How Does High-Frequency Trading Affect Low-Frequency Trading?

High-frequency trading dominates trading in financial markets. How it affects the low-frequency trading, however, is still unclear. Using NASDAQ order book data, the authors investigate this question by categorizing orders as either high or low frequency, and examining several measures. They find that high-frequency trading enhances liquidity by increasing the trade frequency and quantity of low-frequency orders. High-frequency trading also reduces the waiting time of low-frequency limit orders and improves their likelihood of execution. The results indicate that high-frequency trading has a liquidity provision effect and improves the execution quality of low-frequency orders.     

Price discovery and the effects of fragmentation on market quality: evidence from Cypriot cross-listed stocks

Using a novel high-frequency data set, we examine the contribution of Greek trading to the price discovery process of a pair of Cypriot blue-chip, cross-listed stocks during overlapping trading hours. Additionally, we investigate the effects of market fragmentation on the home market’s quality, as measured by microstructure-based liquidity measures. Contrary to earlier studies from other markets, our findings show that foreign stock exchanges can act as the leading contributors to price discovery and can concentrate the majority of trading activity and produce the lowest transaction costs. Our results also show that market fragmentation can lead to negative effects on market liquidity.     

Asset Markets and Endogenous Liquidity

In financial markets characterized by imperfect depth, speculative trading will have transitory effects on the market price as market makers must be compensated for the risk of holding the asset. The number of people providing liquidity to a market will generally be endogenously determined by the quantity of liquidity demanded. This paper looks for evidence of endogenous liquidity provision in several international stock and bond markets. Evidence shows strong support for these speculative dynamics in the stock markets. The evidence for these dynamics is less striking with fixed‐income prices, consistent with the less speculative nature of these markets.     

Time,trading and algorithms in financial sector security

This article examines the financial security issues raised by the rapid development of high-frequency trading (HFT). HFT involves automated algorithmic trading of financial instruments where the objective is to reduce the time scale between the initiation and execution of trades to microseconds (or even nanoseconds) so as to reap competitive advantage. After outlining the contours of a HFT world, the presentation goes on to discuss some of its important consequences and implications. Several matters are discussed in this context: market manipulation, hacking, index construction and violence. Of particular significance for the notion of financial security is the issue of time as embodied in algorithmic trading. In turn this raises concerns over the regulation and management of this new field of financial innovation and trading activity.     

Rolling settlement and market liquidity

This paper investigates the impact on UK stock and option markets of the change from an account based settlement system to a rolling settlement procedure. Such a change increases the transaction costs of short-term margin traders, and is likely to impact on the liquidity of the underlying market, as well as trading in the options market. Evidence is presented that the settlement procedure does impact on the liquidity of the market. Further, we find that rolling settlement increased market liquidity, consistent with the exit of margin traders as a result of the increase in short selling costs. Associated with this increase in liquidity is a significant reduction in nonoptionable stock trading volume, implying that margin trading may have been more prevalent in stocks without options. Finally, it is shown that while trading in stock options increased, the volatilities implied from call and put option prices indicate that put options have become relatively more expensive. This reflects the change in demand induced by the new settlement procedure, especially in terms of the increase in short selling costs.     

中国股市隐性交易成本影响因素分析

在电子指令驱动的交易制度下,中国股票价格、市场深度、知情交易概率、信息冲击、股价波动和买卖指令的不平衡性,都是影响隐性交易成本的因素;中国股市流动性、波动性和有效性,都对隐性交易成本产生影响,即流动性差、有效性低、波动性高会导致隐性交易成本增大.这一结论从实证上得到了验证.因此,隐性交易成本是衡量股票市场运行效率的一个综合性指标.     

