The historical practice of stock exchanges providing specialists started on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in 1872.1 Up through the twentieth century, these specialists operated as market makers, ensuring market participants had timely and fair access to trades.2 The specialists had an affirmative obligation, in good times and in bad, to provide liquidity…
Tag: high-frequency trading
Investors Exchange: The Fair Stock Exchange
In September 2015, Investors Exchange (“IEX”), a company that became a symbol of the fight against high frequency trading submitted a proposal to the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) to create the first new American stock exchange in five years.1 This proposal has created a fierce debate over how to solve problems created by increasingly…
Spoofing: The Newest White Collar Crime
A day after Halloween, federal prosecutors spooked traders nationwide. In the first criminal prosecution of its kind, Michael Coscia was charged with spoofing.1 The indictment claims that he manipulated the futures market through two computer programs that he designed.2 Mr. Coscia is a high frequency trader, and the prosecution comes at a time when authorities…
A Market of Milliseconds: Unraveling the Tangled Future of High-Frequency Trading
In an increasingly digital society, innovative technology that yields speed and efficiency can serve to spark industry-wide trends and influence future practice for years, even decades, thereafter. When Steve Jobs introduced the first iPod in 2001, for example, Apple earned worldwide acclaim and provoked an incredible proliferation of similar devices.1 What, then, can be made…