brakes On High-Speed Trading
BERLIN—Germany is set to advance a bill Wednesday imposing a spate of new rules on high-frequency trading, escalating Europe's sweeping response to concerns that speedy traders have brought instability to the markets.
The measure seeks to require traders to register with Germany's Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, collect fees from those who use high-speed trading systems excessively, and force stock markets to install circuit breakers that can interrupt trading if a problem is detected.
...
"The goal of the German law is to limit the risks associated with high-frequency trading," he said.
Germany's push comes as regulators and investors on three continents fret over the recent dominance of high-frequency traders, which often profit from paper-thin differences in stock and derivatives prices, and the role their computer programs may have played in some of the market's most frantic moments since the financial crisis.
In May 2010, in the so-called flash crash, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 1,000 points before recovering most of its losses within hours. The exact causes of the selloff are disputed.
More recently, Knight Capital Group Inc. KCG +5.21% lost $440 million in a computer trading glitch...
... Germany hopes its bill will put pressure on other European leaders to support EU-wide regulation for high-frequency trading.
... establish the Parliament's position on a number of stringent new rules, including "speed bumps" for high-frequency trading.
These include the requirement for orders to rest on the exchange order book for a minimum of half a second—an eternity for firms accustomed to trading in millionths of a second—before they can be canceled or modified, and penalties for high cancellation rates.
On Aug. 1, France introduced a high-frequency trading tax as one of the three levies that comprise its financial-transaction-tax package.
In the U.S., regulators have struggled to get a grip on the issue. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission this year formed a group to define high-frequency trading in order to better track it, while the Securities and Exchange Commission has announced plans to build a "consolidated audit trail" that can monitor frenetic trading activity.
The SEC also is investigating whether some high-speed firms use special advantages provided by exchanges to gain an edge over ordinary investors, according to people familiar with the matter.
...
Industry advocates caution against regulations that could hamper the ability of traders to react quickly to market shifts and manage their risks.
Imposing caps on the number of trades or instituting order-to-trade ratios, as proposed in the German bill, could restrict traders from being able to revise their quotes, the price at which they buy or sell stocks, based on new information, they say.
...
"We think a one-size-fits-all approach would be very harmful," warns Remco Lenterman, chairman of the FIA European Principal Traders Association, which represents firms that trade their own capital.
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Fuck yeah!!
Ich liebe Germany!
Next thing you know they're gonna put a speed limit on the Autobahn.
Not a bad idea considering all the drunks on the road.
I wish I could drive on a road like the Autobahn...the land is so flat in corn country you could drive for an hour before you hit any congestion. The problem here isn't other cars on the road ,it's that . the roads are so shitty
I've driven in Germany, and the most welcome (as well as somewhat terrifying) sight is this:
http://www.autobahnbound.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/autobahn-end-of-...
The no restrictions sign. You find them not just on highways, but also country roads. It is a great feeling not having the nanny state breathing so heavily on you, but all the accidents I've seen were fatal. Choice and responsibility in balance.
the no restriction sign on coutry roads means 100 km/h maximum. which is still more than in your country, but obviously a restriction. :)
We have plenty of fatalities in the states even with speed limits. And btw, since Germany invented most of the practices we related to Big Brother, I don't see how them having no speed limits in a few places is exactly a breath of fresh air. A friend of mine who was visiting Germany received a ticket for not wearing his seat belt while sitting in a parked car! I noticed when I was there that people are very, very law abiding, as in, they won't even jaywalk--that doesn't come from the state not leaning hard on people.
I noticed when I was there that people are very, very law abiding, as in, they won't even jaywalk
This depends very much on the region.
Speed limits in the US make sense, since speeds above 70 mph are close to suicide. Going at 100 mph in Germany feels like 50 mph in the US. And if you drive 100 mph on the Autobahn, don't use the left lane, because it is reserved for the fast cars.
But what about the liquidity? These paper-pushers stink of fear. Bring it.
Yeah the humanity! How will we live without the 'liquidity' provided by HFTs putting up orders for a single share lasting one microsecond?
SOL is a multibillion dollar Australian listed company. The most common trade in this stock is for one share at 13 bucks. On the 29/6 at 15:58, the SOL share price was ramped 3% by an algo trading five shares. Check out my slideshow on Australian securities fraud:
http://s1144.photobucket.com/albums/o489/_DrBenway/
Wow this will be a huge step if they go ahead with it. HFT is a plague on the markets.
http://silverliberationarmy.blogspot.ca/
Don't worry, the legislatiors will get the warning about pissing in the pool:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-09-26/europe-goes-pear-shaped
But Germany fighting HFT alone...LOL...
What we have here is a failure to communicate (by way of campaign contributions). The HFTs can easily solve this.
Anti-Nuclear-Power and now Anti-HFT? These krauts are after my own heart.
