Posts Tagged With: IPO

As one who takes a certain pleasure in ironic reflexivities, and is none too fond of the current system of high frequency computerized trading (HFT), I am amused to hear that the high-speed exchange, Bats Global Markets (BATS), was compelled to cancel its initial public offering (IPO) today because of errors in its own computer system which, incidentally, forced a halt in trading Apple! I hope that this will encourage further scrutiny of the HFT enterprise–not only because of their ability to radically move the market, sometimes in out-of-control ways, but also because of the advantage they enjoy by placing (and canceling) stock orders thousands of times a second, capitalizing on information about (intended and realized) trades seconds before everyone outside the HFT loop. Stock valuations have little to do with it. It is said that these densely-packed trading systems maximize the speed of trading to something close to the speed of light—correctly determined, I assume. Continue reading →