
What Is High-Frequency Trading (HFT)? How It Works and Example
James Chen, CMT is an proficient dealer, investment adviser,
and global marketplace strategist.
Katrina Ávila Munichiello is an skilled editor, writer,
reality-checker, and proofreader with extra than fourteen years of experience
walking with print and on line courses.
What Is High-Frequency Trading (HFT)?
High-frequency buying and selling (HFT) is a buying and
selling technique that uses effective laptop applications to transact a large
wide style of orders in fractions of a second. HFT uses complex algorithms to
analyze more than one markets and execute orders primarily based on market
conditions. Traders with the quickest execution speeds are generally greater
worthwhile than people with slower execution speeds. HFT is also characterized
through excessive turnover costs and order-to-alternate ratios.
Key Takeaways
Understanding High-Frequency Trading (HFT)
High-frequency buying and promoting is a kind of algorithmic
shopping for and selling. Traders are able to use HFT once they examine
essential records to make choices and entire trades in a recollect of some
seconds. HFT enables big volumes of trades in a brief quantity of time on the
same time as maintaining tune of market movements and identifying arbitrage
possibilities.
Some of the important aspect tendencies of
immoderate-frequency buying and promoting consist of:
Because of the complexities and intricacies concerned with
HFT, it isn't sudden that it is typically utilized by banks, different
financial institutions, and institutional consumers.
It have become famous whilst exchanges commenced to offer
incentives for businesses to add liquidity to the market. For example, the New
York Stock Exchange (NYSE) has a group of liquidity groups referred to as
supplemental liquidity companies (SLPs) that tries to characteristic opposition
and liquidity for present charges on the change.
The SLP changed into added following the fall apart of
Lehman Brothers in 2008 while liquidity modified right into a high-quality
problem for shoppers. As an incentive to corporations, the NYSE will pay a
price or rebate for imparting said liquidity. With lots and heaps of
transactions steady with day, this results in a massive quantity of earnings
Some of the fine-recounted HFT companies consist of Tower
Research, Citadel LLC, and Virtu Financial.
Advantages and Disadvantages of High-Frequency Trading (HFT)
Advantages
The predominant advantage of excessive-frequency trading is
the charge and simplicity with which transactions can be accomplished. Banks
and distinct investors are capable of execute a massive amount of trades in a
quick time period—usually within seconds.
HFT has progressed market liquidity and eliminated bid-ask
spreads that could have previously been too small. This became tested through
manner of including expenses on HFT, which led bid-ask spreads to growth. One
study weighed how Canadian bid-ask spreads changed even as the government
delivered prices on HFT. It placed that market-great bid-ask spreads multiplied
by way of thirteen% and the retail spreads extended via 9%.
Disadvantages
HFT is provocative and has been met with a few harsh
complaint. It has replaced some of provider-dealers and makes use of
mathematical fashions and algorithms to make decisions, taking human choices
and interaction out of the equation.
Decisions arise in milliseconds, and this may result in big
market movements without motive. As an specimen, on May 6, 2010, the Dow Jones Engineering
Average (DJIA) suffered its biggest intraday factor drop till then, declining
1,000 elements and dropping 10% in best 20 minutes earlier than developing all
over again. A authorities research blamed a massive order that brought on a
promote-off for the crash.
An extra critique of HFT is it permits big organizations to
profits at the cost of the little guys. Its so-known as ghost liquidity is also
a deliver of criticism: The liquidity provided by way of manner of HFT is
available to the marketplace one 2nd and lengthy long gone the following,
stopping buyers from clearly being capable of alternate this liquidity.
Large amount of transactions immediately
Improves marketplace liquidity
Removes small bid-ask spreads
Remves human selection-making and interaction
Speedy transactions must result in principal marketplace
actions
Traders cannot exchange liquidity
How Does High-Frequency Trading Work?
High-frequency buying and selling is an automatic shape of
trading. It includes the usage of algorithms to find out shopping for and
selling opportunities. HFT is typically utilized by banks, monetary
establishments, and institutional buyers. It allows these entities to execute
big batches of trades internal a short time body. Because everything is
automated, shopping for and promoting will become clean. HFT gives the market
with liquidity. But it could bring about critical marketplace movements and
removes the human contact from the equation.
Does the Cryptocurrency Market Use High-Frequency Trading?
Yes, excessive-frequency shopping for and selling does occur
in the cryptocurrency market. It works the equal manner HFT does in other
markets. Using algorithms, it analyzes crypto statistics and enables a massive
extent of trades proper away inside a quick time frame—generally inside
seconds.
How Fast Is a High-Frequency Trade?
High-frequency trading is rapid. It may be as rapid as 10
milliseconds. In a few instances, it may be even less to execute a big batch of
trades.
The Bottom Line
Advances in technology have helped many elements of the
monetary industry evolve, which includes the trading worldwide. Computers and
algorithms have made it less complicated to find possibilities and make buying
and selling quicker. High-frequency trading permits principal buying and
selling entities to execute massive orders right away. Although it makes
matters easier, HFT (and unique sorts of algorithmic shopping for and
promoting) does consist of drawbacks—considerably the chance of causing primary
market movements as it did in 2010 when the Dow suffered a massive intraday
drop.
Katya Malinova, Andreas Park, and Ryan Riordan. “Do Retail
Investors Suffer from High Frequency Traders?” January eleven, 2018, SSRN.
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. "Testimony Relating
to the Severe Market Disruption on May 6, 2010."