IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/safewp/253.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Quasi-dark trading: The effects of banning dark pools in a world of many alternatives

Author

Listed:
  • Johann, Thomas
  • Putnins, Talis
  • Sagade, Satchit
  • Westheide, Christian

Abstract

We show that "quasi-dark" trading venues, i.e., markets with somewhat non-transparent trading mechanisms, are important parts of modern equity market structure alongside lit markets and dark pools. Using the European MiFID II regulation as a quasi-natural experiment, we find that dark pool bans lead to (i) volume spill-overs into quasi-dark trading mechanisms including periodic auctions and order internalization systems; (ii) little volume returning to transparent public markets; and consequently, (iii) a negligible impact on market liquidity and short-term price efficiency. These results show that quasi-dark markets serve as close substitutes for dark pools and consequently mitigate the effectiveness of dark pool regulation. Our findings highlight the need for a broader approach to transparency regulation in modern markets that takes into consideration the many alternative forms of quasi-dark trading.

Suggested Citation

  • Johann, Thomas & Putnins, Talis & Sagade, Satchit & Westheide, Christian, 2019. "Quasi-dark trading: The effects of banning dark pools in a world of many alternatives," SAFE Working Paper Series 253, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:safewp:253
    DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.3365994
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/200114/1/1668604191.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2139/ssrn.3365994?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Madhavan, Ananth, 1995. "Consolidation, Fragmentation, and the Disclosure of Trading Information," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 8(3), pages 579-603.
    2. Seppi, Duane J, 1990. "Equilibrium Block Trading and Asymmetric Information," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 45(1), pages 73-94, March.
    3. Sebastian Calonico & Matias D. Cattaneo & Rocio Titiunik, 2014. "Robust Nonparametric Confidence Intervals for Regression‐Discontinuity Designs," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 82, pages 2295-2326, November.
    4. Acharya, Viral V. & Pedersen, Lasse Heje, 2005. "Asset pricing with liquidity risk," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(2), pages 375-410, August.
    5. Biais, Bruno & Foucault, Thierry & Moinas, Sophie, 2015. "Equilibrium fast trading," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(2), pages 292-313.
    6. 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.
    7. Amihud, Yakov & Mendelson, Haim, 1986. "Asset pricing and the bid-ask spread," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 223-249, December.
    8. Madhavan, Ananth & Cheng, Minder, 1997. "In Search of Liquidity: Block Trades in the Upstairs and Downstairs Markets," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 10(1), pages 175-203.
    9. Sebastian Calonico & Matias D. Cattaneo & Max H. Farrell & Rocío Titiunik, 2019. "Regression Discontinuity Designs Using Covariates," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 101(3), pages 442-451, July.
    10. Hatheway, Frank & Kwan, Amy & Zheng, Hui, 2017. "An Empirical Analysis of Market Segmentation on U.S. Equity Markets," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(6), pages 2399-2427, December.
    11. Imbens, Guido W. & Lemieux, Thomas, 2008. "Regression discontinuity designs: A guide to practice," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 615-635, February.
    12. Marco Pagano, 1989. "Trading Volume and Asset Liquidity," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 104(2), pages 255-274.
    13. Alberto Abadie, 2005. "Semiparametric Difference-in-Differences Estimators," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 72(1), pages 1-19.
    14. Haoxiang Zhu, 2014. "Do Dark Pools Harm Price Discovery?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 27(3), pages 747-789.
    15. Comerton-Forde, Carole & Putniņš, Tālis J., 2015. "Dark trading and price discovery," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(1), pages 70-92.
    16. Gomber, Peter & Sagade, Satchit & Theissen, Erik & Weber, Moritz Christian & Westheide, Christian, 2016. "Spoilt for choice: Order routing decisions in fragmented equity markets," CFR Working Papers 16-04, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    17. Ekkehart Boehmer & Eric K. Kelley, 2009. "Institutional Investors and the Informational Efficiency of Prices," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(9), pages 3563-3594, September.
    18. David S. Lee & Thomas Lemieux, 2010. "Regression Discontinuity Designs in Economics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(2), pages 281-355, June.
    19. Kwan, Amy & Masulis, Ronald & McInish, Thomas H., 2015. "Trading rules, competition for order flow and market fragmentation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(2), pages 330-348.
    20. Carhart, Mark M, 1997. "On Persistence in Mutual Fund Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 57-82, March.
    21. Naes, Randi & Odegaard, Bernt Arne, 2006. "Equity trading by institutional investors: To cross or not to cross?," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 79-99, May.
    22. Eric Budish & Peter Cramton & John Shim, 2015. "Editor's Choice The High-Frequency Trading Arms Race: Frequent Batch Auctions as a Market Design Response," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 130(4), pages 1547-1621.
    23. Foley, Sean & Putniņš, Tālis J., 2016. "Should we be afraid of the dark? Dark trading and market quality," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(3), pages 456-481.
    24. Menkveld, Albert J. & Yueshen, Bart Zhou & Zhu, Haoxiang, 2017. "Shades of darkness: A pecking order of trading venues," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(3), pages 503-534.
    25. Chowdhry, Bhagwan & Nanda, Vikram, 1991. "Multimarket Trading and Market Liquidity," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 4(3), pages 483-511.
