IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/boe/boeewp/0711.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Judgement Day: algorithmic trading around the Swiss franc cap removal

Author

Listed:
  • Breedon, Francis

    (School of Economics and Finance, Queen Mary University of London)

  • Chen, Louisa

    (School of Business, Management and Economics, University of Sussex)

  • Ranaldo, Angelo

    (Swiss Institute of Banking and Finance, University of St. Gallen)

  • Vause, Nicholas

    (Bank of England)

Abstract

A key issue raised by the rapid growth of computerised algorithmic trading is how it responds in extreme situations. Using data on foreign exchange orders and transactions that includes identification of algorithmic trading, we find that this type of trading contributed to the deterioration of market quality following the removal of the cap on the Swiss franc on 15 January 2015, which was an event that came as a complete surprise to market participants. In particular, we find that algorithmic traders withdrew liquidity and generated uninformative volatility in Swiss franc currency pairs, while human traders did the opposite. However, we find no evidence that algorithmic trading propagated these adverse effects on market quality to other currency pairs.

Suggested Citation

  • Breedon, Francis & Chen, Louisa & Ranaldo, Angelo & Vause, Nicholas, 2018. "Judgement Day: algorithmic trading around the Swiss franc cap removal," Bank of England working papers 711, Bank of England.
    • Handle: RePEc:boe:boeewp:0711
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/working-paper/2018/judgement-day-algorithmic-trading-around-the-swiss-franc-cap-removal.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hasbrouck, Joel, 1991. "Measuring the Information Content of Stock Trades," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 46(1), pages 179-207, March.
    2. Markus K. Brunnermeier & Lasse Heje Pedersen, 2009. "Market Liquidity and Funding Liquidity," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(6), pages 2201-2238, June.
    3. Andrew W. Lo, A. Craig MacKinlay, 1988. "Stock Market Prices do not Follow Random Walks: Evidence from a Simple Specification Test," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 1(1), pages 41-66.
    4. Biais, Bruno & Foucault, Thierry & Moinas, Sophie, 2015. "Equilibrium fast trading," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(2), pages 292-313.
    5. Rosu , Ioanid, 2016. "Fast and Slow Informed Trading," HEC Research Papers Series 1123, HEC Paris.
    6. Giovanni Cespa & Xavier Vives, 2015. "The Beauty Contest and Short-Term Trading," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 70(5), pages 2099-2154, October.
    7. Xavier Gabaix & Matteo Maggiori, 2015. "International Liquidity and Exchange Rate Dynamics," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 130(3), pages 1369-1420.
    8. Thierry Foucault & Johan Hombert & Ioanid Roşu, 2016. "News Trading and Speed," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 71(1), pages 335-382, February.
    9. Marcel Fratzscher & Oliver Gloede & Lukas Menkhoff & Lucio Sarno & Tobias Stöhr, 2019. "When Is Foreign Exchange Intervention Effective? Evidence from 33 Countries," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(1), pages 132-156, January.
    10. Bruno Biais & Thierry Foucault, 2014. "HFT and Market Quality," Bankers, Markets & Investors, ESKA Publishing, issue 128, pages 5-19, January-F.
    11. Fischer, Andreas M, 2004. "Price Clustering in the FX Market: A Disaggregate Analysis Using Central Bank Intervention," CEPR Discussion Papers 4529, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    12. Vincent Van Kervel & Albert J. Menkveld, 2019. "High‐Frequency Trading around Large Institutional Orders," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 74(3), pages 1091-1137, June.
    13. Markus Hertrich & Heinz Zimmermann, 2017. "On the Credibility of the Euro/Swiss Franc Floor: A Financial Market Perspective," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 49(2-3), pages 567-578, March.
    14. Gara Afonso & Anna Kovner & Antoinette Schoar, 2011. "Stressed, Not Frozen: The Federal Funds Market in the Financial Crisis," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(4), pages 1109-1139, August.
    15. Menkveld, Albert J., 2013. "High frequency trading and the new market makers," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 712-740.
    16. Eric Budish & Peter Cramton & John Shim, 2015. "Editor's Choice The High-Frequency Trading Arms Race: Frequent Batch Auctions as a Market Design Response," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 130(4), pages 1547-1621.
    17. Loriano Mancini & Angelo Ranaldo & Jan Wrampelmeyer, 2013. "Liquidity in the Foreign Exchange Market: Measurement, Commonality, and Risk Premiums," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(5), pages 1805-1841, October.
    18. Michael R. King & Carol Osler & Dagfinn Rime, 2011. "Foreign exchange market structure, players and evolution," Working Paper 2011/10, Norges Bank.
    19. O'Hara, Maureen & Ye, Mao, 2011. "Is market fragmentation harming market quality?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(3), pages 459-474, June.
    20. Andrei Kirilenko & Albert S. Kyle & Mehrdad Samadi & Tugkan Tuzun, 2017. "The Flash Crash: High-Frequency Trading in an Electronic Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(3), pages 967-998, June.
