Spread betting 空手套白狼

High-frequency traders
高频交易者

Spread betting
空手套白狼

High-speed traders set their sights on Asia and Latin America
高频交易者瞄准亚洲及拉美市场

Aug 12th 2010

THE merits of high-frequency trading (HFT) are under scrutiny in America, thanks to the “flash crash” of May 6th when the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged by nearly 1,000 points in a matter of minutes. But high-speed traders are getting a warm welcome in emerging markets. When BM&FBovespa, Brazil’s main exchange, offered firms “co-location” slots to place their trading machines in the exchange’s data centre in February (giving them an additional edge on speed), they quickly sold out. The exchange plans to double the number of slots to meet demand. On Singapore’s exchange, the share of derivatives trades accounted for by HFT has risen from 10% to 30% in two years.
5月6日，道琼斯指数在短短的几分钟内暴跌近1000点，这一事件促了美国相关部门对高频交易（HFT）的全面审查。然而，高频交易者在新兴市场却受到热烈欢迎。今年2月，巴西最大的BM&FBovespa证券交易所向证券公司推出“共同定位”插槽，可以将公司的计算机服务器安置于交易所数据中心里，以在交易中获得额外的速度优势，这些插槽很快就兜售一空。交易所计划将插槽数量翻倍以满足需求。最近两年，新加坡证券交易所的衍生品交易在其高频交易中占的比例从10%增加到30%。


Satisfying the technical needs of these speed merchants is hard. High-frequency traders execute thousands of trades a second. Exchanges are required to process trades in microseconds (millionths of a second). They also need to increase the speed with which traders receive market data to feed into their algorithms. These upgrades are expensive. Singapore Exchange’s plan to build one of the fastest platforms in the world, capable of executing trades in just 90 microseconds, will cost an estimated S$250m ($185m). NASDAQ’s system is currently the fastest with trade times of 177 microseconds (see chart).
要满足这些要求速度的交易者的技术需求很难。高频交易者一秒钟完成数千项交易。证券交易所以微秒（百万分之一秒）来处理交易，也需要提高速度使交易者收集的市场数据能快速反馈到算法中。这些速度的提升是昂贵的。新加坡证券交易所计划建造世界上最快的平台，能在90微秒内处理完交易，而这平台预计将花费2.5亿新元，约合1.85亿美元。纳斯达克（即美国证券交易商自动报价协会）是目前世界上最快的处理交易系统，能在177微秒内完成交易。

For the traders themselves, expansion abroad makes sense. HFT uses automated strategies to capitalise on inefficient pricing of financial instruments at blinding speed. As markets in America and Europe have become more competitive—HFT now makes up over 60% of equity trades in America and nearly 50% of British transactions—bid-ask spreads have narrowed and arbitrage opportunities exist for ever-briefer periods. In newer markets traders can use simpler algorithms for higher yields.
对交易者来讲，向外扩张是有道理的。高频交易者利用金融工具定价的低效性，采用了自动化策略以疯狂的速度交易。随着美国和欧洲市场逐渐变得更具竞争力---现在，高频交易占到美国公平交易的60%以上，英国这一比例接近50%---买卖报价价差已经缩小，能够套利的时间间隔也越来越短。在新兴市场，交易者能用更简单的算法就获取更高的收益。

Expansion is also cheap. Herbie Skeete of Mondo Visione, an exchanges consultancy, points out that most HFT firms have already incurred the fixed costs of developing their proprietary-trading platforms. Adapting these systems for other markets is not very expensive. Even if the size of transactions is lower than on American markets, the high turnover can generate healthy profits.
扩张也很便宜。交易所研究中心“世界展望”的顾问赫比•斯基特指出，大多数高频交易公司在其自营交易中已经发生了固定费用。将这些系统应用到其他市场的费用并不昂贵。即使单笔交易规模小于美国市场，高交易量也会带来丰厚的利益。

Exchanges are also keen to court HFT firms. Long used to operating as monopolies, bourses in Asia and Latin America now face competition from alternative trading platforms. Chew Sutat of Singapore Exchange says that HFT increases trading volumes, improves market liquidity and lowers trading costs. That leads to a more efficient price-discovery process and attracts more investors.
交易所也在热切地向高频交易公司招手。长久以来习惯以垄断权进行操作的亚洲拉美的证券交易所现在面临来自另一个交易平台的竞争。新加坡证券交易所Chew Sutat说，高频交易增加交易量，提高市场流动性，并降低交易花费。这会带来更有效的价格发现过程并吸引更多的投资者。

There are hurdles to the spread of HFT, however. Emerging-market governments are wary of encouraging short-term foreign investors. HFT firms which seek to exploit currency movements or arbitrage price differences between local-currency and foreign-currency bonds want to move funds in and out of a country with minimal friction. The presence of capital controls makes this hard. Brazil’s 2% tax on foreign equity and debt investments in 2009 did not deter existing HFT firms but did discourage new ones.
但是，高频交易要展开还是面临有很多障碍。新兴市场的政府对鼓励短期的外国投资者持谨慎态度。利用货币走势或寻求本地货币与外币债券套利利差的高频交易公司，想要以最小的阻力让资金流入和流出一个国家。资本管制使得这种流动变得困难。2009年，巴西对国外股票和债券投资征收了2%的税收以打击目前高频交易公司的活跃度，但并没有太大效果反而挫伤了新成立的高频交易公司。

Exchanges in Asia and Latin America are also keen not to alienate retail and institutional investors. Some investors fret that co-location creates a two-tiered system by favouring firms with machines closer to an exchange’s data hub. Others worry that HFT increases volatility and systemic risk. To keep these customers satisfied, speed may not be of the essence.
亚洲和拉丁美洲的交易所也不乐意失去散户及机构投资者。一些投资者担心，将服务器安装在离交易所数据库的距离更近的公司，虽然获得了速度优势，但其“共同定位”会带来双重效应，另一些人则担心高频交易会增加波动性和系统风险。要让客户一直满意，速度也许不是最核心的问题