Monetary Policy Announcements,Communication, and Stock Market Liquidity

Using the high‐quality intraday transaction data from 2001–2012, we investigate changes in stock market liquidity in response to the monetary policy announcements of the Bank of Korea (BOK). We find that liquidity impairment associated with informed trading occurs prior to the announcements but it disappears subsequent to the global financial crisis. In addition, liquidity impairment appears to become more severe with insufficient experts' predictability and accuracy rather than with policy rate change itself and unscheduled announcements. Finally, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) announcements, changes in the Volatility Index (VIX), and trading by foreign investors play a limited role in explaining stock market liquidity changes. Overall, results indicate that central bank communication plays a significant role in reducing liquidity impairment by enhancing the predictability of policy actions, and therefore, mitigating information asymmetry.     

货币流动性过剩、噪声交易与资产价格波动

流动性过剩与投资者主体行为是影响资产价格波动的两个重要因素,通过将流动性过剩引入噪声交易模型,并在此基础上结合我国资本市场运行情况进行了分阶段的实证检验,发现我国长期存在流动性过剩现象,在资本市场平稳运行期间,流动性过剩与资产价格保持协整关系,而在资本市场过度波动时期,这种协整关系消失了,投资主体的行为特征成为这一时期资产价格的主导因素。从2000年至今的整个样本时期来看,流动性过剩并不必然导致资产价格上涨,但却对资产价格有潜在的冲击和抬升作用,因此是资产价格上涨的充分非必要条件。     

How Low Can It Go? Analysing the Political Economy of Carbon Market Design and Low Carbon Prices

Despite the ascendency of carbon pricing as a key regulatory strategy for governing anthropogenic climate change, insufficient attention has been paid to the issue of price discovery in emission trading schemes, now the dominant form of carbon pricing globally. By analysing the political economy of carbon market design, this paper highlights a number of design features that are instrumental in depressing carbon prices across the world’s emission trading schemes, keeping them well below those considered necessary to spur deep emission reductions in order to avoid catastrophic global warming. In doing so, it advances critiques of carbon trading by illuminating the extent to which carbon markets manifest as expressions of specific power relations rooted in the political economy of advanced capitalism, with low prices ensuring minimal disruption to business as usual.     

Return spillovers around the globe: A network approach

We study the connectedness of a sample of 40 stock markets across five continents using daily closing prices and return spillovers based on Granger causality. All possible 1560 return spillovers between 40 markets create a complex network of relationships between equity markets around the world. Apart from analyzing the topological and time-varying properties of the created networks, we also identify the determinants of the connectedness of equity markets over time. Adjusting for non-synchronous trading, our modelling approach leads to evidence that the probability of return spillover from a given stock market to other markets increases with market volatility and market size and decreases with higher foreign exchange volatility. We empirically show that the temporal proximity between closing hours is important for information propagation; therefore, choosing markets that trade during similar hours bears an additional risk to investors because the probability of return spillovers increases.     

市场分割下中国股市反馈交易实证研究——来自A股、B股和H股市场的经验证据

文章在行为资本资产定价模型(BCAPM)的基础上,通过借鉴Watanabe(2002)的方法,建立了GJR-GARCHM(1,1)-M模型,充分考虑中国股票市场处于分割状态的现状,使用基本覆盖A股、B股和H股市场全部交易历史的市场指数日收盘价数据,对A股、B股和H股市场的反馈交易行为进行研究和比较,结果显示:A股和B股市场都存在显著的正反馈交易效应,反馈交易行为主要取决于波动率水平和市场涨跌两个因素;与成熟股票市场类似,H股和红筹股市场的正反馈交易行为不显著;A股市场的反馈交易行为受市场涨跌因素影响更大,而B股市场的反馈交易行为主要由波动率水平决定;深市比沪市更容易出现正反馈交易者主导市场的现象。文章的研究不仅对行为资本资产定价理论的成立提供了经验性证据,而且对投资经理的实践操作和政策制定者的监管调控都具有一定的参考价值。     

THE DYNAMIC RELATION BETWEEN RETURNS,TRADING VOLUME,AND VOLATILITY: LESSONS FROM SPILLOVERS BETWEEN ASIA AND THE UNITED STATES

