FINRA Bans Spoofing and Layering Practices In Its Markets
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the US self-regulatory organization serving the NYSE, Nasdaq and other US-based exchanges, has submitted a proposal to the US Securities and Exchange Commission to sanction trading practices commonly known as “spoofing” and “layering.” FINRA has proposed adding provisions to Rule 5210 of the US Securities Exchange Act of 1934...
Integration and Development Capabilities Sell Vontobel On Horizon Platform
Zurich-based Vontobel, which has CHF 187 billion in assets under management, chose Horizon Software’s Horizon Platform for Automated Trading (HPAT) for its electronic trade execution because of the platform’s ability to develop algorithms, handle reporting, meet compliance requirements and integrate in a timely and low-risk manner with the firm’s trading environment, according to Sylvain Thieullent,...
Key to the Highway: The Changing Face of High and Low Touch Execution
By: Steve Grob, director at Fidessa In the beginning, there was high touch, where brokers provided a high-value, solution-based approach to finding the liquidity their buy-side clients were looking for. This worked in an era of high fees and low scrutiny of what end investor trading commissions were actually funding. But as markets electronified, and...
All Along the Watchtower: How MiFID II’s Impact on the Front Office Is Driving Banks to Mutualise
By Dan Barnes Bob Dylan’s lyric, ‘There’s too much confusion, I can’t get no relief,’ resonates in the world of capital markets. It encapsulates the relentless regulatory and systemic turbulence. Under the EU’s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) coming into force in 2018, firms active in Europe will be hit with many new...
Tumbling Down the Rabbit Hole
By Christian Voigt, Senior Regulatory Adviser at Fidessa With much of the MiFID II Level 2 text close to being finalised, the markets continue to dive even deeper into the details and home in on Level 3 material, such as the Q&As and ESMA guidelines. One such detail lies in the phrase “traded on a...
Everything You Need to Know About MiFID II
The deadline for MiFID II compliance has been delayed to January 2018, but it remains tight with firms continuing to implement projects that satisfy the directive’s rules on issues including regulated trading platforms, algo testing, high frequency trading and surveillance. There is also work to be done on record-keeping, voice recording, and trade reconstruction. And...
True Innovation?
By Chirstian Voigt, a Senior Regulatory Adviser at Fidessa The recent slew of exchange announcements introducing new dark trading facilities in response to MiFID II would appear to suggest that the regulation has triggered a whole raft of innovations. But is that what’s really happening here? Euronext tells us it is planning to introduce a...
The IDX Roadshow Rolls into Town
June in London means it’s time for IDX – the International Derivatives Expo, the Futures Industry Association’s conference focusing on regulatory and technology issues facing that particular segment of the marketplace. We managed to stop by and say hi to some friends and clients, and savour the atmosphere of this microcosm of the Chicago market....
Sea Otter Implements Itiviti’s Tbricks Platform for ETF Market Making
Sea Otter Global Ventures, a private investment firm based in New York, has implemented Itiviti’s Tbricks platform for exchange traded funds (ETF) market making on NYSE Arca. The firm is a registered market maker on the exchange and deploys proprietary models to trade international ETFs. The Tbricks platform uses an app-based architecture and is provided...
The Role of Real-Time Surveillance in a World of Slow Enforcement
BATS Trading is fed up of being spoofed. On 18 February 2016, the alternative US exchange operator founded in 2005 by high-frequency trading guru Dave Cummings, asked US market regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to shorten the time it takes to suspend trading accounts of firms engaged in ‘spoofing’ and ‘layering’ (for BATS...