This paper links the recent fragmentation in equity trading to high frequency traders (HFTs). It shows how the success of a new market, Chi-X, critically depended on the participation of a large HFT who acts as a modern market-maker. The HFT, in turn, benefits from low fees in the entrant...

We study liquidity provision by competitive high-frequency trading firms (HFTs) in a dynamic trading model with private information. Liquidity providers face adverse selection risk from trading with privately informed investors and from trading with other HFTs that engage in latency arbitrage...

We study performance and competition among high-frequency traders (HFTs). We construct measures of latency and find that differences in relative latency account for large differences in HFTs' trading performance. HFTs that improve their latency rank due to colocation upgrades see improved...

We use the introduction of a fi nancial transaction tax (FTT) in France in 2012 to test competing theories on its impact. We find no support for the idea that an FTT improves market quality by a ffecting the composition of trading volume. Instead, our results are in line with the hypothesis that...

Trading activity surges associated with latency arbitrage are costly, as they lead to both lower liquidity and inefficient investments in order processing capacity that remains idle 90% of the time. A congestion message fee on liquidity-taking orders alleviates both concerns. The fee surges...

We study how stock price informativeness changes with the presence of highfrequency trading (HFT). Our estimate is based on the staggered start of HFT participation in a panel of international exchanges. With HFT presence market prices are a less reliable predictor of future cash ows and...

We study how the informativeness of stock prices changes with the presence of high-frequency trading (HFT). Our estimate is based on the staggered start of HFT participation in a panel of international exchanges. With HFT presence, market prices are a less reliable predictor of future cash flows...

Colocation services offered by stock exchanges enable market participants to achieve execution costs for large orders that are substantially lower and less sensitive to transacting against high-frequency traders. However, these benefits manifest only for orders executed on the colocated brokers'...

We examine the impact of increasing competition among the fastest traders by analyzing a new low-latency microwave network connecting exchanges trading the same stocks. Using a difference-in-differences approach comparing German stocks with similar French stocks, we find improved market...

Investors' Exchange LLC (IEX) is a newly approved public exchange that is designed to discourage aggressive high-frequency trading. We explain how IEX differs from traditional continuous double auction markets and present summary data on IEX transactions by trader class and or- der type. Our...