FIA EPTA Blog
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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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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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Squeezing the middlemen
The need for middlemen in modern market structure has been much discussed since the publication of ‘Flash Boys’. The idea prevailing is that in today’s technological age middlemen are no longer needed to help market participants find each other, and are simply making easy profit at the expense of the little guy.
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Flash boys: a view from the inside
It has certainly been an interesting few weeks for traders around the world: since Michael Lewis’ book “Flash Boys” was published, the financial markets, and high frequency trading in particular, have hardly left the headlines.
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