high-frequency trading

(Newser) - Futures trader Michael Coscia has earned himself a footnote in books about financial crime and a cell in a federal prison for three years after becoming the first person ever convicted of "spoofing" in the US. Coscia, the 54-year-old chief of the Panther Energy Trading firm, was the first...

(Newser) - The SEC is finally trying to rein in the robots. Chairman Mary Jo White today announced a massive initiative designed to tame high-frequency traders, the Wall Street Journal reports. These automated trades currently make up more than half of all trading volume, yet they've almost totally avoided direct regulatory...

(Newser) - The SEC is seeking a ban on the financial technique known as flash orders, a controversial method in which powerful computers survey other investors' trades and adjust strategies within milliseconds to turn a profit. SEC head Mary Schapiro said that flash orders "may create a two-tiered market" since only...

(Newser) - Traders using high-speed computers are making billions of dollars and leaving the rest of the stock market in the dust, the New York Times reports. "High-frequency" traders, who use algorithms to make millions of trades in microseconds, have helped big banks and hedge funds bounce back quickly, but critics...