I've been reading a lot of the Themis Trading blog ( http://blog.themistrading.com/ ) lately. Themis Trading is at the forefront of the war against high-frequency trading (HFT). Their blog has many interesting articles outlining why HFT, in conjunction with our modern for-profit exchange model, has resulted in a market whose purpose is no longer capital formation for fledgling new companies and instead is profits at any cost for the exchange and the fast machines.
I would rather this thread not become another bitch-fest on HFT, where the losers whine about how unfair the market is, the successful guys come along and say "hey I don't like it either but adapt or die," then the successful guys get flamed for being "HFT leeches."
My personal opinion on HFT - which I'm sure coincides with that of most the successful professionals on this board, is that HFT works to our disadvantage; even if we're no longer trading manually, our algos still can't compete with the speed of the colocated machines. Regardless, the market is what it is, there is some opportunity to trade against the machines and be right, and there are still plenty of opportunities in the market, even with reduced retail participation.
Again, I'd rather not get into a debate on HFT - there are plenty of threads on that subject. I'm more curious about Themis, who appears to be a brokerage that works with institutional clients.
As I read through the Themis blog, then their main website, the thought that struck me overwhelmingly was: why would I want to use these guys if I were a large institutional client? Anyone who complains this much about our current market structure can't possibly be working within it to get the best possible fill.
One could argue that Themis is excellent with execution, and the limitations of their abilities are the profits of HFT machines. Other brokers don't bring these issues up and instead quietly sell their orderflow to Citadel; Themis, on the other hand, has their clients best interests at hand and fights for it. Personally, I don't get that impression.
On the page of their website titled "The Themis Approach," they have this quote.
"Weâve seen Reg ATS and NMS, the proliferation of electronic market centers, and the conversion of formerly great American exchanges from non-profit organizations into for-profit publicly traded companies."
Formerly great American exchanges? Getting ripped off by 1/8th (12.5 cents) by the NYSE specialist is worse than getting ripped off for 1.9999 cents by the colocated machines?
Are these guys truth tellers on the forefront of the fight for the integrity of the American exchanges or simply ludites left in the dust trying to justify their poor executions to their clients?
I would rather this thread not become another bitch-fest on HFT, where the losers whine about how unfair the market is, the successful guys come along and say "hey I don't like it either but adapt or die," then the successful guys get flamed for being "HFT leeches."
My personal opinion on HFT - which I'm sure coincides with that of most the successful professionals on this board, is that HFT works to our disadvantage; even if we're no longer trading manually, our algos still can't compete with the speed of the colocated machines. Regardless, the market is what it is, there is some opportunity to trade against the machines and be right, and there are still plenty of opportunities in the market, even with reduced retail participation.
Again, I'd rather not get into a debate on HFT - there are plenty of threads on that subject. I'm more curious about Themis, who appears to be a brokerage that works with institutional clients.
As I read through the Themis blog, then their main website, the thought that struck me overwhelmingly was: why would I want to use these guys if I were a large institutional client? Anyone who complains this much about our current market structure can't possibly be working within it to get the best possible fill.
One could argue that Themis is excellent with execution, and the limitations of their abilities are the profits of HFT machines. Other brokers don't bring these issues up and instead quietly sell their orderflow to Citadel; Themis, on the other hand, has their clients best interests at hand and fights for it. Personally, I don't get that impression.
On the page of their website titled "The Themis Approach," they have this quote.
"Weâve seen Reg ATS and NMS, the proliferation of electronic market centers, and the conversion of formerly great American exchanges from non-profit organizations into for-profit publicly traded companies."
Formerly great American exchanges? Getting ripped off by 1/8th (12.5 cents) by the NYSE specialist is worse than getting ripped off for 1.9999 cents by the colocated machines?
Are these guys truth tellers on the forefront of the fight for the integrity of the American exchanges or simply ludites left in the dust trying to justify their poor executions to their clients?