This paper investigates the dynamic relationship between index returns, return volatility, and trading volume for eight Asian markets and the US. We find cross‐border spillovers in returns to be non‐existent, spillovers in absolute returns between Asia and the US to be strong in both directions, and spillovers in volatility to run from Asia to the US. Trading volume, especially on the Asian markets, depends on shocks in domestic and foreign returns as well as on volatility, especially those shocks originating in the US. However, only weak evidence is found for trading volume influencing other variables. In the light of the theoretical models, these results suggest sequential information arrivals, with investors being overconfident and applying positive feedback strategy. Furthermore, new information causes price volatility to rise due to differences in its interpretation among traders, but the subsequent market reaction takes the form of adjustment in price level, not volatility. Lastly, the intensity of cross‐border spillovers seems to have increased following the 1997 crisis, which we interpret as evidence of increased noisiness in prices and diversity in opinions about news originating abroad. Our findings might also help to understand the nature of financial crises, to predict their further developments and consequences.     

T+1 trading mechanism causes negative overnight return

The T+1 trading mechanism is unique in the Chinese stock market, thus providing a natural experimental field to study the trading mechanism and price behaviors. This paper proposes and proves that T+1 trading mechanism causes negative overnight return, the overnight return can serve as a proxy of the T+1 trading mechanism. The paper finds that the overnight return of the Chinese stock market is significantly negative, whereas those under the T+0 trading mechanism, such as China’s stock index futures, Hong Kong stocks, and major international indices, all have around 0 or positive overnight returns. T+1 trading mechanism has greater impacts on stocks with more divergent investor opinions, higher risk, more individual investor percentages, higher arbitrage restrictions, and less liquidity. The T+1 trading mechanism distorts the price generation mechanism of stocks. The paper contributes to the understanding of impact of trading mechanism on stock prices.     

Big Data Algorithmic Trading Systems Based on Investors’ Mood

Traditional automated trading systems use rules and filters based on Chartism to send orders to the market, aiming to beat the market and obtain positive returns in bullish or bearish contexts. However, these systems do not consider the investors’ mood that many studies have demonstrated its effects over the evolution of financial markets. The authors describe 2 "big data" algorithmic trading systems over Ibex 35 future. These systems send orders to the market to open long or short positions, based on an artificial intelligence model that uses investors’ mood. To measure the investors' mood, the authors use semantic analysis algorithms that qualify as good, bad, or neutral any communication related to Ibex 35 made on social media (Twitter) or news media. After 1.5 years of research, conclusions are: First, the authors observe positive returns, demonstrating that investors’ mood has predictive capacity on the evolution of the Ibex 35. Second, these systems have beaten the Ibex 35 index, showing the imperfect efficiency of the financial markets. Third, big data algorithmic trading systems numbers are better in Sharpe ratio, success rate, and profit factor than traditional trading systems on the Ibex 35, listed in the Trading Motion platform.     

Compensation schemes,liquidity provision,and asset prices: an experimental analysis

In an experimental setting in which investors can entrust their money to traders, we investigate how compensation schemes affect liquidity provision and asset prices, two outcomes that are important for financial stability. Compensation schemes can drive a wedge between how investors and traders value the asset. Limited liability makes traders value the asset more than investors. To limit losses, investors should thus restrict liquidity provision to force traders to trade at a lower price. By contrast, bonus caps make traders value the asset less than investors. This should encourage liquidity provision and increase prices. In contrast to these predictions, we find that under limited liability investors increase liquidity provision and asset price bubbles are larger. Bonus caps have no clear effect on liquidity provision and they fail to tame bubbles. Overall, giving traders skin in the game fosters financial stability.     

融资融券交易的市场冲击效应研究——基于中国台湾证券市场的经验与启示

融资融券交易是证券市场的重要组成部分,它的推出会对整个市场产生何种影响是非常值得研究的问题.文章利用中国台湾证券市场的融资融券交易数据,从市场流动性与波动性角度研究融资融券交易对整个市场的冲击效应.研究结果表明,融资买空交易有助于提升整个市场的流动性水平,在一定程度上可以改善市场流动性水平相对不足的状况,但融券卖空交易对市场流动性水平没有显著影响;融资买空与融券卖空交易并未显著影响整个市场的波动性水平.文章建议证券监管部门可以将融资融券交易保证金率作为市场调控工具,通过适时调整保证金率调控整个市场,避免市场出现大幅震荡.     

