Germany to Tap Brakes On High-Speed Trading

[Roland99]

Source: Wall St. Journal

BERLIN—Germany is set to advance a bill Wednesday imposing a spate of new rules on high-frequency trading, escalating Europe's sweeping response to concerns that speedy traders have brought instability to the markets.

The measure seeks to require traders to register with Germany's Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, collect fees from those who use high-speed trading systems excessively, and force stock markets to install circuit breakers that can interrupt trading if a problem is detected.

...

These include the requirement for orders to rest on the exchange order book for a minimum of half a second—an eternity for firms accustomed to trading in millionths of a second—before they can be canceled or modified, and penalties for high cancellation rates.

On Aug. 1, France introduced a high-frequency trading tax as one of the three levies that comprise its financial-transaction-tax package.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444813104578018292059338944.html

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Good luck getting anything like that done here in the U.S.

[Lasher]

1. Doesn't seem like much, but a least they're doing something.

Bankers are out of control.

[dipsydoodle]

2. As mentioned

France had already led the field with this.

[saidsimplesimon]

3. Put the brakes on Merkel

When will Merkel realize that austerity measures are akin to committing EU "suicide"? Oh well, another conservative, another crash....imho

[JDPriestly]

4. What does slowing trading have to do with austerity measures?

Anything? I don't see a connection. Is there one?

[Vincardog]

5. High speed trading is one of the ways the parasitic finance sector has used to steal money and

kill the real economy. If it can be taxed and restricted it can slow the death of our economic system by way of "austerity".
Austerity is one of the ways the radical right wants to use to eliminate any Government benefit to People other than the Economic Elites.

[Kolesar]

6. Tax all market trades

A ten cent tax per trade isn't going to have much effect on me or the mutual fund managers running the funds in our 401ks.

[Vincardog]

7. Agreed. Take that 10 cents every time a high speed trader front runs a transaction and it

will add up quickly.