Looking out for the little guy - what a novel idea. In the land of the free, we have complete regulatory capture.
Cue the HFT whores on CNBC.
Paging Maria......please pick up the white courtesy phone...pronto!
FUCK HFT... Long Live Retail!
Dude....I get all my crap at Sam's Club.
This is not an endorsement until they pay me.....then it is.
HFT provides the liquidity of the wealthy and connected pissing down the backs of everyday people.
Where's the Athens riot-cam, Tyler?
Fucking bastards! They won't do shit to fix the problem. They will just tax the other sons of bitches, so they can share in the fucking revenue.
What needs to be done is to force exchanges to allow investors to tick on/off the option: "Do you want to route this order through an HFT infested platform or not? A higher trade fee may be applicable if you choose not to, but we guarantee your order will not be frontrun"
That would be just fine. Also what would be fine is to assess a fee for each transaction even if it gets pulled before a fill so as to avoid all the denial of service, or excuse me, bid stuffing, that takes place.
The bankers better hurry up and buy some people off so they can squash that clearly destructive bill.
If that and the imminent sanctions don't work, when do we start bombing them?
The End
Director .......... Financial Markets
Main Actor ........ Mario Draghi
Sponsored by the German Taxpayer
Handelsblatt declaring the "end of the Euro crisis".
LOL! Ze Germanz are declaring the Endsieg! You all know what comes next.
I really hope for their sake that it's satire.
Mary Schapiro, the ignorant and useless current chair"person" of the SEC doesn't think that HFT puts the average investor at a disadvantage. Heard those exact words from Schapiro on an AP news report Monday evening while I was driving. Almost drove into the ditch, I was so fucking beside myself. That is why NOTHING will ever be done by her.
dont forget she's a JEW....
The only thing one needs to know is that she is COMPLICIT.
She's an Luciferian Oligarch puppet, and the Oligarchs are NOT Jewish.
Her parting gift from FINRA may explain her views:
Some people think it's a good idea for regulatory officials to receive pay like the Wall Streeters they're supposed to reign in.
Turns out at least one of them already has - Mary Schapiro, who's now the head of the SEC.
In 2008, FINRA paid Schapiro almost $9 million ($8,985,334.02 to be exact).
: http://articles.businessinsider.com/2010-10-11/wall_street/29989801_1_finra-board-million-gift-incentive-compensation#ixzz27apWsyUN
flag as a sign of the apocolypse (1)
CFTC and SEC humilated again.
It's OK......they don't really seem to mind.
Pvt. Joe Bowers: Why me? Every time Metsler says, "Lead, follow, or get out of the way," I get out of the way.
Sgt. Keller: Yeah, when he says that, you're not supposed to choose "get out of the way." It's supposed to embarrass you into leading - or at least following.
Pvt. Joe Bowers: That doesn't embarrass me.
War on machines?
Duh. Thanks GERMANY. I hope you throw HFT in the trash where it belongs
How is that going to work exactly with German names listed on multiple exchanges?
Sounds potentially arbilicious...
That is the dilemna. One could add legal boilerplate to a security issuance which limited registering and listing of the security to a single exchange.
look at the euro/russian market. at least if you look at the charts thats what a real market should look like
A whole half second? Golly!
that is an eternity for HFTs
dont worry though, gOldman NutSachs will be bribing all German regulators in 3... 2... 1...
Agreed, WHAT IF THE FUNDAMENTALS CHANGE 1/4 SECOND AFTER I BUY?? Ugh. *snorts coke*
"A whole half second? Golly!"
I thought the same thing at first. But there's more to it than that...
'...at a minimum'
SEC can't. The exchanges just spent billions filling the floors below with super cooled artificial intelligence beowulf parallel processing computers with fiber trunk lines upstairs to siphon the beejesus out of the markets. What are they susposed to do call wrecking and hauling because of some low paid bureaucrats? Hell no they will bribe the SEC and maybe this time with bitcoin.
call wrecking and hauling?
What a wonderful idea!
Bring back carbon-based trading!
(I soppose that makes me a luddite.)
Just wait a minute... I the quest for fairness in the markets, the exchanges assure that all co-located machines have the same length cable.
The floor traders will have jobs again.
GERMANY, the DISGRACE of Europe
...the barbarians, who forced beautiful Europe to get down Zeus’ “back” and made her a prostitute.
...the unworthy Europeans, who in 1945 “took Europe down” from “Mount Olympus” and in 2012 relinquished “enslaved” Europe to the Phoenician loan sharks.
http://eamb-ydrohoos.blogspot.gr/2012/02/germany-disgrace-of-europe.html
.
Authored by PANAGIOTIS TRAIANOU
Whatever. The Greeks or anyone else wouldn't give two shits about Europe, EU or Euro if there wasn't any money involved.
A unified Europe always was and always will be a pipe dream.