卖空机制、股价信息含量与暴跌风险--基于融资融券交易的经验证据

文章利用我国逐步推出融资融券交易的自然实验机会,运用双重差分的研究设计,考察了卖空机制对股价反映负面消息效率的影响。文章以2007-2012年的数据为样本研究发现：相对于非标的股票,融资融券标的股票在成为标的之后,其股价对市场的向下波动及时做出了调整,使得股价对市场正负向波动反应之间的不对称性显著降低,表明标的股票更加及时和充分地吸收了有关公司价值的负面信息;同时,相对于非标的股票,融资融券标的标的股票在成为标的之后,其股价暴跌风险显著降低。文章结果表明,我国股市推出融资融券交易后,卖空机制提高了市场对标的股票负面消息的定价效率。     

Price Limits, Information Acquisition, and Bid–ask Spreads: Theory and Evidence

A number of futures markets use price limits which, in effect, preclude trade from occurring at prices outside certain exogenous bounds. Noting that such markets are characterized by heterogeneously informed traders, whereas previous work on price limits assumes symmetrically informed traders, we examine the effects of price limits in a setting where market participants are asymmetrically informed. We find that imposing price limits generally lowers the quality of information acquired in equilibrium, but lowers bid–ask spreads as well. Thus, depending on the relative weights placed by society on liquidity versus price efficiency, there may exist a set of price limits that are most efficient in achieving a trade-off between liquidity and informational efficiency. We perform empirical tests of some implications of the model using cross-sectional data on price limits. We find that price limits are strongly negatively related to both price volatility and trading volume. Though other explanations for our empirical findings cannot be ruled out, these results are not inconsistent with the model's implication that price limits should be tighter for contracts which offer greater profit potential for informed traders.     

Inducing liquidity in thin financial markets through combined-value trading mechanisms

Asset pricing theory hypothesizes that investors are only interested in portfolios; individual securities are evaluated only in terms of their contribution to portfolio risk and return. Yet, standard financial market design is that of parallel, unconnected markets, whereby investors cannot submit orders in one market conditional on events in others. When markets are thin, this exposes them to substantial execution risk. Fear of ending up with unbalanced portfolios after trading may even keep investors from submitting orders, further eroding liquidity and the ability of markets to equilibrate. The suggested solution is a portfolio trading mechanism referred to as combined-value trading (CVT). Investors are allowed to submit orders for packages of securities and the system matches trades and computes prices by optimally combining portfolio orders in an open book. We study the performance of the CVT mechanism experimentally and compare it to the performance of parallel, unconnected double auctions in experiments with similar parametrization and either a similar number of subjects or substantially thicker markets. We present evidence that our portfolio trading mechanism facilitates equilibration to the extent that the thicker markets do. Inspection of order submission and trade activity reveals that subjects manage to exploit the direct linkages between markets enabled by the CVT system.     

关于我国股市知情交易水平及其性质的实证研究

基于Easley、Hvidkjaer和O'Hara的序贯交易模型与PIN (Probability of Information-based Trading,基于信息的交易比率)指标对我国股市知情交易情况进行的实证分析研究结果表明:(1)我国股市信息不对称程度较高;(2)由于知情交易者利用坏消息的能力有限且流动性交易水平较高,我国股市知情交易比率并不太高;(3)知情交易比率与后续期间股票收益率的负相关性,表明我国股市中市场操控型知情交易比较严重.因此,我们认为应进一步完善上市公司的信息披露制度,降低投资者之间的信息不对称程度,同时确保流动性投资者参与股市的积极性;在引入做空机制时应慎重考虑和综合权衡,避免不适当地增加流动性投资者所承担的逆向选择风险水平,降低股市的流动性供给和风险分散功能;证券市场监管部门应进一步加强对异常交易活动的监控,加大对市场操纵行为的打击力度,以确保我国证券市场的健康发展.