Humpty Dumpty: HFTs as Market Makers?

摘要

In the wake of May's Flash Crash - which much of the public and many politicians in Washington blame on high-frequency traders - regulators reportedly are preparing to give high-frequency traders market stabilization obligations. Since the HFT firms are making millions of dollars in good times, the thinking goes, shouldn't they be required to provide stability in bad times? During the Flash Crash, most high-frequency traders slowed or stopped quoting. And some even took liquidity out of the market by hitting the bids of others. Thus, as a group, they did exactly what the specialists on the New York Stock Exchange were not allowed to do, which would have violated high-frequency traders' positive and negative obligations - if they had had such obligations.