So, Panagiotis Traianou stick that in your pipe and smoke it. I love your beaches and your goat cheese. I don't like paying 100x the going rate for it though. I come back with lots of hard cash when you have the Drachma and I can buy an island.
what you ecspect from a Grekkk
BTW, what's going on over at Waddell & Reed...nevermind.
Unintended consequences
Maybe Trade Station will start providing access to the DAX.
FUCK YOU GARY GENSLER...
FUCK YOU BART SHITOLN....
FUCK YOU MARY "IM A BANKER OWNED WHORE" SHAPIRO....
FUCK YOU BEN COCKSUCKER BERNANKE....
that is all....
Imagine what volumes will look like without the HFT leeches layering and spoofing all day. It'll be like the old Maytag repairman commercial....the guy sitting there waiting for the phone to ring.
Don't forget, the old Maytag repairman was able to pay his bills and make a living.
Good 'ole times ...
@walkure
Maytag went broke and finally sold out to Whirlpool. Very consistent with other iconic american companies - a failure to maintain quality and dependability and intense competition sealed their fate. Sad really. My old Maytags worked for 20 years with very little problem. I'd still have them if I hadn't sold my house.
Appliances "made in China" last 5 years - max
After 3 years the first troubles appear. Friend of mine is appliance specialist. He says buy "made in Germany" or "made in Korea" because you can't find "made in America" anymore.
They moved the manufacturing to China and re-branded it "Mayfail."
The PDs and the Fed will still be calling.
Old joke: Phone rings on the lumber desk. Both traders break out laughing.
It will have to wait until after the re-election.
SHUT THEM ALL DOWN (HFT)
THEN...when the casino keeps deflating...the muppets won't have anyone else to blame !!! LOL !!! shut them down !!!!
This snail trader called the TOP 1 day after QE3 (on Fri) at spx 1475, eur 1.315...oil @ $99, gold @ 1760 (ok top was 1775)
now spx @ 1445 or so, eur @ 1.285, gold @ 1750 or so.....soooooooo much for the HFT...been riding witchez!!!
u can blame the HFT or you can blame the casino managers and their abetters (QEorganizer)
correction: spx @ 1435..not 1440...was 1431 earlier today..see this is bc i don't "monitor" the casino every hour or every day..just RIDE BABY RIDE.
Stop already, there is no "market".
You like riding?
What is Ron Paul's position regarding regulating HFT's?
Whatever it is....you can be sure it's right.
But, he doesn't believe in regulations, right? I'm just asking.
Ron Paul doesn't believe in regulation is a ridiculous statement. He is not in favor of wild west shootouts in the streets just because he's pro second amendment and he's not for completely unregulated wild west wall st either.
His policy is that over-regulating suppresses free trade especially when it's lobbyists that pass the regulations through the auction house that is government and legislation on behalf of their corporate/banking interests. Also he states that often there is enough regulation and the regulators don't do their jobs like SEC, CFTC, FINRA were supposed to (see Bernie Madoff, AIG, Enron, etc) so there is no point in adding more stifling regulation; it benefits the biggest and wealthiest corporations that can hire the most lawyers and lobbyists to subvert or circumvent the intent of the regulation anyway while punishing the smallest companies that have a difficult time competing or even entering markets because of the massive barriers to entry and participation.
As far as HFT I'm sure if it was a new "tool" so to speak and it was unproven he'd probably say why not. But since it is proven that it does little to provide actual liquidity and only is used to make money without purpose or actual use and flow in the economy enriching very few to the detriment of the many I'd have to think he'd say it was utter shit (those are my words).
I don't think the problem here is "that HFT is used as a tool" but "that HFT is used as a tool to trade your money and you have no possible knowledge or choice about any of it."
If you have a broker, you get on the phone and talk to the broker, and say "what did you buy for me today." And then you say, "I want this" or "I want that".
With HFT, and the implicit ephemeral trading across the universe, dollars of yours find their ways into the most unsuspecting places ... opium laundering funds, porn sites, etc ... and you have nothing to do with it.
IMO, the great issue at the heart of HFT is an ownership one. You either own your money to the infinity decimal place or you don't.
HFT is a burglary tool, plain and simple.
"But, he doesn't believe in regulations, right? I'm just asking."
He believes in the strictest regulation of all... the free market.
But in the USSA very few people understand the free market as they've never seen or experienced such a thing. To have a free market, the market can't be hidden behind "machines" that are put there in order to 'game' the system. That's cheating and is not part of a free market.
He believes that if you are representing your product or service in a fraudulent manner, or just outright stealing gold (by skimming off the top or what have you), that you should be prosecuted.
Now, where's Jon Corzine!?
