February 8, 2016
I'm a prop trader in Canada and often trade on the US stock market. I have been trading for more than 20 years now and it is a flagrant evidence from my experience that this whole market is rigged more and more with the presence of all the algos and hft.
The best example I can think of is not even for myself but for my parents for whom I manage their retirement account. Whenever I want to buy a stock for a long term position, I place a bid at a fixed price, usually between the bid and the ask. The algos usually activate themselves, the bid moves higher than my price without any trade happening and then I have to start chasing the stock. Since I want to have my fill being done so that I can close the webpage and go back to work, I often endup lifting up the ask, not wanting to lose my time. I end up paying a higher price and having to pay the exchange fee. Then automatically, once my order has been filled, the market moves back to the initial lower price. Now please tell me in what way a personal investor, like my parent, has any advantages in the algos worlds of today ? The whole credit/debit fees structure of exchanges should be banned and all the algos should be slowed down.