ITG claims that high frequency trading in Canada is becoming less frequent:
“This quarter’s analysis of message traffic data reveals changes in trading behaviour that may signal the begginings of a new regime,” ITG’s analysts wrote. “Improvements in our metric for the quality of order flow, combined with a decline in fleeting orders points to a structural change amongst HFT participants.”
Why are HFTs backing away? Money.
Study author Doug Clark, a managing director at ITG, said that other markets are showing similar trends. That suggests that the business of high-frequency trading is so competitive that some players weren’t making money.
Also, brokerage houses are doing a better job of offering clients algorithms and routers that handle trading in ways that combat high frequency traders and cut their profits.
Zerohedge continues to whine about HFT. Institutional Investor breathlessly tells us of how some “real money” investors’ agents have attempted to remain competitive by the unheard of strategy of getting better at their jobs:
The electronic-trading team at RBC decided to fight back against the problem of “phantom” or “disappearing liquidity,” which they blamed on a subset of high frequency traders using “predatory” tactics. That is how they came up with THOR, a system to help clients such as institutional money managers combat predatory HFT strategies and complete trades at the desired price.
The system has been in use for a year, and Steiner says it has greatly improved liquidity for RBC and its clients — allowing them to execute orders at the desired price.
The real reason behind the fashionability of deprecating HFT can be found in the recent IIAC publication Securities Industry Performance 11Q3:
Even though trading revenue only accounts for about 10% of overall revenue, the severe collapse in net trading revenue of nearly 50% in the year, reflecting substantial losses for equity market-makers, put a significant dent in overall earnings.
The industry’s prop-traders are having their lunch eaten by HFT practitioners who didn’t even go to the right schools! The horror!
Lucas van Praag, world’s greatest corporate spokesman, is leaving Goldman Sachs:
Lucas van Praag, who became one of the public faces of the U.S. financial industry as Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s global head of corporate communications, is leaving the firm after 12 years.
Van Praag, a 62-year-old British citizen, will retire at the end of March and continue to provide strategic advice as a consultant to the company, according to an internal memo signed by Chief Executive Officer Lloyd C. Blankfein and President Gary D. Cohn. The memo’s contents were confirmed by Michael DuVally, a spokesman. Van Praag was promoted to partner, the highest rank in the New York-based company, in 2006.
The Canadian preferred share market resumed its winning ways today, with PerpetualPremiums winning 18bp, FixedResets gaining 9bp and DeemedRetractibles up 18bp. Volatility was good and highly skewed to the upside, with SLF notable among the winners. Volume was average.
PerpetualDiscounts (those few that are left; only four issues from two issuers) now yield 4.80%, equivalent to 6.24% interest at the standard 1.3x equivalency factor. Long corporates now yield a hair under 4.6%, so the pre-tax interest equivalent spread is now about 165bp, a sharp decline from the 190bp reported on February 1.
| HIMIPref™ Preferred Indices These values reflect the December 2008 revision of the HIMIPref™ Indices Values are provisional and are finalized monthly |
|||||||
| Index | Mean Current Yield (at bid) |
Median YTW |
Median Average Trading Value |
Median Mod Dur (YTW) |
Issues | Day’s Perf. | Index Value |
| Ratchet | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.3490 % | 2,437.8 |
| FixedFloater | 4.52 % | 3.88 % | 40,123 | 17.53 | 1 | 1.2048 % | 3,447.0 |
| Floater | 2.74 % | 2.96 % | 61,095 | 19.80 | 3 | 0.3490 % | 2,632.1 |
| OpRet | 4.81 % | -1.35 % | 68,310 | 1.27 | 6 | 0.0818 % | 2,531.3 |
| SplitShare | 5.29 % | -0.29 % | 80,436 | 0.84 | 4 | -0.1396 % | 2,644.0 |
| Interest-Bearing | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.0818 % | 2,314.7 |
| Perpetual-Premium | 5.30 % | -9.32 % | 108,483 | 0.09 | 26 | 0.1840 % | 2,232.5 |
| Perpetual-Discount | 5.02 % | 4.80 % | 194,744 | 15.75 | 4 | 0.2782 % | 2,462.1 |
