Quote from stock777:
With all due respect to the vermin that have polluted this thread with their self aggrandizing bs, I offer this.
http://www.wilmott.com/blogs/paul/i...-Trading-Where-are-we-and-how-did-we-get-here
Paul Wilmott knows more about what is going on than any 10 of the BEST of you put together , and he agrees with my position.
Quote from brownegg:
Paul Wilmott knows a lot of math. And I do mean a lot of math, and I don't mean to underweight that.
In any case, you might ask where PW is coming from. The answer is mostly quantitative market-neutral (and of course derivatives pricing). And because HFT and the accompanying huge decrease in holding periods and microvolatility has hurt those games a great deal, it's not hard to see him having a negative opinion. I highly doubt he'd call himself unbiased on the issue.
The fact that you've heard of someone doesn't make them an expert. And to say he agrees with you is somewhere between delusional and sophomoric (appeals to authority, anyone?). I'll let the artwork speak for itself (I really can't do it justice).
+1 I totally agree with HFT not caring one bit about the relationship between value and price - however, many hedge funds will use HFT to trade around a core position with a bias. For example, if I think that XYZ is good for 6-9 points to the upside over the next 1-2 quarters, a hedge fund might impliment a HFT with a long-bias to increase profits on their position (HFTrading around a core position), essentially selling the small tops and buying the small dips all the way throughout the 6-9 points the PM decided on. This can result in an extra 30-50% on that call taking a 6-9 point move up to a 9-12 point call. While the HFT algo itself does not care one bit about price-to-value, it does have a bias and is only implimented because some HF PM has made the call that stock XYZ is priced cheap to its value.
Quote from Paul Wilmott:I am concerned about High-frequency Trading (HFT) for two main reasons: Reduction of the relationship between value and price; Potential for positive feedback.
^^ Here is the quote from the article that 777 is basing his copy/paste on. Someone in this thread already posted "those who know keep quiet" or something to that effect. I believe that many of the "Big Boys" in the HFT space are starting to use HFT to compliment longer term calls to either remain somewhat market neutral/hedged, to add to the direction of the PM's call, or others even implement HFT strategies when they need to get in/out of larger blocks so that the stock price isn't pushed around upon entry/exit of the trade.
As for potential for positive feedback (777 did you even read the article and do you know what PW means?), I think that "those in the know keep quiet" so we'll never really know what percent of HFT provides positive or negative feedback. I will say that being "Market Neutral" is BS unless it is a true Arb Strategy so I do agree that (since it is my opinion that most of the arbs have been saturated) most HFT algos provide either positive or negative feedback. The real issue is the liquidity card that was played to keep these things alive in the beginning because as some of us know, boxes can create illiquid markets in a hurry under the right conditions.
Quote from Joovenile Jatt:
I got nothing against HFT's persay, but if it is true that they have access to data milliseconds earlier than the rest of us, and hence can put an order in BEFORE an order that they see coming, then that's downright insider trading right there and they should be put in jail. Does anyone have any actual hard proof that this is what is occuring?
Think of it this way: It takes 134.4 milliseconds to travel around the equator at the speed of light. Go to ipchicken.com and find out what your external IP address is, then, from the command prompt (Start, Run, cmd <enter>) type âping xxx.xxx.xxx.xxxâ(whatever your IP address is) and then type âping latimes.comâ. I get an average of 9ms for my local ISP in NYC and I get an average of 70ms to ping the LA Times. When I ping my quote server from my trading computer I get an average of 0ms.
It takes time for the quotes and messages to travel through the copper or fiber internet lines. Given the ping times that I posted, if I were trading from home versus trading from LA, and could process and execute in 1ms, it would take approx 70ms for an order to reach LA from NYC, 1ms to process and 70ms to return to NYC (141ms total) whereas from NYC to NYC it would take 9ms to get to me, 1ms to process and 9ms return (19ms total). From trading computer to quote server is 0ms so if I round up to a whole ms Iâm looking at a max of 3ms to execute a trade versus 141ms that someone trading from LA over a retail ISP faces. It isnât that HFT systems are given quotes/data earlier than others, they position themselves to receive the data as fast as it is transmitted. In the example I provided (which is pretty real-world accurate) someone with a co-located server in NYC/NJ metro area (keep in mind NYSE/NASDAQ servers are located in NJ) could receive quotes, process data and return an order to an execution server easily over 125ms faster than someone in LA trading over a retail/cable/broadband internet connection.
The people in NYC are not âgivenâ the data any earlier, they simply receive it earlier because of their physical location and internet connection. This is a big difference that many do not understand â no one is given anything earlier and there is no insider trading. Anyone can pay for gigabit over fiber and co-lo in a NYC metro datacenter. To have it any other way is not possible, even if quotes were delayed by 10 seconds the co-located fast internet computers would still receive the delayed data earlier than someone halfway across the country over a retail connection.
The second part of your response, (and hence can put an order in BEFORE an order that they see coming) is simply not possible. The people with co-located computers can receive a quote faster but they also process and return an order faster so their order was most likely there before the quote even reaches LA. The frustrating part for many is that this misconception about people getting quotes earlier is compounded by the HFT using dark pools , so the order is out there but you cannot see it until your order shows up on the book or until their order executes. Unless you have an agreement for your broker to internalize your orders (where they can legally provide price improvement or pass on your order flow) then there is no way any HFT are seeing your order before it gets to an exchange.
I'm sure 777 is going to post more BS or childish pictures so if you want to discuss or have any questions feel free to either ask in this thread or send me a PM. I'll be happy to explain in more detail. Keep in mind this isn't lobbying for or against HFT, simply providing facts. I'm pretty sure I noted where I was giving my opinion versus providing factual information.