IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jjrfmx/v15y2022i2p54-d732738.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

High-Frequency Trading (HFT) and Market Quality Research: An Evaluation of the Alternative HFT Proxies

Author

Listed:
  • Shahadat Hossain

    (Department of Finance, University of Chittagong, Chittagong 4331, Bangladesh
    Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Naples Federico II, 80126 Naples, Italy)

Abstract

We examine the soundness of high-frequency trading (HFT) proxies that are widely defined on the limit order book (LOB) information. We use a unique TRTH (Thomson Reuters Tick History) millisecond time-stamped intraday trades and quotes dataset enriched with 10 levels of LOB depth messages for 149 highly fragmented LSE listed stocks for the period 2005 to 2016. We explore a sharp uptrend in HFT activities and accompanying improvement in market liquidity in the European market. We show that alternative HFT proxies built on LOB are not equally powerful. The HFT proxy defined on the five best LOB prices (the mid point of a typical limit order book) provides a better HFT identification than the one popularly defined on the first best prices (BBO). We suggest that picking the LOB information beyond a certain level (e.g., the best five prices) of market depth in developing HFT proxy is counterintuitive. Evidence indicates that high-frequency traders (HFTs) participate in both competitive (narrow) and passive (wider) quoting as a market making strategy; however, they do not participate in passive quoting excessively.

Suggested Citation

  • Shahadat Hossain, 2022. "High-Frequency Trading (HFT) and Market Quality Research: An Evaluation of the Alternative HFT Proxies," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-31, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jjrfmx:v:15:y:2022:i:2:p:54-:d:732738
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1911-8074/15/2/54/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1911-8074/15/2/54/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. O'Hara, Maureen & Ye, Mao, 2011. "Is market fragmentation harming market quality?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(3), pages 459-474, June.
    2. Foucault, Thierry & Pagano, Marco & Roell, Ailsa, 2013. "Market Liquidity: Theory, Evidence, and Policy," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199936243.
    3. Friederich, Sylvain & Payne, Richard, 2015. "Order-to-trade ratios and market liquidity," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 214-223.
    4. Baldauf, Markus & Mollner, Joshua, 2021. "Trading in Fragmented Markets," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 56(1), pages 93-121, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Olgun, Onur & Ekinci, Cumhur & Arıkan, Ramazan, 2024. "The performance of selected high-frequency trading proxies: An application on Turkish index futures market," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    2. Carè, Rosella & Cumming, Douglas, 2024. "Technology and automation in financial trading: A bibliometric review," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nihad Aliyev & Matteo Aquilina & Khaladdin Rzayev & Sonya Zhu, 2024. "Through stormy seas: how fragile is liquidity across asset classes and time?," BIS Working Papers 1229, Bank for International Settlements.
    2. Babus, Ana & Parlatore, Cecilia, 2022. "Strategic fragmented markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(3), pages 876-908.
    3. Peter Gomber & Satchit Sagade & Erik Theissen & Moritz Christian Weber & Christian Westheide, 2017. "Competition Between Equity Markets: A Review Of The Consolidation Versus Fragmentation Debate," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(3), pages 792-814, July.
    4. Justin Cox & Kathleen P. Fuller & Robert Van Ness, 2024. "Where does ex‐dividend trading occur: An examination of trading venues around dividends," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 59(1), pages 31-55, February.
    5. Bastidon, Cécile & Jawadi, Fredj, 2024. "Trade fragmentation and volatility-of-volatility networks," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    6. Ekinci, Cumhur & Ersan, Oğuz, 2022. "High-frequency trading and market quality: The case of a “slightly exposed” market," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    7. Li, Sida & Ye, Mao & Zheng, Miles, 2023. "Refusing the best price?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(2), pages 317-337.
    8. Tom Grimstvedt Meling, 2021. "Anonymous Trading in Equities," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 76(2), pages 707-754, April.
    9. Nidhi Aggarwal & Venkatesh Panchapagesan & Susan Thomas, 2019. "When do regulatory interventions work?," Working Papers id:13040, eSocialSciences.
    10. Lausen, Jens & Clapham, Benjamin & Gomber, Peter & Bender, Micha, 2022. "Drivers and effects of stock market fragmentation - Insights on SME stocks," SAFE Working Paper Series 367, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    11. Oliver Linton & Soheil Mahmoodzadeh, 2018. "Implications of High-Frequency Trading for Security Markets," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 10(1), pages 237-259, August.
    12. Watson, Ethan D. & Woods, Donovan, 2022. "Exchange introduction and market competition: The entrance of MEMX and MIAX," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    13. Cox, Justin & Woods, Donovan, 2023. "COVID-19 and market structure dynamics," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    14. Suchismita Mishra & Le Zhao, 2021. "Order Routing Decisions for a Fragmented Market: A Review," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-32, November.
    15. Clapham, Benjamin & Gomber, Peter & Panz, Sven, 2017. "Coordination of circuit breakers? Volume migration and volatility spillover in fagmented markets," SAFE Working Paper Series 196, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    16. Robin Nicole & Aleksandra Alori'c & Peter Sollich, 2020. "Fragmentation in trader preferences among multiple markets: Market coexistence versus single market dominance," Papers 2012.04103, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2021.
    17. Shuo Liu, 2024. "Social Optimal Search Intensity in Over-the-Counter Markets," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 53, pages 224-282, July.
    18. Lena Boneva & Oliver Linton & Michael Vogt, 2016. "The Effect of Fragmentation in Trading on Market Quality in the UK Equity Market," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(1), pages 192-213, January.
    19. James S. Ang & Kenneth J. Hunsader & Shaojun Zhang, 2019. "Order dynamics during the flash crash," Journal of Asset Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 20(5), pages 365-383, September.
    20. Hwang, Hae-shin & Jindapon, Paan, 2020. "Market making with convex quotes," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 37(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jjrfmx:v:15:y:2022:i:2:p:54-:d:732738. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.