Dark Pools and High Frequency Trading for Dummies
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Dark Pools & High Frequency Trading by Jay Vaananen Dark Pools & High Frequency Trading For Dummies® Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, www.wiley.com This edition first published 2015 © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, West Sussex. Registered office John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, United Kingdom For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www.wiley.com. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or trans- mitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher. 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ISBN 978-1-118-87919-1 (hardback/paperback) ISBN 978-1-118-87929-0 (ebk) ISBN 978-1-118-87930-6 (ebk) Printed in Great Britain by TJ International, Padstow, Cornwall 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents at a Glance Introduction ................................................................ 1 Part I: Getting Started with Dark Pools ......................... 5 Chapter 1: Focusing on Dark Pools and High Frequency Trading, Just the Basics ...... 7 Chapter 2: Taking a Dip into Dark Pools .......................................................................15 Chapter 3: Grappling with the Ins and Outs of Securities Markets ...........................25 Part II: Diving into Dark Pool Markets ........................ 37 Chapter 4: Introducing Dark Pool Providers ................................................................39 Chapter 5: Meeting the Players and Places ..................................................................53 Chapter 6: Regulating Dark Pools ..................................................................................65 Part III: Coming to Grips with Automated Trading ........ 77 Chapter 7: Comprehending Automated Trading .........................................................79 Chapter 8: Grasping Standard Order Types .................................................................93 Chapter 9: Identifying the Special Order Types .........................................................105 Chapter 10: Delving into High Frequency Trading ....................................................119 Chapter 11: Understanding Key High Frequency Trading Strategies......................133 Part IV: Being Aware of the Risks of Dark Pools......... 147 Chapter 12: Jockeying Too Much for Position ...........................................................149 Chapter 13: The Ins and Outs of Flash Crashes .........................................................163 Part V: The Part of Tens ........................................... 181 Chapter 14: Ten of the Best Dark Pool/HFT Websites ..............................................183 Chapter 15: Ten Ways to Swim Safely in Dark Pools .................................................191 Chapter 16: Ten Common Algorithmic Strategies .....................................................199 Chapter 17: Ten Things to Know About Market Microstructure .............................207 Index ...................................................................... 215 Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................. 1 About This Book ..............................................................................................1 Foolish Assumptions .......................................................................................2 Icons Used in This Book .................................................................................3 Beyond the Book .............................................................................................3 Where to Go from Here ...................................................................................4 Part I: Getting Started with Dark Pools .......................... 5 Chapter 1: Focusing on Dark Pools and High Frequency Trading, Just the Basics . 7 Defining Dark Pools: Why They’re an Investment Option ..........................8 Explaining What High Frequency Trading Is ..............................................10 Knowing Who’s Involved When Investing in Dark Pools ..........................11 Brokers can make or break you .........................................................11 The other important folk ....................................................................12 Looking at the Order Types .........................................................................12 Considering the regular order types .................................................13 Eyeing the special order types ...........................................................13 Regulating the Markets: Legislators Take Action ......................................13 Chapter 2: Taking a Dip into Dark Pools . 15 Taking a Snapshot of Dark Pools: What They Are and Aren’t .................15 Settled outside the public eye ............................................................16 Need for secrecy: Dark versus lit .......................................................16 Improving price ....................................................................................17 Examining How Dark Pools Work: Step by Step ........................................18 Weighing the Rewards and the Risks ..........................................................19 Identifying potential rewards .............................................................19 Recognising the risks and preparing for them .................................20 Investigating Whether Your Trades Are Exchanged in Dark Pools .........21 Asking your broker the right questions ............................................21 Sleuthing on your own if you don’t use a broker .............................22 Making the Best of Your Transactions .......................................................23 Chapter 3: Grappling with the Ins and Outs of Securities Markets . 25 Figuring Out Pricing: The World of Bids and Offers ..................................25 Grasping how pricing works ...............................................................26 Looking at opening and closing prices .............................................28 Looking at the highest and lowest prices .........................................28 vi Dark Pools & High Frequency Trading For Dummies Making Buying and Selling Easier: Liquidity ..............................................29 Market liquidity ....................................................................................31 Off-market liquidity ..............................................................................32 Understanding the Importance of Market Makers ....................................32 Using VWAP and MVWAP ...................................................................33 Getting to grips with order routing ...................................................34 Focusing on price/time priority .........................................................35 Eyeing direct market access ...............................................................36 Part II: Diving into Dark Pool Markets ......................... 37 Chapter 4: Introducing Dark Pool Providers . 39 Comparing the Different Types of Dark Pool Providers ...........................40 Big-time investments: Block-oriented dark pools ............................40 No minimum shares required: Streaming liquidity pools...............41 Crossing pools ......................................................................................41