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The Impact Of Technology In The Capital Market?

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As technology becomes more prevalent in financial markets, regulators and investors are faced with new challenges that offer opportunities to shape capital market structure for years to come. The introduction of high-frequency trading has introduced new systems to financial markets, allowing for new and unique ways for firms to achieve profits. These trading firms develop algorithms with the purpose of exploiting developing trends and mispricings. Algorithmic traders found a niche in the capital markets and have been moving at lightning speeds to develop technology that operates at peak performance levels. Through exploitation of their speed and volume of trades, Algos have been able to take advantage of markets and woo exchanges at the …show more content…

This allowed HFT’s to have an inside look at the marketplace so that they could find the best way to make money. As exchanges developed, more volume was generated by the manic nanosecond reactions of HFT’s. Exchanges would, in turn, reward HFT’s with maker-taker fees. These traders would be rewarded for providing liquidity to the market (being “makers”), and investors on the other side who jumped the spread to fill an order would pay a “taker” fee. Payment for order flow was not the only way exchanges catered to HFT operations. Algorithm systems enjoyed the ability to process information in nanoseconds. Exchanges provided information systems that catered to these abilities, allowing the bots to process and execute on information before others in the marketplace. Exchanges would also benefit from this, as high-frequency trading firms increased trading fees and increased market data. While HFT operations and exchanges enjoy a mutually beneficial relationship, other market participants are often an afterthought. Although the increase in volume of trading and market information is helpful to many market participants, institutional traders and retail traders are frequently the victims of HFT predatory behavior. The speed of these trading operations allows them to penny jump orders in the marketplace, ultimately having a negative price impact for institutions. Maker-taker fees more often than not

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