    21. Olga Cielinska & Andreas Joseph & Ujwal Shreyas & John Tanner & Michalis Vasios, 2017. "Gauging market dynamics using trade repository data: The case of the Swiss franc de-pegging," IFC Bulletins chapters, in: Bank for International Settlements (ed.), Statistical implications of the new financial landscape, volume 43, Bank for International Settlements.
    22. Ole E. Barndorff-Nielsen, 2004. "Power and Bipower Variation with Stochastic Volatility and Jumps," Journal of Financial Econometrics, Society for Financial Econometrics, vol. 2(1), pages 1-37.
    23. Angelo Ranaldo & Paul Söderlind, 2010. "Safe Haven Currencies," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 14(3), pages 385-407.
    24. Jonathan Brogaard & Terrence Hendershott & Ryan Riordan, 2014. "High-Frequency Trading and Price Discovery," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 27(8), pages 2267-2306.
    25. Breckenfelder, Johannes, 2013. "Competition between high-frequency traders, and market quality," MPRA Paper 66715, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Dec 2013.
    26. Andrei A. Kirilenko & Andrew W. Lo, 2013. "Moore's Law versus Murphy's Law: Algorithmic Trading and Its Discontents," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 27(2), pages 51-72, Spring.
    27. Biais, Bruno & Woolley, Paul, 2012. "High Frequency Trading," IDEI Working Papers 31724, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse.
    28. Carrion, Allen, 2013. "Very fast money: High-frequency trading on the NASDAQ," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 680-711.
    29. Urban J. Jermann, 2017. "Financial Markets' Views about the Euro–Swiss Franc Floor," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 49(2-3), pages 553-565, March.
    30. Gabriele Galati & Alexandra Heath & Patrick McGuire, 2007. "Evidence of carry trade activity," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, September.
    31. Avanidhar Subrahmanyam & Hui Zheng, 2016. "Limit order placement by high-frequency traders," Borsa Istanbul Review, Research and Business Development Department, Borsa Istanbul, vol. 16(4), pages 185-209, December.
    32. Mirkov, Nikola & Pozdeev, Igor & Soderlind, Paul, 2016. "Toward Removal of the Swiss Franc Cap: Market Expectations and Verbal Interventions," Working Papers on Finance 1614, University of St. Gallen, School of Finance.
    33. Terrence Hendershott & Charles M. Jones & Albert J. Menkveld, 2011. "Does Algorithmic Trading Improve Liquidity?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(1), pages 1-33, February.
    34. Markus Baldauf & Joshua Mollner, 2015. "High-Frequency Trading and Market Performance," Discussion Papers 15-017, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
    35. Hasbrouck, Joel, 1991. "The Summary Informativeness of Stock Trades: An Econometric Analysis," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 4(3), pages 571-595.
    36. Hasbrouck, Joel & Saar, Gideon, 2013. "Low-latency trading," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 646-679.
    37. Conrad, Jennifer & Wahal, Sunil & Xiang, Jin, 2015. "High-frequency quoting, trading, and the efficiency of prices," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(2), pages 271-291.
    38. Albert J. Menkveld, 2016. "The Economics of High-Frequency Trading: Taking Stock," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 8(1), pages 1-24, October.
    39. David Easley & Marcos M. López de Prado & Maureen O'Hara, 2012. "Flow Toxicity and Liquidity in a High-frequency World," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 25(5), pages 1457-1493.
    40. Alain P. Chaboud & Benjamin Chiquoine & Erik Hjalmarsson & Clara Vega, 2014. "Rise of the Machines: Algorithmic Trading in the Foreign Exchange Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 69(5), pages 2045-2084, October.
    41. Michael Goldstein & Michael A. Goldstein & Pavitra Kumar & Frank C. Graves, 2014. "Computerized and High-Frequency Trading," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 49(2), pages 177-202, May.
    42. Jonathan Brogaard & Björn Hagströmer & Lars Nordén & Ryan Riordan, 2015. "Trading Fast and Slow: Colocation and Liquidity," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 28(12), pages 3407-3443.
    43. Roberto Rigobon, 2003. "Identification Through Heteroskedasticity," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 85(4), pages 777-792, November.
    44. Kyle, Albert S, 1985. "Continuous Auctions and Insider Trading," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 53(6), pages 1315-1335, November.
    45. Brogaard, Jonathan & Carrion, Allen & Moyaert, Thibaut & Riordan, Ryan & Shkilko, Andriy & Sokolov, Konstantin, 2018. "High frequency trading and extreme price movements," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(2), pages 253-265.
    46. Hoffmann, Peter, 2014. "A dynamic limit order market with fast and slow traders," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(1), pages 156-169.
    47. Markus K. Brunnermeier & Stefan Nagel & Lasse H. Pedersen, 2009. "Carry Trades and Currency Crashes," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2008, Volume 23, pages 313-347, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    48. Robert A Korajczyk & Dermot Murphy, 2019. "High-Frequency Market Making to Large Institutional Trades," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(3), pages 1034-1067.
    49. Darrell Duffie, 2012. "Dark Markets: Asset Pricing and Information Transmission in Over-the-Counter Markets," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 9623.
