High Frequency Trades

It is called the Enhanced Liquidity Provider Program and its actors are computers. OR High Frequency Traders as they are called. Yesterday the three darlings were C, BAC and CIT: more than 860 million shares were traded in these names in a universe of 5000 stocks. Or 10% of the total trading volume.
How to recognize these HFT targets? It starts with an early morning move followed by a flat tradingday around a very tight range. There was a constant bid to these stocks yet anytime they wanted to lift higher, there seemed to be a constant offer just a few pennies higher. The HFT’s made a killing: in addition of the 0.1-0.2 spread they collected a 0.005/share in liquidity rebates. Sphere: Related Content

Profit taking at quarter end

Profit taking is the ordre du jour. Even today European stock exchanges are exploring negative territory and it’s all coming down in hammering down profits after the most exiting quarter of the last five years. You remember the set up: long stocks, long corporate bonds, short dollar, short govvies – well it’s all reversed this week. So forget about the bad economic figures, North Korea, or whatever. Thos fund managers want their bonuses back. And taking profits at the right moment is the first step in that direction.

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