| FixedReset | 5.00 % | 2.56 % | 214,256 | 2.30 | 65 | 0.0885 % | 2,400.9 |
| Deemed-Retractible | 4.86 % | 2.03 % | 223,536 | 1.03 | 45 | 0.1828 % | 2,333.1 |
| Performance Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Change | Notes |
| ELF.PR.F | Perpetual-Discount | -1.01 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2042-02-08 Maturity Price : 23.94 Evaluated at bid price : 24.50 Bid-YTW : 5.44 % |
| SLF.PR.D | Deemed-Retractible | 1.19 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2022-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 23.74 Bid-YTW : 5.19 % |
| BAM.PR.G | FixedFloater | 1.20 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2042-02-08 Maturity Price : 21.81 Evaluated at bid price : 21.00 Bid-YTW : 3.88 % |
| BAM.PR.M | Perpetual-Discount | 1.38 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2042-02-08 Maturity Price : 24.65 Evaluated at bid price : 24.95 Bid-YTW : 4.80 % |
| CIU.PR.A | Perpetual-Premium | 1.47 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2016-06-01 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.50 Bid-YTW : 4.04 % |
| SLF.PR.E | Deemed-Retractible | 1.57 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2022-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 23.88 Bid-YTW : 5.17 % |
| FTS.PR.H | FixedReset | 1.92 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2015-06-01 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 26.50 Bid-YTW : 2.62 % |
| Volume Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Shares Traded |
Notes |
| BNS.PR.Z | FixedReset | 243,630 | Nesbitt crossed 140,000; RBC crossed 50,000; and TD crossed 30,200; all at 25.15. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2022-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.15 Bid-YTW : 3.07 % |
| CM.PR.M | FixedReset | 104,416 | RBC crossed 49,900 and TD crossed 48,200, both at 27.35. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2014-07-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 27.43 Bid-YTW : 2.52 % |
| RY.PR.C | Deemed-Retractible | 81,000 | TD crossed 25,000 and bought two blocks of 10,000 each from RBC, all at 26.10; RBC crossed blocks of 13,900 and 16,300 at the same price. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2012-03-09 Maturity Price : 26.00 Evaluated at bid price : 26.09 Bid-YTW : -2.13 % |
| BMO.PR.P | FixedReset | 59,407 | TD crossed 49,900 at 27.00. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2015-02-25 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 27.02 Bid-YTW : 2.56 % |
| TD.PR.Y | FixedReset | 58,821 | Desjardins bought 30,000 from anonymous at 26.00. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2013-10-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 26.08 Bid-YTW : 2.61 % |
| TD.PR.E | FixedReset | 53,109 | RBC crossed 47,300 at 27.10. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2014-04-30 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 27.17 Bid-YTW : 2.29 % |
| There were 32 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares. | |||
| Wide Spread Highlights | ||
| Issue | Index | Quote Data and Yield Notes |
| ELF.PR.F | Perpetual-Discount | Quote: 24.50 – 24.97 Spot Rate : 0.4700 Average : 0.3361 YTW SCENARIO |
| TCA.PR.X | Perpetual-Premium | Quote: 52.17 – 52.50 Spot Rate : 0.3300 Average : 0.2309 YTW SCENARIO |
| TCA.PR.Y | Perpetual-Premium | Quote: 52.30 – 52.54 Spot Rate : 0.2400 Average : 0.1862 YTW SCENARIO |
| ENB.PR.A | Perpetual-Premium | Quote: 26.45 – 26.64 Spot Rate : 0.1900 Average : 0.1365 YTW SCENARIO |
| IFC.PR.A | FixedReset | Quote: 25.68 – 25.90 Spot Rate : 0.2200 Average : 0.1696 YTW SCENARIO |
| TD.PR.S | FixedReset | Quote: 25.96 – 26.10 Spot Rate : 0.1400 Average : 0.0902 YTW SCENARIO |
[…] PerpetualDiscounts now yield 4.98%, equivalent to 6.47% interest at the standard equivalency factor of 1.3x. Long Corporates now yield about 4.5%, so the pre-tax interest-equivalent spread (which in this context is the Seniority Spread) is now about 195bp, a sharp increase from the 165 bp reported February 8. […]
[…] learn something new, or the young and the hungry will eat their lunch. Boo Hoo Fucken Hoo. See the February 8 post for more mockery of the […]
[…] look what passes for brilliant innovation among the old-money crowd! As mentioned on 2012-2-8, RBC received a good dose of breathless adoration for it’s THOR execution product. And what […]