    26. Petrescu, Monica & Wedow, Michael, 2017. "Dark pools in European equity markets: emergence, competition and implications," Occasional Paper Series 193, European Central Bank.
    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. Mike Derksen & Bas Kleijn & Robin de Vilder, 2020. "Effects of MiFID II on stock price formation," Papers 2003.10353, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2020.
    2. Samuel Antill & Darrell Duffie, 2021. "Augmenting Markets with Mechanisms [Optimal Execution of Portfolio Transactions]," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 88(4), pages 1665-1719.
    3. Lang, Mark & Pinto, Jedson & Sul, Edward, 2024. "MiFID II unbundling and sell-side analyst research," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(1).
    4. Marta Khomyn, 2020. "Essays on Modern Market Structure," PhD Thesis, Finance Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney, number 2-2020, January-A.
    5. Paul J. Irvine & Egle Karmaziene, 2023. "Competing for Dark Trades," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 23-020/IV, Tinbergen Institute.
    6. Ibikunle, Gbenga & Li, Youwei & Mare, Davide & Sun, Yuxin, 2021. "Dark matters: The effects of dark trading restrictions on liquidity and informational efficiency," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    7. Neumeier, Christian & Gozluklu, Arie & Hoffmann, Peter & O’Neill, Peter & Suntheim, Felix, 2023. "Banning dark pools: Venue selection and investor trading costs," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    8. Zhang, Zeyu & Ibikunle, Gbenga, 2023. "The market quality effects of sub-second frequent batch auctions: Evidence from dark trading restrictions," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    9. Bassi, Ugo & Rookhuijzen, Martijn, 2023. "MiFIR review: The right balance," Journal of Securities Operations & Custody, Henry Stewart Publications, vol. 15(4), pages 291-303, September.
    10. Gomber, Peter & Sagade, Satchit & Theissen, Erik & Weber, Moritz Christian & Westheide, Christian, 2023. "Spoilt for choice: Determinants of market shares in fragmented equity markets," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 64(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. Ye, Linlin, 2024. "Understanding the impacts of dark pools on price discovery," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    2. Bayona, Anna & Dumitrescu, Ariadna & Manzano, Carolina, 2023. "Information and optimal trading strategies with dark pools," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    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. Gomber, Peter & Sagade, Satchit & Theissen, Erik & Weber, Moritz Christian & Westheide, Christian, 2016. "Spoilt for choice: Order routing decisions in fragmented equity markets," CFR Working Papers 16-04, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    5. Gomber, Peter & Sagade, Satchit & Theissen, Erik & Weber, Moritz Christian & Westheide, Christian, 2023. "Spoilt for choice: Determinants of market shares in fragmented equity markets," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    6. Hatheway, Frank & Kwan, Amy & Zheng, Hui, 2017. "An Empirical Analysis of Market Segmentation on U.S. Equity Markets," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(6), pages 2399-2427, December.
    7. Justin Cox, 2020. "Market fragmentation and post-earnings announcement drift," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 44(3), pages 587-610, July.
    8. Egginton, Jared F. & McBrayer, Garrett A. & Watson, Ethan D., 2023. "Shades of trade: Dark trading and price efficiency," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    9. Suchismita Mishra & Le Zhao, 2021. "Order Routing Decisions for a Fragmented Market: A Review," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-32, November.
    10. Tomy Lee, 2019. "Latency in Fragmented Markets," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 33, pages 128-153, July.
    11. Fany Declerck & Laurence Lescourret, 2015. "Dark pools et trading haute fréquence : une évolution utile ?," Revue d'économie financière, Association d'économie financière, vol. 0(4), pages 113-126.
    12. Aliyev, Nihad & Huseynov, Fariz & Rzayev, Khaladdin, 2022. "Algorithmic trading and investment-to-price sensitivity," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 118844, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    13. 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.
    14. Menkveld, Albert J. & Yueshen, Bart Zhou & Zhu, Haoxiang, 2017. "Shades of darkness: A pecking order of trading venues," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(3), pages 503-534.
    15. Jacob Thomas & Frank Zhang & Wei Zhu, 2021. "Dark Trading and Post-Earnings-Announcement Drift," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(12), pages 7785-7811, December.
    16. Albuquerque, Rui & Song, Shiyun & Yao, Chen, 2017. "The Price Effects of Liquidity Shocks: A Study of SEC’s Tick-Size Experiment," CEPR Discussion Papers 12486, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    17. Degryse, H.A., 2007. "Competition on financial markets : Does market design matter?," Other publications TiSEM ee5530b2-34f7-4d95-ad62-f, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    18. Comerton-Forde, Carole & Putniņš, Tālis J., 2015. "Dark trading and price discovery," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(1), pages 70-92.
    19. Gbenga Ibikunle & Davide Mare & Yuxin Sun, 2020. "The paradoxical effects of market fragmentation on adverse selection risk and market efficiency," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(14), pages 1439-1461, September.
    20. Ibikunle, Gbenga & Li, Youwei & Mare, Davide & Sun, Yuxin, 2021. "Dark matters: The effects of dark trading restrictions on liquidity and informational efficiency," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Dark Pools; Dark Trading; Liquidity; Price Efficiency; MiFID II; Double VolumeCaps;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G10 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
    • G19 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Other

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:zbw:safewp:253. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/csafede.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.