Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Action on the floor?


The ISE's detractors argued that order exposure was a hallmark of the options industry and that the QCC was in violation of that tenet.

For its part, the ISE argued there was little competition on exchange floors because electronic trading and penny increments have taken many traders off the floors in recent years. Also, exchange rules do not permit their off-board members to participate in floor trades. So, in practice, exposure on floors is nonexistent, the ISE asserted, and its QCC does not represent radical change.

SEC data belies that argument. A study undertaken by the regulator last year showed that about three-quarters of all trades of more than 500 contracts at the Chicago Board Options Exchange were broken up. Another 71 percent of all large trades at the Nasdaq PHLX were broken up.


Wouldn't want that nasty crowd getting in the way and actually having an auction.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Canada Curbs Dark Pool Trading

Interesting.

"In examining the issues and the risks of the expansion of the use of dark orders, we are of the view that the need for providing some limits on their use is critical in maintaining the quality of the price discovery mechanism and addressing concerns regarding the impact of dark orders on the quality of the Canadian capital market," the regulators wrote in a joint summary.


Sounds reasonable to me, though I suspect others differ in their opinions.