I must admit my view of HFT has ranged from ambivalence – its simply technology moving on to mild annoyance at what looks like a sophisticated of front running that brokers have been practising since time began. To try and get a better handle on what the impact of HFT is I revisted this transcript…

From New Scientist Dave the dolphin whistles, and his friend Alan whistles back. We can’t yet decipher their calls, but some of the time Dave may be calling: “Alan! Alan! Alan! Alan!”

As to be expected the VIX has spiked by levels of  ”fear” remain below the levels seen at the peak of the GFC.

I haven’t looked at the VIX in a little while. Below is a chart of the VIX with the Dow overlaid in red so you can see the relationship between extremes of fear and the market wetting itself. The only comment I can make about this is that “fear” seems still to be historically high.

I haven’t looked at the VIX in a little while. Below is a chart of the VIX with the Dow overlaid in red so you can see the relationship between extremes of fear and the market wetting itself.The only comment I can make about this is that “fear” seems still to be historically high.

In recent years, advances in telecommunications, computing capacity and financial software platform capabilities have seen huge growth in the field of High Frequency and Algorithmic Trading (now accounting for over 70% of all equity trades placed on US exchanges and in excess of 77% in the UK).  HFT firms (which can often make more than 80…

On Monday, January 21, 2008, concerns about deteriorating economic conditions in the United States caused a precipitous fall in the Asian markets. Investors in Hong Kong and Tokyo besieged brokerage firms. Markets in the United States happened to be closed, for the Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday, but U.S. stock-futures trading in foreign markets showed…

There seems to be a bit of a theme this week.

The UBS situation explained.