MarketsMuse Editor Note: Though we typically focus on using a high-touch approach to aggregating the more topical and poignant ETF, Options and Macro-Strategy news items, the nearly never-ceasing diatribes re market structure and the impact of “high-frequency trading” which has either been incited or simply elevated by Michael Lewis’s book “Flash Boys” inspires us to distill the multitude of most recent opinion articles and punditry promoted by the ever-increasing universe of “content experts.”
In that spirit, we point our readers to 2 different pieces worth picking over:
1. For the ETF-focused audience, this week’s published comments from ETF.com’s Dave Nadig, “Great Flash Boys Idea IEX Doesn’t Matter” is a solid read for RIAs and the universe of investment managers who use exchange-traded funds. As always, Dave frames his observations and insight in a thoughtful, non-conflicted and erudite manner. Here’s the link to the ETF.com posting.
2. For institutional equity fund managers, institutional equity brokers and whomever else might be intrigued by the latest “survey of capital market professionals” conducted by ConvergEX, one of the major institutional order execution platforms. Their study finds that 70% of those canvassed believe the market structure is “unfair” to them. The study was published this week and since re-published by an assortment of industry media websites, including TABB Forums, and starts with the following:“…We recently completed an online survey of ConvergEx customers and partners on the subject of U.S. equity market structure, with 357 responses largely (65%) from our institutional buy-side clients and prospects. The headline number is startling: fully 70% of survey participants do not believe that equity markets are “Fair for all participants.” Part of the blame resides with the role of high-frequency trading (HFT) in current market structure. A small majority (51%) believes it is either “Harmful” or “Very Harmful” to market participants, while only 19% believe it is “Helpful” or “Very Helpful.” “
MarketsMuse was necessarily intrigued by the headline and the related ‘conclusions.’ Notwithstanding the study itself, we were particularly inspired by select comments made by TABB Forum readers. One commentator’s reference to putting the Genie back in the bottle and “looking for Larry Hagman” was particularly insightful. We suggest reading the headline, the first 2 paragraphs and then jumping straight to the comments section. Access to TABB requires registration, but it is free of charge to register and read. This is the link to the article i.e. “ConvergEX Study Says..”