IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nbp/nbpbik/v49y2018i1p1-16.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Toxic liquidity – is it here to stay?

Author

Listed:
  • Carlos Jorge Lenczewski Martins

    (Warsaw School of Economics, Institute of Risk and Financial Markets)

Abstract

Algorithmic trading and high-frequency trading (HFT) volume in the financial market has dynamically increased mainly since the technological revolution of the 2000’s. Turnover from HFT alone may be around 40% and 60% for the European and US equity markets, accordingly. The activity of algorithmic and high-frequency trading has also caused some concerns related to toxic liquidity in the financial market. These concerns reached their peak after the Flash Crash of 6 May 2010 in the US. After some reports of the Flash Crash reached the conclusion that what triggered the freefall was an algorithm, there were questions on whether HFT traders could induce toxic liquidity. The aim of this paper is to present sources and conditions for which toxic liquidity may arise, as well as arguments that high-frequency traders may not necessarily be the source of toxic liquidity. Not only can they be a legitimate source of natural liquidity but also toxic liquidity may actually be attributable to low frequency traders. This paper is based on scarce empirical research available (mainly for the US market) and as such, it is intended to encourage further analysis and research on this important topic.

Suggested Citation

  • Carlos Jorge Lenczewski Martins, 2018. "Toxic liquidity – is it here to stay?," Bank i Kredyt, Narodowy Bank Polski, vol. 49(1), pages 1-16.
  • Handle: RePEc:nbp:nbpbik:v:49:y:2018:i:1:p:1-16
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://bankikredyt.nbp.pl/content/2018/01/BIK_01_2018_01.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thierry Foucault & Ohad Kadan & Eugene Kandel, 2005. "Limit Order Book as a Market for Liquidity," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 18(4), pages 1171-1217.
    2. Thierry Foucault & Johan Hombert & Ioanid Roşu, 2016. "News Trading and Speed," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 71(1), pages 335-382, February.
    3. Terrence Hendershott & Ryan Riordan, 2009. "Algorithmic Trading and Information," Working Papers 09-08, NET Institute, revised Aug 2009.
    4. Jonathan Brogaard & Terrence Hendershott & Ryan Riordan, 2014. "High-Frequency Trading and Price Discovery," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 27(8), pages 2267-2306.
    5. Didier SORNETTE, 2009. "Dragon-Kings, Black Swans and the Prediction of Crises," Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper Series 09-36, Swiss Finance Institute.
    6. Rudy De Winne & Catherine D'hondt, 2007. "Hide-and-Seek in the Market: Placing and Detecting Hidden Orders," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 11(4), pages 663-692.
    7. Neil Johnson & Guannan Zhao & Eric Hunsader & Jing Meng & Amith Ravindar & Spencer Carran & Brian Tivnan, 2012. "Financial black swans driven by ultrafast machine ecology," Papers 1202.1448, arXiv.org.
    8. Breckenfelder, Johannes, 2013. "Competition between high-frequency traders, and market quality," MPRA Paper 66715, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Dec 2013.
    9. Andrei A. Kirilenko & Andrew W. Lo, 2013. "Moore's Law versus Murphy's Law: Algorithmic Trading and Its Discontents," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 27(2), pages 51-72, Spring.
    10. Carrion, Allen, 2013. "Very fast money: High-frequency trading on the NASDAQ," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 680-711.
    11. Terrence Hendershott & Charles M. Jones & Albert J. Menkveld, 2011. "Does Algorithmic Trading Improve Liquidity?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(1), pages 1-33, February.
    12. David Easley & Marcos M. López de Prado & Maureen O'Hara, 2012. "Flow Toxicity and Liquidity in a High-frequency World," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 25(5), pages 1457-1493.
    13. Alain P. Chaboud & Benjamin Chiquoine & Erik Hjalmarsson & Clara Vega, 2014. "Rise of the Machines: Algorithmic Trading in the Foreign Exchange Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 69(5), pages 2045-2084, October.
    14. Michael Goldstein & Michael A. Goldstein & Pavitra Kumar & Frank C. Graves, 2014. "Computerized and High-Frequency Trading," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 49(2), pages 177-202, May.
