High Speed Trading Unfair To Retail Traders

[infiniwang]

When they implement rules to shut out the HFT players, the spreads just widen and the liquidity available goes down. Then you people will be on these forums complaining about how the fastest players are still collecting and profiting from 25-cent spreads.

Maybe they'll go back to fractions.

 

[squirly309]

Excellent article, thanks for posting.

 

[slapshot]

Quote from OldTrader:

After you've been trading a while you eventually learn the lesson that you have to play a game where you maximize your strenghts and minimize your weaknesses.

As a retail trader your strength is never going to be 1) speed of execution or 2) cost of execution. Therefore, if you're playing this game you're going to lose.

What retail traders need to learn is how to identify the conditions that lead to large, more substantial moves that don't require speed of execution to participate in, and don't require extremely low cost to profit from.

OldTrader

thank you for such a coherent and factual post

 

[Cygnus Atratus]

CORRECTION: Its affecting both Institutional and Retail Investors

 

[infolode]

~Adapt or die~

Same theme, different decade.

 

[Johno]

Quote from infolode:

~Adapt or die~

Same theme, different decade.

+1

 

[zdreg]

wait until a transaction tax is instituted. the retail investors will pay . Goldman and other brokers will be exempt. wait till the uptick rule is reinstituted. Goldman will get around the uptick rule but not the retail investor. those are real disadvantages.

there are always people who have better tools. being small has its advantages. liquidity is not an issue especially if these people add liquidity by playing the ecn game.

 

[Xspurt]

Quote from vingbel:

This is why less and less retail traders are making money. At this rate, no one will be able to make a living trading on their own.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/24/business/24trading.html?_r=1&hp

Looks like a brilliant addition to the game to me. I like to think I'm pretty hot as a trader and often enter before the 1 min bar signals but I don't want to be 1st in. Oh no way! I want to follow the 1st hint that the market has reversed and if these guys cherry pick the price and that then moves the PA, good for them.

They have the kit to decide in milliseconds whereas I'm slow and need a few seconds to decide, so we are never really competing for the same price.

And their servers are co-lo compared to my slow everything. Even my indicators are slow compared to theirs. These guys are not my competition - they are my assistants confirming the action I want to take and we work beautifully together.

Don't you luv these algo kids?

 

[SNBthetrue]

I personnaly love this algo's... Don't forget they are anti-algo's or algo's killers

At this level it's !!only!! a game! However a game were you can see the path taken by this algos... As in the universe there is always a anti... the shadower it is the efficienter

What impress me particularly in the algos is what I call the wash machine... Have you ever seen this ?

 

[Xspurt]

Quote from SNBthetrue:



What impress me particularly in the algos is what I call the wash machine... Have you ever seen this ?

You got me there but I'm all ears (well eyes).

Is there a tumble drier or is that one to be invented? Or is it still the old hung out to dry?