    50. Björn Hagströmer & Albert J. Menkveld, 2019. "Information Revelation in Decentralized Markets," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 74(6), pages 2751-2787, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Joseph, Andreas & Vasios, Michalis & Maizels, Olga & Shreyas, Ujwal & Tanner, John, 2019. "OTC microstructure in a period of stress: a multi‑layered network approach," Bank of England working papers 832, Bank of England.
    2. Corsetti, G. & Lafarguette, R. & Mehl, A., 2019. "Fast Trading and the Virtue of Entropy: Evidence from the Foreign Exchange Market," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1970, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    3. Hertrich, Markus, 2020. "Foreign exchange interventions under a one-sided target zone regime and the Swiss franc," Discussion Papers 21/2020, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    4. Ranaldo, Angelo & Somogyi, Fabricius, 2021. "Asymmetric information risk in FX markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(2), pages 391-411.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zhou, Hao & Kalev, Petko S., 2019. "Algorithmic and high frequency trading in Asia-Pacific, now and the future," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 186-207.
    2. Sánchez Serrano Antonio, 2020. "High-Frequency Trading and Systemic Risk: A Structured Review of Findings and Policies," Review of Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 71(3), pages 169-195, December.
    3. Ekinci, Cumhur & Ersan, Oğuz, 2022. "High-frequency trading and market quality: The case of a “slightly exposed” market," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    4. Roşu, Ioanid, 2019. "Fast and slow informed trading," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 1-30.
    5. Bellia, Mario & Pelizzon, Loriana & Subrahmanyam, Marti & Uno, Jun & Yuferova, Darya, 2017. "Coming early to the party," SAFE Working Paper Series 182, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
      • Mario Bellia & Loriana Pelizzon & Marti G. Subrahmanyam & Jun Uno & Darya Yuferova, 2020. "Coming early to the party," Working Papers 2020:11, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
    6. Ramos, Henrique Pinto & Perlin, Marcelo Scherer, 2020. "Does algorithmic trading harm liquidity? Evidence from Brazil," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    7. Corsetti, Giancarlo & Lafarguette, Romain & Mehl, Arnaud, 2019. "Fast trading and the virtue of entropy: evidence from the foreign exchange market," Working Paper Series 2300, European Central Bank.
    8. Gerig, Austin & Michayluk, David, 2017. "Automated liquidity provision," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 1-13.
    9. Angerer, Martin & Neugebauer, Tibor & Shachat, Jason, 2019. "Arbitrage bots in experimental asset markets," MPRA Paper 96224, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Thierry Foucault & Roman Kozhan & Wing Wah Tham, 2017. "Toxic Arbitrage," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 30(4), pages 1053-1094.
    11. Fabrice Rousseau & Herve Boco & Laurent Germain, 2020. "High Frequency Trading: Strategic Competition Between Slow and Fast Traders," Economics Department Working Paper Series n296-20.pdf, Department of Economics, National University of Ireland - Maynooth.
    12. Bizzozero, Paolo & Flepp, Raphael & Franck, Egon, 2018. "The effect of fast trading on price discovery and efficiency: Evidence from a betting exchange," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 126-143.
    13. Yang, Haijun & Ge, Hengshun & Luo, Ying, 2020. "The optimal bid-ask price strategies of high-frequency trading and the effect on market liquidity," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    14. Aït-Sahalia, Yacine & Brunetti, Celso, 2020. "High frequency traders and the price process," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 217(1), pages 20-45.
    15. Ersan, Oguz & Simsir, Serif Aziz & Simsek, Koray D. & Hasan, Afan, 2021. "The speed of stock price adjustment to corporate announcements: Insights from Turkey," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(C).
    16. Zhou, Hao & Elliott, Robert J. & Kalev, Petko S., 2019. "Information or noise: What does algorithmic trading incorporate into the stock prices?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 27-39.
    17. Syamala, Sudhakara Reddy & Wadhwa, Kavita, 2020. "Trading performance and market efficiency: Evidence from algorithmic trading," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    18. Chen, Marie & Garriott, Corey, 2020. "High-frequency trading and institutional trading costs," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 74-93.
    19. S. Sarah Zhang, 2018. "Need for speed: Hard information processing in a high‐frequency world," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(1), pages 3-21, January.
    20. Hautsch, Nikolaus & Noé, Michael & Zhang, S. Sarah, 2017. "The ambivalent role of high-frequency trading in turbulent market periods," CFS Working Paper Series 580, Center for Financial Studies (CFS).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Swiss franc; algorithmic trading; liquidity; volatility; price discovery; arbitrage opportunities;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:boe:boeewp:0711. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: . General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/boegvuk.html .

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Digital Media Team (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/boegvuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.