    15. Kyle, Albert S, 1985. "Continuous Auctions and Insider Trading," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 53(6), pages 1315-1335, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Breedon, Francis & Chen, Louisa & Ranaldo, Angelo & Vause, Nicholas, 2023. "Judgment day: Algorithmic trading around the Swiss franc cap removal," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    2. Zhou, Hao & Kalev, Petko S., 2019. "Algorithmic and high frequency trading in Asia-Pacific, now and the future," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 186-207.
    3. Angerer, Martin & Neugebauer, Tibor & Shachat, Jason, 2023. "Arbitrage bots in experimental asset markets," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 262-278.
    4. Gerig, Austin & Michayluk, David, 2017. "Automated liquidity provision," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 1-13.
    5. O’Hara, Maureen, 2015. "High frequency market microstructure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(2), pages 257-270.
    6. Giancarlo Corsetti & Romain Lafarguette & Arnaud Mehl, 2019. "Fast Trading and the Virtue of Entropy: Evidence from the Foreign Exchange Market," Discussion Papers 1914, Centre for Macroeconomics (CFM).
    7. Bizzozero, Paolo & Flepp, Raphael & Franck, Egon, 2018. "The effect of fast trading on price discovery and efficiency: Evidence from a betting exchange," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 126-143.
    8. Carè, Rosella & Cumming, Douglas, 2024. "Technology and automation in financial trading: A bibliometric review," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    9. Sánchez Serrano Antonio, 2020. "High-Frequency Trading and Systemic Risk: A Structured Review of Findings and Policies," Review of Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 71(3), pages 169-195, December.
    10. Aggarwal, Nidhi & Panchapagesan, Venkatesh & Thomas, Susan, 2023. "When is the order-to-trade ratio fee effective?," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    11. Dionne, Georges & Pacurar, Maria & Zhou, Xiaozhou, 2015. "Liquidity-adjusted Intraday Value at Risk modeling and risk management: An application to data from Deutsche Börse," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 202-219.
    12. Albert J. Menkveld & Marius A. Zoican, 2017. "Need for Speed? Exchange Latency and Liquidity," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 30(4), pages 1188-1228.
    13. Sandrine Jacob Leal & Mauro Napoletano & Andrea Roventini & Giorgio Fagiolo, 2016. "Rock around the clock: An agent-based model of low- and high-frequency trading," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 49-76, March.
    14. Bellia, Mario & Pelizzon, Loriana & Subrahmanyam, Marti & Uno, Jun & Yuferova, Darya, 2017. "Coming early to the party," SAFE Working Paper Series 182, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
      • Mario Bellia & Loriana Pelizzon & Marti G. Subrahmanyam & Jun Uno & Darya Yuferova, 2020. "Coming early to the party," Working Papers 2020:11, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
    15. Danny Lo, 2015. "Essays in Market Microstructure and Investor Trading," PhD Thesis, Finance Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney, number 4-2015, January-A.
    16. Adrian, Tobias & Capponi, Agostino & Fleming, Michael & Vogt, Erik & Zhang, Hongzhong, 2020. "Intraday market making with overnight inventory costs," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    17. Donald B. Keim & Massimo Massa & Bastian von Beschwitz, 2018. "First to \"Read\" the News: New Analytics and Algorithmic Trading," International Finance Discussion Papers 1233, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    18. Dugast, J., 2013. "Limited attention and news arrival in limit order markets," Working papers 449, Banque de France.
    19. 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.
    20. Thierry Foucault & Roman Kozhan & Wing Wah Tham, 2017. "Toxic Arbitrage," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 30(4), pages 1053-1094.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    algorithmic trading; high-frequency trading; HFT; liquidity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • G15 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - International Financial Markets

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:nbp:nbpbik:v:49:y:2018:i:1:p:1-16. 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: Wojciech Burjanek (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nbpgvpl.html .

    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.