Market Structure

Challenges to cross-border financial services can be overcome with the developments in digitalisation and in the fintech sector. In particular, we believe the financial services industry will increasingly use so-called “robo-advisers.”

Our TabbFORUM article on the IEX exchange application generated a lot of feedback. Will the SEC OK the current application? Will encouraging time-delay competition among exchanges benefit investors?

Market structure issues rarely attract mainstream media attention. But IEX application gets to the heart of the integrity of the market, the efficacy of the regulatory framework, and whether investors have a fair opportunity to earn a return.

Whether the changes will be cosmetic or profoundly far-reaching will depend on the ambitiousness of the policy-makers in the European Commission, Parliament, and the Council (representing EU Member States).

Alternative finance has huge potential in the developing world, crowdfunding especially. Will it “fuel ‘the Rise of the Rest?’” What are the hurdles? How does blockchain fit in?

How reporters’ word choices, their sentiment and unusualness, can forecast market performance up to six months out.

Dennis Dick, CFA: “Circuit breakers and warning systems for stop or market orders are mere band-aids for potentially larger underlying market structural issues ...."

Report reveals 36 barriers to the development of a truly pan-European CMU; findings complement CFA Institute member survey results.

How can we prevent the Barclays and Credit Suisses of the world from committing dark-pool fraud? The SEC has a proposal.

IOSCO is keeping a regulatory eye on crowdfunding to ensure investor protection. The alternative finance is a major emerging market projected to hit US$300 billion in coming years.

China’s circuit-breaker mechanism got a workout its first day in use due to extreme market volatility. Three days later, China suspended use of the safeguard until further notice. Here’s our take.

From the Toshiba accounting scandal to the Labor Department’s controversial fiduciary rule proposal, 2015 has been an eventful year for capital markets.

Those were just some of the timely issues covered during a recent Twitter chat with Dennis Dick, CFA, proprietary trader and head of equity market structure at Bright Trading.

Conference takeaways: Market participants are mostly happy with modern market structure, quality; HFT isn’t a stressor, technology is; regulators should improve things at the margin, but do no harm.

Ultimately, innovation in market design and diversity of business models that cater to different investor needs must be beneficial.