IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/restud/v84y2017i4p1606-1651..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What is the Optimal Trading Frequency in Financial Markets?

Author

Listed:
  • Songzi Du
  • Haoxiang Zhu

Abstract

This article studies the impact of increasing trading frequency in financial markets on allocative efficiency. We build and solve a dynamic model of sequential double auctions in which traders trade strategically with demand schedules. Trading needs are generated by time-varying private information about the asset value and private values for owning the asset, as well as quadratic inventory costs. We characterize a linear equilibrium with stationary strategies and its efficiency properties in closed form. Frequent trading (more double auctions per unit of time) allows more immediate asset reallocation after new information arrives, at the cost of a lower volume of beneficial trades in each double auction. Under stated conditions, the trading frequency that maximizes allocative efficiency coincides with the information arrival frequency for scheduled information releases, but can far exceed the information arrival frequency if new information arrives stochastically. A simple calibration of the model suggests that a moderate market slowdown to the level of seconds or minutes per double auction can improve allocative efficiency for assets with relatively narrow investor participation and relatively infrequent news, such as small- and micro-cap stocks.

Suggested Citation

  • Songzi Du & Haoxiang Zhu, 2017. "What is the Optimal Trading Frequency in Financial Markets?," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 84(4), pages 1606-1651.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:restud:v:84:y:2017:i:4:p:1606-1651.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/restud/rdx006
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Xavier Vives, 2011. "Strategic Supply Function Competition With Private Information," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 79(6), pages 1919-1966, November.
    2. Biais, Bruno & Foucault, Thierry & Moinas, Sophie, 2015. "Equilibrium fast trading," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(2), pages 292-313.
    3. Hendershott, Terrence & Livdan, Dmitry & Schürhoff, Norman, 2015. "Are institutions informed about news?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(2), pages 249-287.
    4. Drew Fudenberg & Jean Tirole, 1991. "Game Theory," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262061414, April.
    5. Haoxiang Zhu, 2014. "Do Dark Pools Harm Price Discovery?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 27(3), pages 747-789.
    6. Wang, Jiang, 1994. "A Model of Competitive Stock Trading Volume," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(1), pages 127-168, February.
    7. Hoffmann, Peter, 2014. "A dynamic limit order market with fast and slow traders," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(1), pages 156-169.
    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. Songzi Du & Haoxiang Zhu, 2014. "Welfare and Optimal Trading Frequency in Dynamic Double Auctions," NBER Working Papers 20588, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Shiyang Huang & Bart Zhou Yueshen, 2021. "Speed Acquisition," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(6), pages 3492-3518, June.
    3. Tao Chen, 2021. "Round‐number biases on trading time: Evidence from international markets," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 44(3), pages 469-495, September.
    4. Pavan, Alessandro & Vives, Xavier, 2015. "Information, Coordination, and Market Frictions: An Introduction," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 158(PB), pages 407-426.
    5. Xu, Ke, 2023. "High frequency market making during stressed periods," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 379-397.
    6. Babus, Ana & Parlatore, Cecilia, 2022. "Strategic fragmented markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(3), pages 876-908.
    7. Ya‐Kai Chang & Robin K. Chou, 2022. "Algorithmic trading and market quality: Evidence from the Taiwan index futures market," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(10), pages 1837-1855, October.
    8. Tina Kao & Flavio Menezes & John Quiggin, 2014. "Optimal access regulation with downstream competition," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 75-93, February.
    9. 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.
    10. Daniel Fricke & Austin Gerig, 2018. "Too fast or too slow? Determining the optimal speed of financial markets," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(4), pages 519-532, April.
    11. Anagnostidis, Panagiotis & Fontaine, Patrice & Varsakelis, Christos, 2020. "Are high–frequency traders informed?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 365-383.
    12. Pierre Collin‐Dufresne & Benjamin Junge & Anders B. Trolle, 2020. "Market Structure and Transaction Costs of Index CDSs," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 75(5), pages 2719-2763, October.
    13. Eric M. Aldrich & Daniel Friedman, 2023. "Order Protection Through Delayed Messaging," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(2), pages 774-790, February.
    14. Lee, Albert J. & Chung, Kee H., 2022. "Hidden liquidity, market quality, and order submission strategies," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    15. Ge, Hengshun & Yang, Haijun & Doukas, John A., 2024. "The optimal strategies of competitive high-frequency traders and effects on market liquidity," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 653-679.
    16. 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).
    17. 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.
    18. Lo, Danny, 2017. "On the limit order behaviour of retail and non-retail investors," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 1-12.
    19. Liu, Hong & Wang, Yajun, 2016. "Market making with asymmetric information and inventory risk," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 73-109.
    20. Degryse, Hans & Karagiannis, Nikolaos, 2019. "Priority Rules," CEPR Discussion Papers 14127, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Trading frequency; Allocative efficiency; High-frequency trading; Double auction;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D44 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Auctions
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading

    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:oup:restud:v:84:y:2017:i:4:p:1606-1651.. 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: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/restud .

    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.