EPTA News

  • Flash in the pan?

    A lot can change in a year. This time last year, the publication of Michael Lewis’s Flash Boys book created something of a storm.

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  • A look at the year gone by

    In Europe 2014 has been the year of MiFID II, with the year opening with the landmark political agreement in the second week of January, and the second consultation paper (technical standards) approved by ESMA on the 18th December.

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  • High Frequency Trading or High Frequency Technology

    High frequency trading has been a hot topic for debate this year, as well as the focus of regulators’ attention, but are we talking about the wrong thing?

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  • Why the ‘real economy’ needs efficient markets

    For those of us with a professional involvement in the financial markets, it’s easy to lose sight of the wood for the trees: we’re so buried in the complexity of how markets function that we often forget to explain the big picture. Worse, even: the language we find necessary to explain our complex system among ourselves is almost impenetrable from the outside.

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  • EU legislation: a delicate balance

    With EU legislation in the hands of both political and regulatory institutions, getting the balance right between these powers is of critical importance to the effectiveness of market policy.

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  • FIA EPTA Responds to ESMA Consultation on Market Abuse Regulation

    The FIA European Principal Traders Association responded on Oct. 15 to the European Securities and Markets Authority's consultation papers regarding the Market Abuse Regulation.

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  • In efficient markets, arbitrage opportunities are hard to come by — and that’s a good thing

    Those who believe that HFT trading firms are making easy money through arbitrage strategies in the equity markets have missed a tremendous evolution in arbitrage over the last 10 years.

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  • Who are the participants in modern markets?

    It has been noted many times over recent weeks and months (not to mention years) that the current market structures are complex and difficult to understand as an outsider.

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  • Crossing the jargon jungle

    The financial services industry is well-known for its complex terminology, incomprehensible to anyone outside the sector – perhaps even to some active in it.

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  • Dark pools

    I was recently interviewed on CNBC about high frequency trading and dark pools in Europe. Steve Sedgwick raised some interesting questions during the interview, which I wanted to address further here.

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