That's the problem, though--cheating very certainly is part of the free market. It's anything goes, no holds barred. That's why we have HFT to begin with--because there is no regulatory apparatus doing anything to prevent abuse. There is no higher authority that isn't bought. HFT is a ridiculous hack of the electronic systems that make up modern trading exchanges. That's all it is--some guys noticed "hey, we can do this and get this outcome" and it was game on ever after. It has nothing at all to do with the operation of stable markets, price discovery, or anything.
he probably thinks HFT is a venereal disease
HFT = Human Fucking Terminators
I can't believe you guys are falling for the headline. They're just "collecting fees" and installing "circuit breakers". In other words, the government wants their share and they want a control mechanism so none of their own inside deals go sour.
Is that Defcon?
looks like it
The SEC and the CFTC should talk to former floor brokers / traders to hear how they believe their careers were hijacked at the hands of the highwaymen , by definition one never sees a successful ambush.
Half a second is still way too fast...
I love Speedy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIrfp4I7528
"...requirements for orders to rest on the exchange book for at least half-a-second..."
Let's go for ten seconds, or 88 seconds - reduce it to human terms rather than Skynet terms.
What if this logic was taken to the extreme and trades had to left open for a 24 hour period.
HFT is the crucial point. It will never be abolished in the US and in the places under the control of the US. Simply because markets are controlled and rigged by fraudulent HFT.
The fastest and the most powerful HFT machine are owned by the market makers which get instructions from Geithner and/or the FED. HFT is a very strong power tool for Washington and London. But soon its gone. No more manipulation in big style and in the cheap way possible. HFT banks going to loose billions and stock markets are going to find a balance.
Huh thats hard stuff to swallow. Naked short selling becomes difficult. Since the naked selling has to be delivered. No more hiding possible. The deals have to be done if one wants to move the price of an asset. No immediate withdrawal possible. Now the counterparts can ask for delivery.
The last nail is the tax on each transaction. Even its very small it adds up, eating the profits and suddenly HFT is a thing of the past.
HFT may be bad, but aren't they really just slitting their own throats in the name of "what's right"? If the US SEC isn't going to do anything, aren't they just limiting their profits artificially?
Cue 3, 2, 1 we have lift off for first offshore HFT satelite
Manipulation by "false" orders should be banned completely. However, overbearing rules seriously create a high probability of a liquidity black hole. There is no meaningful floor system in place and it would be naïve to assume that price takers alone will create the continuous liquidity we are accustomed to.
Be caeful what you ask for.
The liquidity that HFT provides is false. If a share doesn't have real liquidity it is better to know this rather than be fooled by false liquidity.
Like everything else, there will be unintended consequences to this. Reg NMS had good intentions written all over it, and ultimately turned out to be an awful thing.
Germany just wants the Trades to run on time...
too bad the retail horse has left the barn - four more years - go mitt - go congress - yay
All we want is a $1 for every order submitted via HFT. Note: Submitted orders, not executed orders. Then order away.
They were the first with air bags.
The SEC and FINRA are inept and corrupt.
Wait for some lame excuse from both as to why the German "fix" can't be done in the US.
the way to go; name a financial EUro zone czar and ban all naked derivative plays, nationalise de facto all TBTF banks, get them to open ALL ther books, wash out the shadow banking crap, spin off the retail, mutual and pension fund activites, fukk the investment type to deep meat, ram it out of the system and hollow out their shit pile up by netting out and writing off their intra-bank interest and CDS type crap. Make all OTC deals transparent and legislate with total exposure of past shenanigans required.
Game over bankstas, prosecute, and let loose the hounds of hell on their backs.
If their intrabanks plays involve counterparty in US side; get FED to do likewise. Writte off that derivative play to zilch. Clean out the ponzi in the USA.
If they just outlawed RePurchase Agreements (REPO) the market would sort itself out.
If there was no REPO the banks couldn't cook the books and would have to claim bankruptcy.
'bout fucking time.
I've had it with these goddamned bots, frontrunning my penny shares to kingdom fuck.
WHAT WAS THAT?
DID YOU SEE IT?
A .0001 OF A SECOND FLASH CRASH OF GERMAN BUNDS
HERE. WATCH IT AGAIN.
FOOM
THAT'LL SHOW YA. PESKY GERMANS.
JUST MADE A MILLION ON THAT.
SIGNED -DALLEK 3000 BANKING COMPUTER
computers are in charge, bichez. Except in Norway.
We usually use the Microwaves to make pop corn, how the fuck they use it to make money?!
I smell a conspiracy theory here O_0
HFT is to the market as Meth is to humans.
Germany is absolutely right - market instability and crooked markets.
Only schnitzel fuckers and Bailouts Inc are in equities.
Fuck the Fed. Ben will have a hard life after his "chairmanship." You aint shit without it Ben.
This is good? Now Merkel's schnitzel gagging boy toys will have exclusive HFT rights in Germany, setting a precedent for the rest of the international criminal syndicate qua government.