SEC Seeks Regulations for High-Frequency Trading and Order Routing

Banking, finance, and taxes

Published: June 5, 2014 1:50 pm

Last Updated: April 28, 2020 4:35 am

Saying that she has begun moving forward on enhancing the U.S. equity market structure, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Mary Jo White told a New York audience on Thursday that she has directed the SEC staff to begin working on new measures to further promote market stability and fairness, enhance transparency and disclosure, and build more effective markets for smaller companies.

Recognizing that trading today is dominated by computer algorithms, White notes that investors in general are “doing better” now than they have in the past and that “the current market structure is not fundamentally broken, let alone rigged.” The U.S. Department of Justice has launched its own investigation into high-frequency and algorithmic trading to determine if the practice violates insider trading laws.

White is also recommending the creation of a Market Structure Advisory Committee to serve as a “resource for reviewing specific, clearly articulated initiatives or rule proposals.”

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