The discussion went off course way before I dived in.
>Comes now 'cdroconnor. You're playing a semantic game. You're defining "HFT" as "bad HFT", and everything else as simple "electronic trading". FINE. Nobody disagrees with you, except on the very boring point of what labels to attach to things.
There is a very substantial non-semantic difference between robot-executed sub-millisecond trades (HFT) and trades which are are just executed electronically.
In every discussion about HFT the probability of someone falsely attributing the decreased transaction costs of "not shouting in a pit" to algorithms that execute sub-millisecond transactions approaches 1.
>But your argument here doesn't make any sense for the thread, because the good simple electronic trading you're condoning is also targeted by the cancellation regulation Clinton proposed
I'm no particular fan of that either. I'd prefer Italian style micro-transaction tax. That wipes out nearly all of the sub-millisecond trading and leaves the rest intact, including market making.
You've made it very clear how important it is to you that we call benign electronic trading --- and, I infer, electronic market making --- something other than "HFT".
What you haven't made clear is why you believe you're actually arguing with anyone here. I am 100% certain, because I've had the conversation with him multiple times, that 'kasey_junk agrees with you that there is such a thing as malignant electronic trading.
Exactly what is the controversy here? The people who are talking about HFT reducing spreads are talking about benign electronic trading, and none of them appear to be denying that there are other kinds of electronic trading.
>What you haven't made clear is why you believe you're actually arguing with anyone here. I am 100% certain, because I've had the conversation with him multiple times, that 'kasey_junk agrees with you that there is such a thing as malignant electronic trading.
I was arguing that sub-second algorithmic trading cannot be credited with substantially reducing spreads in the early 00s.
kasey_junk linked to an article that claimed that.
It's a defense of HFT that's rolled out so often that it's practically become a cliche.
The discussion went off course way before I dived in.
>Comes now 'cdroconnor. You're playing a semantic game. You're defining "HFT" as "bad HFT", and everything else as simple "electronic trading". FINE. Nobody disagrees with you, except on the very boring point of what labels to attach to things.
There is a very substantial non-semantic difference between robot-executed sub-millisecond trades (HFT) and trades which are are just executed electronically.
In every discussion about HFT the probability of someone falsely attributing the decreased transaction costs of "not shouting in a pit" to algorithms that execute sub-millisecond transactions approaches 1.
>But your argument here doesn't make any sense for the thread, because the good simple electronic trading you're condoning is also targeted by the cancellation regulation Clinton proposed
I'm no particular fan of that either. I'd prefer Italian style micro-transaction tax. That wipes out nearly all of the sub-millisecond trading and leaves the rest intact, including market making.